It was a lot different with Williams though. Their budget is a lot less than the big teams and this has happened for years. So when you have years and years of under investment compared to the top teams then you can hardly come up with a winning package in just one season.
Let's not forget, this is investment in top designers we are talking about here, you can't just go off and buy one off the shelf, it takes time to get the right team together and then you have the big teams trying to take your best staff from you. But they almost achieved it last season with the best engine on the grid, even though their budget is half of what the Mercs, Maclaren and Ferrari's is.
In fact the more I think about it the more I think that Williams will not keep up the pace this season. Last season they had the best engine so the car should have been quick anyway as they had an advantage. But this season with the engine mods being allowed I don't think the Mercedes engine will have such an advantage, so it will go back to being who has the best car design and naturally this means those with the biggest budgets due to the high costs of these 'aero packages'. The biggest budgets in 2014 were:
Ferrari - $420m Red Bull - $373 Merc - $317 Maclaren - $317 Lotus - $206 Williams - $159 Force India - $159 Torro Rosso - $159 Sauber - $159 Marussia - $111 Caterham - $95
So Maclaren on the basis they had the best engine and a very good budget, they had a disaster last season. But, and it is a big BUT, they were making big changes and maybe they raced with one eye on this season.
I think with all things being considered it's got to be between the Red Bulls and the Mercs. Both have big budgets. Both did well last season. Both have good solid team set ups (no major structure changes or engine changes). Both have good driver line ups. No other team on the grid can tick all of those boxes at the moment.
Chris.
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