WILL STEVENS
Chris Medland: Stevens began 2015 with the most experience in terms of race starts having driven for Caterham in Abu Dhabi a year before, but his time in an F1 car had been severely limited. Started well for Manor and comfortably beat team-mate Merhi early on, but mistakes started to creep in as the season progressed and Rossi's arrival highlighted areas where Stevens was struggling. Worked hard to turn it around later in the season and did enough to deserve a shot in a quicker Manor next year.
Eric Silbermann: Technically the Englishman wasn’t a rookie, as he had raced once in 2014, but to balance things out, he didn’t actually start a race until Round 3 this year because of all the upheaval at Manor. And as with the two other Manor drivers this year, it’s hard to know how to assess his performance. One can only really judge him against his team-mates. He did not wipe the floor with Mehri as expected, even if he had the upper hand, although there was a mid-season drop off. Then Will got a wake-up call with the arrival of Rossi, with the American getting the better of him at first, but the Englishman upped his game and had the legs of Rossi and the returning Mehri in the final round.
Julien Billiotte: Granted, Stevens was not technically a rookie in 2015, but given the Brit’s lack of winter testing and no-shows in Melbourne and Sepang, it’s fair to assess his campaign in that respect. Stevens initially dominated team-mate Merhi but that trend reverted from Monaco onwards. The Briton then got a new sparring partner in Rossi, who ended up having the upper hand overall during the five races the pair drove together. To Stevens’ credit, it must be noted that he only retired twice, through no fault of his own, and delivered steady performances all year long.
Phillip van Osten: It's near impossible to assert a Manor Marussia driver languishing at the back of the field in a car with no real competitive prospects. Still, Stevens complied with the basic rule that a driver first needs to beat his team-mate, which the Brit successfully accomplished most of the time in qualifying trim against Mehri. Probably deserves wider recognition and another shot with Manor, but it could all just be borrowed time...
Justin Hynes: Given the competitive deficit of the machinery at their disposal, it’s hard to measure the trio of Manor drivers, aside from how they matched up against one another, and in that regard Stevens comfortably beat regular team-mate Merhi, with the Englishman 9-3 up in starting places in the races in which they were paired. It was less clear in the races, where Stevens only marginally bested Merhi across the grands prix they finished. However, when Rossi arrived for a five-race spell at the end of the season the expectation was that Stevens familiarity with the package in hand would tell, but that wasn’t the case and the American made Stevens look less than secure in Singapore and Japan. Stevens adjusted and regained the upper hand in the race in Brazil but it wasn’t convincing.
F1i scores: 6/10
