London, England - Lewis Hamilton will start the Formula One season as red-hot favourite to become a triple world champion but Niki Lauda, who knows how that feels, fears the battle could be tougher than ever.
Hamilton won 11 races to Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg's five last year, with Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo taking the other three, and heads for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 15 with every reason to be confident.
The 'Silver Arrows' have been ominous in testing, lapping with metronomic efficiency and eye-openingly faster than anyone else once they finally got around to bolting on the quicker soft tyres.
Former triple champion Lauda, now non-executive chairman of the Mercedes works team, said: “Expectations are enormously high because we won everything that we could win last year.
“The logic is that everybody expects and wants to have the same thing again but I can tell you it is not that easy. A new season is a new season and everything starts from scratch.
“I think Lewis and Nico will fight again like always for the championship but my worry is there will be a third guy also getting involved, no question.”
Who that man turns out to be remains an open question, although Finland's Valtteri Bottas may be a shrewd bet after Williams looked closest to Mercedes in testing.
The ever-smiling Ricciardo, now Red Bull's team leader following the departure of four-times champion Sebastian Vettel to Ferrari, looks another solid candidate to take the fight to Mercedes.
Lauda said: “At the moment I would say that Williams is the closest, Red Bull and Ferrari I cannot tell you now because they had some signs of speed and then nothing happens again. Red Bull you can never under-estimate.
“They are all trying to catch up...the question is how close can they get?”
THE SAME, ONLY BETTER
If last year was dominated by the duel, and deteriorating relationship, between Hamilton and Rosberg then fans can expect more of the same in a season that will be both faster and louder than 2014.
“For me it's clear that Nico will attack even more this year because he lost last year, very simple,” said Lauda. “I think it's going to be a tighter fight between them, because Nico wants to make sure now he can beat him.”
Vettel's switch to underperforming Ferrari, where he follows in the footsteps of seven times champion and compatriot Michael Schumacher, was the headline move along with Fernando Alonso's return to misfiring McLaren.
Alonso will be absent from Australia on doctors' orders, with the Spaniard still recovering from his crash in testing in Barcelona last month, with Denmark's Kevin Magnussen serving as a stand-in.
Dutch rookie Max Verstappen will become the youngest ever driver, at just 17 years old, with Spanish newcomer Carlos Sainz joining him at Toro Rosso in a line up with a combined age of just 37.
Only 10 teams are entered in what should be a 20 race championship, subject to Germany being confirmed, with Caterham losing its fight for survival and some others facing another tough struggle to keep going.
BOY RACER DRIVEN TO SUCCEED
Max Verstappen is a boy racer with a difference. Formula One's hottest new sensation does not own a car, appears to be in no hurry to get one and would not be allowed to drive it unsupervised anyway.
Billed by one magazine as the most controversial driver ever to enter the sport's elite, the 17-year-old Dutchman will make his debut in Australia next week as Formula One's youngest participant.
When he was handed the Toro Rosso drive, Verstappen was still only 16 - and had to be driven by former F1 racer father Jos to Belgium's Spa-Francorchamps circuit to meet the media.
He still is driven around, or uses other means of transport, but none of that fazes him one bit.
"I have a kind of driving licence. It's just that I can't drive alone," said Verstappen during a break from pre-season testing at the Barcelona circuit.
"I don't like to drive on the roads, so I don't do it. I am driving anyway a lot now on track."
Double world champion Lewis Hamilton and other leading drivers may have mouth-watering collections of exotic cars in their Monte Carlo garages but Verstappen has yet to acquire even a modest hatchback.
Asked whether he had anything in mind, he shook his head.
"I keep changing my mind every week," he confessed. "For the moment I don't know.
Whatever the youngster eventually opts for, it is unlikely to be a fire-breathing monster.
"You don't need it to be fast on the roads. Formula One is already fast enough. But anyway I'm not at home that much so I don't really need a car at the moment," he shrugged.
BORN TO RACE
On the track, it’s a different story. If ever a driver was born to race, it was Verstappen - the son of a man who was once Michael Schumacher's team-mate and whose mother Sophie was also a very quick karter. Motorsport runs in the blood.
Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko has stated that Verstappen could be the next Ayrton Senna, a rare and natural talent, while others whose paths have crossed with the Dutchman speak in equally glowing terms.
