Interesting thoughts about midfield teams. To me one of the main questions is if any of the "standard" midfield teams can impress with reg changes and do what Lotus did in 2012 - break clear of the midfield and become a remote front-runner.

If we are trying to predict the WCC positions of midfield teams, it is interesting to see that at least during the last 5 years (2009, since the last major reg overhaul) their positions have not fluctuated much. So something must change massively for any of them to dramatically change their fortunes now.

Force India - 6th, 7th, 6th, 7th, 9th.
Looking at their design team, I haven't heard about major changes (in the way for instance Lotus has collapsed), but they seem to have a solid and consistent base. Based on predictions most likely to pull above their and threaten top teams combined with the rumoured Mercedes engine advantage.

In my book Hülkenberg is certainly most likely to put in some inspiring results from the midfield, much like he did in 2012 and 2013 as long as the car is decent enough. But are these results just going to be „good upper midfield results“ like in early 2013 (i.e di Resta was fourth in Bahrain) or they can hit the ground running with new regs? As said, based on evidence so far, the design team doesn't give a notably different vibe compared to previous seasons. And after all, in the end all-around "package" counts, not so much if your engine has ~20hp more. In 1994 Ligier had Renault factory engines, yet were nowhere except at Hockenheim.

Sauber – 7th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 6th
They started the 2009-13 era as a BMW Sauber factory entry. They had a challenging transition to becoming a pure privateer coupled with financial issues, but their WCC positions haven't changed much. Their worst was 8th in 2010, when they had appalling reliability in early 2010 after switching to Ferrari engines and thus lost valuable points.

Like Lotus, the team seems to have some inherent engineering quality in the team despite loss of key people and financial struggles. I think their car can run pretty well occasionally, but I haven't seen any changes in the team that could possibly propel them to the very top though they did surprise in 2012, but were let down by both team operations (i.e strategy), pure unluck and driver inconsistency. This could hurt them again, even if the car is very fast.

Williams – 9th, 8th, 9th, 6th, 7th
Recent years have seen a gradual decline compared to where they started this era. Though the 8th in 2012 doesn't fully reflect their car, because as we remember it was very fast.

The new era is about to begin with mild optimism. New Mercedes engines. A change? In the past Williams has switched to Toyota (2007), Cosworth (2010) and Renault (2012) engines without a notable change in fortunes. Williams is a team, which is somewhat hard to predict considering their fluctuations during the last few years. They can be nowhere (2011, 2013) or have a pretty decent car (2012). However, it looks like regardless of this they are still going to be somewhere in the midfield – the question is whether in „lower“ or „upper“ midfield.

STR – 8th, 9th, 8th, 9th, 10th
Toro Rosso is a team that regardless of form fluctuations has always been in certain positions in WCC. In 2011 they had a pretty decent car, we remember Alguersuari getting a fair few 7th places in late 2011. In 2013 Ricciardo was qualifying into top 10 a lot, the hiring of chief designer James Key probably helped.

Yet regardless of whether the car is lower midfield or a strong midfielder, to me it is hard to see a significant change in WCC position fortunes. They are still a small brother of RBR and is likely to stay there. In addition to that I lost a lot of belief in Vergne during 2013 and even though he can impress at times (in the wet), he doesn't do it consistently. Kvyat could have some serious potential, but he is only 19 years old. When Vettel joined F1 and STR at the age of 19, he was actually getting outraced by Liuzzi for a portion of the year. I guess if STR is going to have a strong season, it is more likely to be in 2015, when Kvyat is already fully up to speed.

This has been the quality of these teams during the 2009-2013 regulation phase, consistently in places from 6th to 9th in WCC. The question is – what's gonna change? If anything at all?

If we compared them to previous breakthroughs, then before 2012 Lotus showed a lot of potential. They got two podiums in early 2011 and dropped backwards only after it became clear they had a flawed car design concept, which was difficult to develop. And they were getting podiums in 2010 as well.
Red Bull breakthrough in 2009 - they showed potential in 2008, when the Red Bull clone in Toro Rosso colours won a race at Monza.
Brawn/Honda - even if they didn't show much beforehand - had a huge budget before 2009 and a few inspiring signings in the personnel (i.e Brawn).

These current midfield teams have been "status quo" for five consecutive years already. None of them has a huge budget or a significant change in ownership and all leave an impression it could be the same ol' story in the new 2014 V6T regulation era as well. Only to be potentially joined by Lotus in midfield battles.