With the boring summer break upon us, let's waste some time and reflect on what has happened so far.

Here's my musings. Feel free to add your own and disagree

I will also compare to my pre-season predictions, both before (when I was running my Grand Prix 2 season) and after testing.



1.MERCEDES
Surprise! Who'd have thought Mercedes would continue to dominate? Sadly, with stable regs, reliability is already absolutely bulletproof, no DNFs of any kind - and it will get even worse next year. I don't understand why we moaned about 'only' getting 11 finishers in Oz, when 15yrs ago, that would be a lot. Oh how conditioned we have become! I won't even bother to say they'll win the WCC, except I just have.

Right, the drivers: Both top drawer as ever (awkwardly glances to Hungary though...) So who's the best? Stats are a funny thing, but they say this.

Qualifying: 9-1 Hamilton
Race Finish: 7-3 Hamilton (including Monaco)
Quickest in race imo (despite result): 8-2 Hamilton, or 7-3 if you count Rosberg's 5 laps in the rain at Silverstone
Average Qualifying Gap: Approx 0.250sec Hamilton

On the face of it looks like domination, yet it doesn't always look that way and Hamilton only leads by 21pts. I expect Rosberg to come back stronger in the final races as he always does.

Pre-season Grand Prix 2 had a 1-2 finish in the WDC, but Rosberg had a nightmare finishing almost 100pts down. Otherwise his performance was about right.



2.FERRARI
Wow, not bad! This will be a lesson not to write McLaren-Honda off just yet.

Drivers: Well, Vettel looks like he's doing better now he's away from Ricciardo and has the at-times deadbeat team-mate he wanted for 2014 in the first place. I would say he's done the best job of the frontrunners in putting results together over a season, Nick Heidfeld style, except much quicker.

Kimi has blown hot and cold. In Australia, he looked right up with Vettel, same for the next 3 races. He "sacrificed" Spain for testing, but since then has gone right off the boil. Maybe Seb just settled in. Anyway, sadly it's absolutely time to go I'm afraid. I feel plenty of other drivers would be doping a better job, right now.

Pre-season On GP2 they only came 6th in the championship with Vettel and Raikkonen only 10th and 11th - how wrong that was!! In my defence, this was before 2015 engine performance became clear. So with that taken into account, and good testing, which I suspected was a little bit flattering to deceive, I had them 3rd ahead of Red Bull but just behind Williams. Not too far off I guess.



3.WILLIAMS - MERCEDES
It's kinda good that this season is now considered a bit disappointing. Disappointing used to be getting 5pts per season. 3rd was a huge achievement last year. They should get the same much more easily this year.I don't know how much Toto and Merc are stuffing them, but they have some way to go. They are consolidating themselves in a top position though, so overall a thumbs up.

Drivers: While it might look like I don't think much of Massa, it's just that I felt he never was, is or will be a top elite driver, not that he can't be very good. While I wasn't expecting Bottas domination by any stretch, I am surprised at just how well Felipe has compared. They really do seem equal.

What to make of Bottas then? In his 3rd season, maybe slightly disappointing, but so was Vettel in early 2008 (to some extent). I still rate him highly but we have to see.

Pre-season My simulation indeed had Bottas and Williams both 3rd in their respective championships, with Bottas an absolute whisker from winning Monza. The game hasn't liked Felipe at all these last 2yrs though he still did pretty well. Overall I think I called this pretty well, it's just that Ferrari being so good was unexpected.




More to follow...