Grading the Formula 1 Teams' Start to the 2015 Season

With four races down and 15 to go, Formula One begins its annual European season at the Spanish Grand Prix on 10 May. Big upgrades are always sighted at the Circuit de Catalunya, and we could see a few changes to the running order.

For teams like Red Bull, McLaren and Lotus, such a shift would be most welcome. The trio haven't made the start to 2015 they might have liked and, though each will have their own targets, all will be looking to move in the same direction—forward.

But their rivals, perhaps happier with the status quo, will be doing all they can to stop them. Mercedes, Sauber and Williams are among the teams to have met or exceeded expectations in 2015; as they bolt on their shiny new parts, they'll all have one eye in the rear-view mirror.

Here, we grade each team on how they have started the year. Expectations, budget, how they fared in 2014 and how they stack up against those teams closest to them are all taken into account.

Manor: C

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As expected, Manor are a long way off the pace. They are yet to complete a race without being lapped at least twice, and the gap to the next-slowest team in qualifying has tended to be in the region of three seconds.

Drivers Roberto Merhi and Will Stevens each have a 15th-place finish to their name; without a lot of retirements from cars ahead, they're not going to improve on that.

But Manor deserve credit just for being here.

As 2014 drew to a close, it seemed unlikely the team would even be on the starting grid in 2015. Many of their assets had been sold and the rest were due to be auctioned in January—had that occurred, the team formerly known as Marussia would be no more.

Fortunately for them and all fans who love an underdog, it didn't happen. An investor stepped in at the 11th hour, and what was left of the team managed to put together a modified MR03—last year's car, with last year's Ferrari engine—to use in the first half of 2015.

The plan is to have a proper 2015 car ready for after the summer break. With the new and improved Ferrari engine, it might even have a shot at scoring some points.

Grade: C

McLaren: F

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The Oxford English Dictionary contains entries for 171,476 words, but it's still tough to find one to describe McLaren's start to 2015.

Struggling with a Honda power unit which was nowhere near ready, the team have scored precisely zero points—officially their worst-ever start to a season. But at least they can call on the combined talents of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button to turn things around—and one or two green shoots of recovery have been sighted.

Alonso qualified 14th in Bahrain, the first time an MP4-30 has been anywhere other than the last two rows of the grid. He went on to finish 11th—less than two minutes behind the race winner for the first time in 2015.

But even this tiny silver lining has a big black cloud. While Alonso was finishing one minute, 59.7 seconds behind Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button was live-tweeting the grand prix from the back of the garage after his car broke down so badly he couldn't even qualify, let alone make the start.

McLaren will come good and should be banging in the points come the end of the year—but no one has made a worse start to the season.

Grade: F

Alonso gap data sourced from Keith Collantine's lap chart at F1Fanatic.

Force India: C+

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Force India started the season having done very little development or testing, but their "A-spec" VJM08 is doing an OK job so far.

Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez put some points on the board with seventh and tenth, respectively, in the opening race. Perez added some more in Bahrain thanks to his excellent tyre management.

But away from circuits where the Mexican can use his tyre-preserving gift, the car is not really points-worthy at the moment. It looks around the eighth-quickest in terms of pure pace, and Force India know they won't be racing to their true potential until June.

Speaking to Adam Cooper, deputy team principal Bob Fernley described the opening four races as "damage limitation" and declared himself pleased with how his squad have performed. Minor updates will come in Spain, and a heavily revised version of the car is due for the Austrian Grand Prix.

That's when we'll see their true performance.

Grade: C+

Toro Rosso: C

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Toro Rosso have built their best-ever chassis and could well have their best-ever driver. But even the original Ayrton Senna didn't score points if his car didn't reach the chequered flag.

The team made a strong start to the year with Carlos Sainz Jr. scoring points on his debut and Max Verstappen leading home a Toro Rosso seven-eight at the following race in Malaysia.

But they have probably thrown away just as many points as they've scored. Verstappen lost a likely seventh in Australia and an eighth in China due to breakdowns; Sainz hasn't been quite as unlucky but has still suffered his fair share of mechanical issues.

The primary problem is the underpowered and unreliable power unit, not the chassis. But F1 is a team sport—and the team here is Toro Rosso-Renault.

Together, they need to do better.

Grade: C

Lotus: C

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Lotus were always going to make progress when they switched from Renault to Mercedes power, but they had a tough start to the year.

Both E23s were out after less than one lap in Australia, and neither scored points in Malaysia. Romain Grosjean's pair of seventh-place finishes in China and Bahrain finally got the team off the mark and leave Lotus on 12 points—two more than they scored across all 19 races in 2014.

