The midfield last season was extremely tight with Sauber making an immense leap forward in terms of pace and podium finishes. Force India showed us how far they have come and Toro Rosso put their young talent on display with just the one driver breaking through. All these teams (excluding Toro Rosso) have swapped about drivers but no driver change was as big when it was announced Lewis Hamilton would take over from Michael Schumacher who was forced into retirement by the move.
The Red Bull feeder team has always been known for hiring rookies to promote to the bigger team, but in recent years they have failed to find any talent worth of replacing Mark Webber.
Last year, Daniel Ricciardo was heavily promoted as the more talented driver but he was consistently beaten by Jean-Eric Vergne's driving ability. This year the team has made a much improved leap forward, the same can be said for both drivers.
Eventually, Toro Rosso will ditch these two boys, I reckon they won't have bother finding work in Formula 1.
His season didn't get off to the best start with the first two races, but his qualifying magic was duly present in China this year when he qualified 7th and finished 7th. Usually when a team achieves that kind of result on Saturday, it turns out to be a nightmare on Sunday, so he done a great job holding it all up.
With more people noticing JEV's talents, the pressure has been lifted off Daniel, which can only be a good thing.
He needs to focus on trying to beat his team mate. When a seat eventually becomes vacant at Red Bull, this is how he will be judged, and at the minute, the ball is in JEV's court.
I have always thought JEV (great nickname) has been a great driver. Considering he's only 3 points off last season's total already speaks for itself.
His qualifying performances have improved quite dramatically, and his scoring points more consistently is achievable because of a great car.
He is the ideal candidate to succeed Mark Webber because he has no ego and a great fan base. Should he keep this up, championship opportunities will be plentiful.
Me and this team did not get off to the best start this year. The fact they waited until the last minute to announce their second driver was extremely disrespectful.
When Adrian Sutil was unveiled, an opportunity had been missed in the form of Jules Biachi. His raw pace should have been shown in this car, not a lacklustre Marussia.
Monaco was a high point for the team with both drivers proving overtaking is possible.
Instead of a world championship, Sutil has something more unique to his name, an ASBO. I'm not a fan of Sutil or second chances. The fact he got one annoys me when there were better options.
It's hard to argue though that this driver decision didn't work. So far he has proved he can still compete with the best that the midfield has to offer, and staying out of the spotlight has not hurt his reputation.
It's hard to say what's in store for him. The fact he has only ever driven for Force India (and their two previous outfit names) has to say something about what other teams think of him. His aim for the season should be to stay out of Paul's way.
2013 was a great start for the Scot, but then someone in his team said "let's f--k everything up." Seriously though the amount of mistakes made by his garage is ridiculous.
Then people criticise Paul for hitting out at them?! He has every right to be outraged. di Resta is going places in the world, but he is being let done by his own team. Engineers being paid thousands and then not being able to count and do their job?!
Despite all this, Paul has scored points in every round bar Malaysia. The battle is equal between him and Sutil so far, but as the season progresses so will Paul. In addition, the team will need to clean up their act pronto.
The Swiss team undoubtedly managed to steal raw talent from Force India by recruiting Nico Hulkenberg. Granted the start to their season got off to an awful start for many reasons, Nico managed to fight back before falling into another slump.
I predicted this before the start of the season. Sauber tend to have issues when carrying over momentum from one season to another. After reaching podium heights last year, they have only managed to score 5 points so far.
The biggest mistake was not letting go of Sergio Perez, but rather Kamui Kobayashi. The Japanese driver had huge talent but suffered at the hands of poor set up. They miss him greatly and instead, they hired what can only be described as a disaster.
The aforementioned disaster comes in the form of this furry (look at his eyebrows) little Mexican.
Like Perez before him, Sauber brought him in as the Mexican government funds the young driver, making him an extreme pay driver.
Let me assure you, NOTHING has payed off. He has proven to be an absolute danger to everyone around him. If he's not crashing into barriers he's crashing into title contenders such as Kimi Raikkonen.
He seems to have no awareness and once he's in the car, he acts like a newborn puppy, almost scared of his surroundings. Not to mention he's not even come close to scoring any points.
My hope is that he will be replaced soon. I can think of a number of better candidates, particularly Caterham's Heikki Kovalainen. His only purpose is bound to be his cash flow. Theey're probably keeping him around in order to gain enough money for next year, whenever Krazy Kob comes back (hopefully).
The words; 'future world champion' come to mind, although that's based on his previous performances, this year it has not been great, that can be put down to the team though but not all the bucks can be passed.
He has been incredibly quiet this year, mostly scrapping from the back, very little opportunity to showcase true talent. He slumped after a double points finished but looked to be on the mend before he struck out in Canada.
The move from Force India has not prospered for him at all and I feel bad for him. The only thing keeping Nico in the game is his dreadful team mate.
Just wait for Brazil though whenever Sebastian Vettel is trying to keep up with him around Interlagos!
The decision not to retain Michael Schumacher last year was painful. Love him or hate him, not hearing the name is absolutely crap.
Michael's departure was only the beginning of a board revolution. Followed out the door shortly by Norbert Haug, big names like Toto Wolff, Niki Lauda and reportedly, Paddy Lowe all joined to create an all star package of money, personality and brains. Team principle Ross Brawn has supposedly been cut out of the picture. His departure is still not for certain.
Despite the heavy hitters added to the background, the biggest talent on the grid joined (Fernando Alonso is all tied up at Ferrari) in the form of Lewis Hamilton.
I'm not one bit ashamed to admit I said that Mercedes were going to buckle under the weight of their own ambition this year and to be fair, the first two races they did.
Then the string of pole positions came. I was proven wrong, they had one lap speed. But race pace? Dreadful.
Nobody could have predicted that they would be involved in the biggest scandal so far this year, but I'll have more on tyre gate soon.
The move away from McLaren must have hurt Lewis at a personal level. But there is no doubt it was a lucky one. He moved from disaster into an environment where he can be Lewis.
He's still looking for this first Mercedes win, but his pole positions were quite frequent. It's just the cars awful ability to look after the tyres. The situation really came home in Barcelona when he snapped back saying [to his engineer] "I can't go any slower."
Considering the majority of the rest of the season is filled with permanent race tracks (harder on tyre wear) he will struggle to find that first win. Rest assure, it will happen.
The best thing about Lewis this season is his new dog, Roscoe. SO ADORABLE (I'm a dog lover).
I am very, very glad Nico got the first win for the all new Mercedes this year. There was too much hype and attention over Lewis. Autosport at a four page article nearly every week about him and it got sickening.
Nico managed to achieve three consecutive pole positions and the (supposed) biggest win of the year at Monaco, thirty years after his father.
The season has been great to him so far. His tyre management is significantly better than Lewis's, although a lot off the field.
Backing both drivers never worked for Mercedes in the past, but it's not possible to back Nico over Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher, that was never going to happen. Solace should be found in what he has achieved so far. Moving to another team around Mercedes where he is the number one focus would definitely benefit his career.
Remember, McLaren will be joining forces with Honda again and even though I am sceptical, it could bring back wonderful feelings to the team. I don't think they will want to keep Jenson Button or Perez around any longer.
Nico Rosberg could easily find his Nirvana at McLaren.
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