Yet his signing by Toro Rosso was so controversial the governing FIA rewrote the rules before he had made his debut, so keen were they to ensure nobody so young can repeat the feat.
From 2016, drivers will have to be over 18 to get a super-licence with sufficient qualifying points accumulated from other series over a three-year period.
It is a change that would have barred Verstappen and top talents like Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen and even seven times champion Michael Schumacher in previous years.
Verstappen felt it was a false controversy, an argument about age rather than talent.
"If I just do a good job in my first few races, without making mistakes and all these things, they will stop talking about my age quite quickly," he said.
"I can understand the reaction. But I just have to prove them wrong. Try to be mature for my age, that's the most important."
Verstappen has done little wrong in testing, doing steady laps and impressing with his composure and obvious talent.
His immediate aim for Australia, he said, was "be consistent, build up slowly, practice, hopefully be there in qualifying and then in the race it's to try and finish and hopefully we can score some points”.
"I think we have a good chance, especially in the first few races in the season."
Marko's praise, added the teenager, changed nothing.
"It's very nice. But it doesn't put any more pressure on me. It's very nice to hear but I'm just working on myself and trying to prove myself and the car and that's the most important for me at the moment.
It will be an historic moment when he lines up on the Melbourne grid, but Verstappen says he is ready for it. Self-doubt is not a family trait.
"I may be a bit excited but once the lights turn off, you're going to race and you don't think about it," said the driver.
Really? "Yes. 100 percent sure."
‘BOTTAS ON THE BRINK OF A BREAKTHROUGH’
Valtteri Bottas could be on the brink of a breakthrough with Williams this season but do not write off Felipe Massa, says the team’s engineering head Pat Symonds, an old hand who has worked with champions Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso and knows a thing or two about talent.
Former champion Williams, winner of nine Constructors' titles and seven Drivers' championships between 1980 and 1997, is back and hungry for wins after clambering from ninth overall in 2013 to third last year.
It will go into the new season tipped by many to be champion Mercedes' closest rival.
That could see Bottas, 25 and Finland's brightest hope since Kimi Raikkonen, step up as a winner and title contender after multiple podium appearances last season.
"I think he's got huge talent and is very, very intelligent. And those are important things in a racing driver," said Symonds at the final pre-season test in Barcelona this month.
"I think he's more than capable of being a champion and part of my ambition is that if he's going to be a champion, I want it to be in a Williams. That's really important.
"I think if we can produce the equipment, why not? It is going to be a quite significant year for him."
Bottas had two second places and four thirds last year on his way to finishing fourth overall.
Williams, which has the same engine as Mercedes, has looked quick and reliable but there remains a big gap between it and the Silver Arrows of double champion Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
"I think to expect Valtteri to be challenging for the championship this year is asking rather a lot," said Symonds. "I think it's going to be quite a formative year for him, I expect him to improve more. I expect him to gain confidence.
"And like all these guys, the most important win is the first one. If he can get that first one this year then it will make a big difference to him."
‘DON’T WRITE OFF FELIPE MASSA’
Massa, 33, won 11 races for Ferrari and missed out on the 2008 title to Hamilton by a single point. However, the little Brazilian has not won since he suffered a severe head injury in Hungary in 2009.
Williams has given him back his mojo and Symonds warned against under-estimating what he could do.
"When Felipe joined the team in 2014 I had to remind people it wasn't that long ago that he damn nearly won the world championship," he said.
"Felipe is just rejuvenated. He's enjoying life again, he's enjoying racing again and that reflects in his performance.
"I think a number of people did feel the accident in Hungary took the edge off him. I personally think it was his environment that took the edge off him and in a new environment he's right back there."
Williams has not won a Grand Prix since Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado's success in Spain in 2012 and Symonds said it still rankled that the three races last year that were not won by Mercedes all went to Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.
This year, the team are determined to do better.
"While 2014 was a year that I really rate with my championship years at Benetton and Renault in terms of achievement, I still felt a little bit sore that we hadn't had a win," said Symonds.
"The fact was that Mercedes tripped up three times and those happened to be three times when Red Bull was around to pick up the pieces. They could have been three different occasions when we'd have been around to pick up the pieces.
