2014 v 2015: Driver comparisons

Motor Racing - Formula One World Championship - Australian Grand Prix - Race Day - Melbourne, Australia

The new season has brought competitive racing and a surprise winner, but also seen big teams struggle after the optimism of pre-season.

Following yesterday's look at how each team has fared compared to last season, today F1i analyses the changing fortunes for the drivers. Of the top five teams from last season, only Mercedes and Williams boast unchanged line-ups to give a comparison between their own personal improvements, while we can also look at which drivers made good or bad moves over the winter.

The most high profile switches occurred at Ferrari and McLaren, with Sebastian Vettel joining the Scuderia to replace Fernando Alonso who headed to Woking. Unsurprisingly, Vettel - who won in Malaysia this year - has one of the biggest gains compared to a year ago as he has all but doubled his points tally across the opening four races.

It's Vettel's team-mate Kimi Raikkonen who has the biggest gain. Raikkonen struggled with the handling of last year's Ferrari and scored just 11 points across the opening four races of the season but 2015 has seen him start in much better form as second place in Bahrain brought him 18 points alone, leaving the Finn with a total of 42 points so far this season.

By contrast, the two McLaren drivers - Alonso and Jenson Button - had scored 64 points between them last year, but have yet to register a point so far in 2015. A similar dip in form has hit Force India, with Nico Hulkenberg 30 points down on the same stage 12 months ago.

Below, F1i compares the fortunes of drivers from the seven teams boasting line-ups which do not feature a rookie driver:

F1-comparatif-2014-2015-2

Click here for a look at the brake-by-wire system which caused Mercedes problems in Bahrain

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