5 Formula 1 Teams That Should Focus on the 2015 Season

With a one-two finish in last weekend's Russian Grand Prix, Mercedes secured their first-ever Formula One Constructors' Championship.

The outcome was inevitable, with the Silver Arrows winning all but three of the 2014 season's 16 races thus far and making a mockery of the chasing pack.

By the time Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg crossed the finish line at the Sochi Autodrom, however, several of their rivals were well advanced in their plans for the 2015 campaign in this sport that never stops.

Some teams may have been unable to keep up in the development race over the course of the season, forcing them to sacrifice short-term pain for long-term gain.

Others, in contrast, may have performed so well in the opening 16 grands prix that their final championship position is already cemented with three events remaining, freeing them to put their resources to better use.

And the disappointments of the season will have long since written off their 2014 hopes, accepting their fate and instead concentrating on how they will mount a resurgence.

Here, we list the five teams that would be wise to focus on their 2015 prospects.

Red Bull

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With their chances of catching Mercedes now mathematically impossible and with a comfortable 126-point lead over third-place Williams, Red Bull—if they were not already aware—have nothing to play for this season.

Attention, then, turns to 2015, which will see the four-time world champions become the prime focus of Renault, their power unit suppliers, after Lotus' switch to Mercedes engines.

The RB11 chassis, meanwhile, will be the final Red Bull car to be produced by Adrian Newey, the legendary designer who confirmed to Crash.net's Chris Medland that he will not step down from full-time involvement in F1 "until Christmas."

These factors should provide the Milton Keynes-based outfit with the perfect springboard to reclaim the title from Mercedes at the first time of asking, but they will attempt to do so without Sebastian Vettel, whose departure from the team was confirmed earlier this month.

Vettel, the embodiment of Red Bull's success over the last four years, is already an outsider in the team, with owner Dietrich Mateschitz telling Speedweek (h/t JamesAllenOnF1.com), "Vettel is excluded from all developments that we do for next year’s car already."

Proof, if it were needed, that Red Bull are looking to the future.

Ferrari

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As Red Bull prepare to bid farewell to Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari are getting ready to welcome the four-time world champion.

Should they fail to win any of the final three races, however, they will greet the German in uncomfortable circumstances, having endured their worst season since 1993, Ferrari's last winless campaign.

Fernando Alonso, the man who has carried the team on his back since 2010, has scored only two podium finishes this season, while teammate Kimi Raikkonen, the most recent Ferrari driver to win the title, has failed to finish higher than fourth and currently sits 12th in the drivers' standings.

There have been few signs of improvement as the season has progressed, but there is reason to believe 2015 will be more successful for the Italian outfit as they enter a new era.

Next year's car will be the first produced by James Allison, who created race-winning machinery for Lotus in 2012 and 2013. Raikkonen told Autosport's Ben Anderson last month that Ferrari's energy recovery systems are at the root of their poor showing this year.

With Williams probably out of reach, and with no real threat from McLaren behind, Ferrari would be wise to put all their eggs in the 2015 basket.

Williams

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Although they might not admit it publicly, Williams' war against Ferrari for third place in the constructors' standings is effectively won, with the Grove-based outfit leading their Italian counterparts by 28 points after the Russian Grand Prix. 

Valtteri Bottas' fifth podium of the year at the Sochi Autodrom—the team's sixth in total—pretty much sealed the deal, which should see them secure their best finish in the championship since 2003.

The true challenge for Williams, though, is to capitalise on what for all the world seems like a turning point in their fortunes.

Since the turn of the decade, the team have produced a good car on an every-other-year basis. Their 2010 and 2012 machines scored plenty of points, while their 2011 and 2013 cars struggled to score points at all. 

The expertise of Pat Symonds and Rob Smedley—as well as the dominant Mercedes power unit—suggests Williams should be able to maintain their current level of performance, but it would be a travesty if they were to fall back into the pack.

The first step toward guarding against that will be to show the arrogance of winners and move on to their 2015 program before their 2014 position is cemented. 

Force India

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It's been the same old story for Force India in 2014, with the team quick out of the blocks at the start of the year before falling back into the pack as the season progresses.

Their lack of resources as an independent team, in contrast to their big-name rivals, makes a gradual slide somewhat inevitable, but it is a shame that this trend has continued in a season when they have their best chance to break into the top five in the constructors' championship.

It is easy to see where it has all gone wrong for Force India.

After a run of 10 consecutive points finishes courtesy of Nico Hulkenberg between Australia and Germany—a first half of the season that saw Sergio Perez record their first podium finish since 2009 in Bahrain—the team have scored just 25 points in the five races since the double retirement in July's Hungarian Grand Prix.

Post-Sochi, Force India trail McLaren, who currently sit fifth, by 20 points.

And although the double-points finale in Abu Dhabi carries all sorts of possibilities, it is difficult to envisage the former world champions letting that lead slip over the final three grands prix. 

Another fast start in 2015, rather than hoping for a miraculous end to 2014, seems to be the ideal option at this stage for Force India. 

Lotus

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Lotus' switch to Mercedes power was not confirmed until last week, but it had been in the pipeline for several months. F1 journalist Joe Saward wrote in June that an announcement was imminent, which has given the Enstone-based outfit plenty of time to establish their 2015 plans. 

Next year's car, with that logic, should be almost tailor-made to house the Silver Arrows' power train, which will almost certainly banish the memories of this season's disastrous Renault-powered machine. 

Lotus have been stuck in isolation for much of this season, slightly too fast for the backmarkers yet not quite quick enough to join the rat race of the midfield—a comedown from their grand prix victories of 2012 and 2013 and, indeed, their title triumphs under the names of Renault and, previously, Benetton. 

Romain Grosjean provided a brief upturn in form at the beginning of the European season—finishing eighth in Spain and Monaco—but the team have not even come within touching distance of the points since, with the Frenchman and Pastor Maldonado both recording best finishes of 12th.

That hopelessness has left Lotus with no alternative but to look to the future, with Maldonado recently telling the official F1 website, "From what I see and learn the 2015 car looks like being a very good package. There is a lot to look forward to for sure."