But they're not especially quick. Williams, with the same engine and what BBC Sport's Andrew Benson reports as a similar budget, are light years clear of the Enstone outfit.

Furthermore, Pastor Maldonado in particular has struggled with the car. The Venezuelan has twice retired due to issues with the brakes on his Lotus, and his poor qualifying performance in Bahrain was also blamed on a braking problem.

The expected progress on the power-unit side has been made, and Lotus are obviously doing better than at this stage last year. But will they be happy with their results or pace thus far?

Probably not.

Grade: C

Sauber: A

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Sauber had a dismal 2014, but they have made a far better start to 2015.

Felipe Nasr put in a top-drawer performance in Australia to secure fifth place and 10 points—10 more than Sauber managed in all 19 races last season. Marcus Ericsson also scored, eighth bringing him his first F1 points.

They haven't come close to equalling that result in the other three races—though the car is good and reliability looks excellent, Sauber remain firmly planted in the midfield.

But this is a team that didn't score a single point in 2014. Much of the credit must go to the improved Ferrari engine, but the Sauber chassis is doing a decent job too.

Sauber have improved more than any team on the grid. It's impossible to say whether they'll be able to keep up with their rivals in the development race as the season progresses, but their performance so far can't be faulted.

Grade: A

Red Bull: D-

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Red Bull should be (and probably are) more disappointed than anyone by how their season to date has gone.

The tone for their difficult kick-off was set when Daniil Kvyat's RB11 broke down on its way to the grid for the first race of the year. Daniel Ricciardo didn't do much to improve the mood as he ended up sixth, beaten fair and square by a Sauber—but he at least got to the end, something he's proving rather good at.

Despite being onto his fourth internal combustion engine of the year, Ricciardo has finished and scored points at every round so far. But sixth is the best he has managed in what is, at best, the fourth- or fifth-quickest car.

The chief cause of their troubles is the Renault power unit, but as Helmut Marko admitted to Servus TV (h/t grandprix.com), the chassis isn't perfect either.

We can expect improvements, perhaps big ones, as early as the Spanish Grand Prix. Williams could be vulnerable, but Mercedes and Ferrari look entirely out of reach.

Grade: D-

Williams: B

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Williams are currently racing in a world of their own.

When all goes to plan for the top teams—as it did in Malaysia and China—Williams duo Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa will finish fifth and sixth. If a Ferrari or Mercedes drops the ball or retires—as we saw in Australia and Bahrain—one of them will finish fourth.

They lack the long-run pace to get anywhere near the two leading teams; in turn, none of the other teams can get close to them.

The hope was always to challenge Mercedes, but without a major and unique performance-enhancing innovation, Williams were never going to do that. Budget talks too loudly in the modern era, and the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari have far more cash to throw at their cars.

So given their financial constraints, maintaining third can only be seen as a good result for Williams. If Red Bull can find a bit of time, we could be set for a very interesting battle as the season wears on.

Grade: B

Ferrari: A+

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Ferrari have confounded all expectations to become Mercedes' main challengers.

Sebastian Vettel has got the best out of the SF15-T so far in 2015. His victory at the Malaysian Grand Prix was the first time Mercedes have been beaten on pure pace since the start of the V6 turbo era.

In the other races the German and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen haven't quite been as close, but the gap is now measured in tenths, not seconds. The Scuderia also possess near-bulletproof reliability and a car that is kinder to its rear tyres than the W05.

In isolation, second isn't good enough for a team like Ferrari. But recall that Fernando Alonso finished ninth in the final race of 2014, a huge 85 seconds down on the cruising Lewis Hamilton.

What Ferrari achieved over the winter, slashing the race-pace gap by more than a second per lap, is nothing short of a miracle.

Grade: A+

Mercedes: A-

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Mercedes are not as far ahead as they were in 2014 but remain the team to beat.

Over a single lap, the W06 is mighty—Lewis Hamilton's 100 percent pole record is ample proof of this, and the margins have been comfortable. His average gap back to the quickest non-Mercedes in dry qualifying sessions is currently 0.902 seconds.

The defending world champion has proved the man to beat over a race distance too, winning three of the four grands prix, and reliability looks broadly excellent despite the braking issues suffered by both cars in Bahrain.

But Mercedes do not have a huge advantage over Ferrari, and they appear to have a weakness. As we saw in Malaysia, when the temperature climbs, the Scuderia's SF15-T has marginally better rear-tyre management.

This could make a big difference at a number of races in 2015.

The Silver Arrows are still jaw-droppingly quick—but no longer unbeatable.

Grade: A-

Timing, qualifying and race data used throughout sourced from the official F1 website unless otherwise stated.