"That's life. All things being equal this year, maybe we will be there. Because it does look like Mercedes is still ahead. But getting a win this year is psychologically very important for the team."
CARLOS SAINZ - UNDER THE RADAR
Carlos Sainz will be as disappointed as any Formula One fan that Fernando Alonso will be absent from next week's Australian season-opener.
The 20-year-old Spaniard, whose double world rally champion father has the same name, has a treasured photograph from a decade ago of himself as a wide-eyed kid alongside the smiling Alonso.
Both men had planned to take another, more significant one, in Melbourne - of them ready to race as rivals.
Alonso, whose new adventure with Honda-powered McLaren will now have to wait until Malaysia to get started, promised last August that they would be together on the starting grid in Australia.
The vow was intended as a confidence boost, coming at a time when Sainz's hopes of securing a Formula One drive appeared to have stalled.
"It was a tough time for me as Max was announced at Toro Rosso and I had been not chosen for the seat," Sainz said before Alonso was ruled out on doctors' orders following a testing crash in Barcelona.
"Alonso was feeling quite sorry for me because he knew I was doing a good job, I was winning a championship and all that and he decided to post this picture on Twitter. And it actually gave me a big confidence boost.
"I told myself 'I still need to do this, I still want to race against my idol.' There is a saying that says 'Make your heroes your rivals' and when I looked at the picture he posted I said 'You need to keep pushing and go for it'."
His hopes were revived only weeks later when Sebastian Vettel announced his departure from Red Bull to take Alonso's place at Ferrari, with Russian Daniil Kvyat then promoted from Toro Rosso and creating a vacancy.
Until recently, rookie drivers came into Formula One determined to emulate earlier heroes such as Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna or Alain Prost.
NEW GENERATION
Sainz belongs to a different generation, one that grew up enthralled by Alonso - the first Spaniard to win a Formula One championship and the man who put the sport on the map in a country more obsessed with soccer and cycling.
Even the achievements of Carlos Sainz senior, the first Spaniard to win a world title on four wheels and a household name in Spain, could not compete with the allure of Alonso.
"When I was at a very young age, let's say nine or 10 years old, is when Fernando Alonso started to become big in Spain. So at the age of 10 I decided Formula One had become my dream," recalled Sainz junior.
"My dad took it perfectly. He perfectly understood me because I had never watched rallying on TV or followed rallying that much. And obviously when you have a son that is going to dedicate himself to a sport that is similar to yours, I think you are a proud father."
Verstappen, who also has a famous father in Schumacher's former team-mate Jos, has attracted most of the pre-season attention as Formula One's youngest ever driver and Sainz is happy enough with that.
The Spaniard, who last year became the youngest champion in the Renault 3.5 world series with a record number of poles and wins, would rather avoid comparisons with the past.
"It's much better because like this there is no comparison. They cannot compare me to my Dad, because the sport is completely different," he said. "The only same thing is you have an engine and four wheels but everything else is completely different.
"Maybe I'm a bit more under the radar than I'm used to," he added. "But in the end Max and I have exactly the same pressure from the team. We are both rookies, and we are both starting from zero."
MARUSSIA LOOKS AT YOUNG TALENT
The revived Manor Marussia Formula One team has indicated it is more likely to sign a promising young rookie than an established name to complete its driver lineup.
The remaining seat at Marussia, which came out of administration formally last Friday, is the only one still to be filled and time is running out with the season starting in Australia next week.
"We are in discussion, very detailed and very advanced discussion, with some very quick young guys," said team president and sporting director Graeme Lowdon, who will run Manor with principal John Booth just as they did the former Marussia outfit.
"This team has always had a history of bringing some great driving talent on to the grid and we really want to try and continue that," he added.
The team, which is hoping to get two cars on the Melbourne starting grid, has already announced Briton Will Stevens as their other driver although that is subject to the 23-year-old securing his super licence.
That is unlikely to be a problem, with Stevens making an appearance in Abu Dhabi at the end of last season for now-defunct Caterham.
"There are some young, quick guys around," said Lowdon, whose team has the smallest budget of any and are sure to require funding as part of any driver package.
"What we are looking for is a quick driver and with the right temperament to have the challenges that they are going to have in a small team facing this kind of comeback.
"It's not a straightforward decision but hopefully one we can make very soon."
Reuters