F1 2018: Why this season can be the most closely fought battle in recent history

Ever since the 1.6-liter hybrid engines were introduced in 2014, it has been a one-horse race. Mercedes dominated every year winning the Constructor's Championship for 4 consecutive years. When Liberty Media took over the F1 franchise last year, the blueprints given for the cars were brand new.

The new generation cars were longer, sleeker and most importantly they were the fastest cars yet. Every year each F1 team spends obscene amounts of money on research and development in the hopes to build the fastest car possible within the guidelines provided to each team by the FIA which is the governing body for the sport.

In 2017 the fight for the Constructor's Championship was not a one-horse race and at the start of the season, it looked like the fans would get to see the 'Prancing Horse' Ferrari, battle the 'Silver Arrow' Mercedes. Ferrari had made a huge leap in terms of design and performance from the years before that ultimately they could not work on the reliability required to challenge Mercedes till the end.

In the Asian leg of the Championship, there were reliability issues which could not make Ferrari break Mercedes's monopoly. Towards the end of the Championship, Red Bull Racing suddenly looked very strong but their extremely slow start to the season meant they finished third.

Ever since McLaren partnered with Honda, they have dropped off in terms of performance and their partnership with the Japanese engine manufacturer has been a disastrous one.

For 2018, however, Mclaren ditched Honda to partner with Renault as they try to build a Championship winning car around the Renault engine.This meant that the difference between Mclaren and Red Bull Racing would come down to the aerodynamic efficiency and the overall design of the car as both teams are supplied with the same engine.

Ferrari would have worked on the reliability of their car and they will be ready to challenge Mercedes with the hope to knock them off the throne. This means that the fans of the sport should get a very interesting 4-way battle for the Championship this year.

This year reliability of the cars will be even more important as the calendar consists of 21 races instead of the 20 races that took place in 2017 but, the catch is that the manufacturers will be only allowed to use 3 engines without a penalty instead of the 4 engines they could use up to last year. This rule also limits the number of engine upgrades that can be achieved mid-season. This makes it very important for teams to start on the front foot.

Let's take a look at some of the top competitors this season:

Mercedes

From 2014 Mercedes have dominated Formula 1, winning the constructor's title all 4 years. Also, the Driver's Championship has been won by a Mercedes driver all 4 years. Lewis Hamilton won it 3 times and, Nico Rosberg won it once in 2016 and he retired as the Champion.

Throughout pre-season testing (which takes place in Barcelona at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya over two weeks), they have been strong with the car showing consistent pace and incredible reliability. On one of the days, the car racked over 200 laps shared between the two drivers which prove that their reliability is stronger than ever.

It looks like the team fixed the issue of stability that they had while following another car which was their major problem last year. The car seems to run better on the harder compounds of the range of tires offered by Pirelli. Mercedes look stronger than ever and are as always very strong contenders to be Champions again.

Ferrari

F1 Winter Testing in Barcelona - Day Four

Ferrari made a bright start to last year and made a lot of progress to catch up to Mercedes. The upward trend has continued into 2018. In the pre-season testing, Sebastian Vettel set up the fastest lap in the combined timesheets. The reliability issue also seems to have been looked into as the team completed around 4,323 kilometers of running during the test.

The engineers from Ferrari and the army of people working in their factory in Maranello will take confidence from parts of last year, where the 'Prancing Horse' looked the complete package.

The engineers tweaked the car setup from last year and the staff has made changes but nothing too major. The car is looking good with the usual bright red livery and performance wise, it finally looks like Ferrari's time to get back on top has come.

Red Bull Racing

Red Bull Racing finished strong last year where they took victories in Malaysia and Mexico with Max Verstappen winning both those races. Daniel Ricciardo won the race in Baku. Red Bull's undoing last season was the slow start they had to the season. They were so far behind Ferrari and Mercedes it was never a serious challenge for the Constructor's title.

They have two young and dynamic drivers and, if the drivers are given a competitive car then Red Bull can achieve wonders. The car also had a lot of reliability issues in the first half of the season with Max Verstappen having to retire out of a majority of races in the first half. They did pick up the pace in the second half of the season.

Red Bull seem to have had a better start to 2018 with their reliability the focus for the test. aerodynamic efficiency and, creating downforce has always been their strength and has always been a key feature of Adrian Newey's designs.

They showed decent pace in the pre-season test and set the 4th fastest lap time in the overall time sheets. Let's hope that their start to 2018 is indeed a good one when teams turn up in Melbourne for the first race as the sport needs more teams fighting at the top level.

McLaren

F1 Winter Testing in Barcelona - Day Three

After 3 abysmal years, McLaren decided to cut off ties with Honda and partnered with Renault for the supply of their engine. In 2018, it is time for McLaren to hit the reset button and get back to the habit of challenging at least for the podium spots if not for the win.

In Fernando Alonso, they have a driver with immense technical skill and enough experience to win races as long as McLaren give him a car which works.

They had a few niggles during the pre-season test with a few reliability issues but, this was to be expected as the switch between engine manufacturers was bound to have a settling in period. Despite the problems, McLaren showed good pace and, Alonso set the third fastest time in the overall time sheets in the Barcelona test.

McLaren may challenge for a few wins in 2018 but it might be a little early for them to challenge for the title straight away as their drivers need their confidence back.

A more realistic goal for McLaren this year would be to complete most of the races and maybe challenge for a few wins.

Haas - The dark horse of 2018

The American team, Haas' efforts during pre-season testing sees them being touted as the dark horse for the 2018 season.

As a team which did not receive the base $36,000,000 that every team receives (as the rules state that a team needs to participate for at least three years for them to receive the bonus), they made tremendous progress during the winter as their car was just 1.1 seconds off the pace on the penultimate day of testing in Barcelona. Too much cannot be read into testing but the test does show progress on the team's part.

A realistic achievement for them will be to finish 'Best of the rest' in 2018 which would mean they have to beat Force India, Renault, Williams and Torro Rosso. Force India was formidable in 2017 and will be tough to beat as they utilize their Mercedes engine to its maximum. Haas needs to use their Ferrari power to the maximum to beat Force India.

Prediction for the season:

The Driver's Champion will be Lewis Hamilton narrowly beating Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.

The Constructor's Champion will be Mercedes.