Secrets of the Ferrari revival

It's almost as if Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari found each other in the 'lonely hearts' column of a newspaper, or carried on seeing each other after one of those terrible dating shows that Channel 4 is so fond of broadcasting.

While not exactly 'undateable', both were somewhat downtrodden in 2014, lacking some of the star quality that made each a household name in modern Formula 1. But they got firmly back on track together this year, helping each other get over recent long-term relationships and 'back out there', as it were.

Last season was a disaster for Ferrari. The paucity of results (including no race win for the first time since 1993) led to wholesale changes at management level, and the departure of star driver Fernando Alonso, who after five seasons finally lost patience at the Scuderia's inability to build a car good enough to win him a third world championship.

Jilted by its long-term lover, Ferrari needed a new infatuation to rekindle the competitive fires burning inside Maranello.

Vettel also needed stoking, after looking out of sorts in 2014 as Red Bull went backwards after four consecutive seasons of domination.

A tough 2014 hit Vettel hard © XPB

He didn't like the new V6 hybrid turbo engines and he didn't like what they did to the handling of his car. He got blown off by young team-mate Daniel Ricciardo and didn't look happy at all. Worst of all, he began to doubt himself.

But this year was much better. Vettel and Ferrari deleted the old numbers from their phones, and set out on a new path together that has allowed each to rediscover some of their old lustre.

A mid-2014 overhaul of the Ferrari engine department (instigated under the old regime, incidentally) bore serious fruit this year, as the Scuderia's SF15-T proved to be far more efficient and better at energy recovery.

This was the main area of weaknesses last season, and solving it delivered what technical director James Allison described as a "crap-load of horsepower", along with further refinements to other parts of the engine, and the fuel as well.

The car was also much more benign to drive than last year's, combining well with Pirelli's stiffer rear tyre construction to make the handling "a little bit less front-limited", according to Allison.

Vettel prefers a car with which he can lean heavily on the rear tyres, and he thrived in this new environment, revelling in a machine he enjoyed driving, while also setting out on a new career path that follows a similar trajectory to that trodden by his great hero Michael Schumacher.

Refreshed, revitalised, rejuvenated, Vettel showered his new lover with gifts and trinkets: a podium finish first time out in Australia, a win on just his second start in Malaysia, a total of three victories and 13 podiums across the balance of their first 19 races together.

Vettel only finished off the podium in four races, and only twice failed to bring the car home at all (when his rear tyre failed in Belgium and when he crashed uncharacteristically in Mexico).

Vettel didn't waste many chances to upstage Mercedes © XPB

When the works Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg slipped up, it was usually Vettel waiting to pounce. Witness his sublime pole position in Singapore (where Mercedes couldn't get the tyres working properly), or the two occasions across the first four races when he managed to split the two silver cars in qualifying, thanks to Rosberg's early-season Saturday struggles.

Winning three races exceeded the expectations set for Ferrari by chairman Sergio Marchionne and new team principal Maurizio Arrivabene at the launch of the SF15-T in January. By any measure, this was a superb first season together for Vettel and Ferrari.

"I think in general this season surprised a lot of people, and surely exceeded our expectations as well," says Vettel. "So it has been all-in-all very positive.

"Obviously what people remember of last year is pretty bad but it was not a disastrous year. I don't think I was getting lazy, but it was more complicated, with not a lot of running and a new generation of cars.

"It was difficult to find the rhythm. It was not a good season overall, but it reminded me to keep going, make progress and want something new. Though changing teams has been a huge challenge, I am enjoying it a lot. Ferrari has helped me find that rhythm."

Back in the groove, Vettel has looked more like the driver who dominated Formula 1 from 2010-13; lightening fast at the crucial moments, relentless in the races, and almost mistake free.

Allison describes Vettel as a "formidable weapon" © LAT

It's important not to underestimate the galvanising affect a change of scenery can have on both team and driver, and Vettel has certainly impressed Ferrari with his attitude and work ethic, as well as his performances on-track.

"It's quite difficult to talk about this without sounding cliched, or without sounding boring, or even sycophantic to be honest, because it's very easy to slip into cliches like 'he's got a great work ethic', 'he's a good team player'," says Allison of his new charge.

"The main thing a team wants from a driver is that they're quick. You can tolerate all manner of idiosyncrasies if the guy is quick.

"Quick, mistake-free and just a datum that you can trust; that you know if the car is slow it's because the car is slow, it's not because your driver is having an off-day. That's what you want in a driver. I think all world champions have that, and Sebastian definitely has that.

"What you hope for in addition, which you absolutely have no guarantee of having, is someone who loves being part of the team, helps encourage the team to better than it did before, who is forgiving of mistakes, who shows humility himself, who is fun to be with, and just lubricates what is a very difficult working environment with his personality.

"If you have the speed and the reliability [in a driver] you're already a lucky team; if you have this third thing, something which was very strong with Michael - he was tremendous in the team like that - then you really do have a special guy, and Sebastian has that. [He is] a very formidable weapon to have."

Vettel looks relaxed and happy in his new relationship, often taking opportunities in the post-qualifying and post-race press conferences to wind up the two Mercedes drivers. His questioning of Hamilton and Rosberg as to whether they would drive into each other at Turn 1 in Mexico was particularly hilarious. But it's easy to laugh and joke around when things are going well and the pressure - to some extent - is off.

Vettel thinks Ferrari has been too competitive for an 'underdog' tag © LAT

Ferrari and Vettel knew they wouldn't be in a position to challenge for the championship this season, the focus was simply on becoming competitive again, and Vettel seems to have enjoyed being the valiant underdog this year, shorn of the (unrealistic) expectation of defending his fourth world title, which seemed to weigh him down during his final season with Red Bull.

"I don't consider myself the underdog," says Vettel, refuting the tag. "I know we're not the favourites, but I think we have shown since the beginning of the season that if we get our act together we have a reasonable chance of finishing on the podium and winning races.

"It has been a great experience so far, but we also know where we want to be in the future, so there is a lot of work still ahead of us, and certainly we will be a lot happier if people wouldn't call us the underdog, but favourite in the future."

However he feels about it personally, Vettel was the underdog this season. Ferrari made a massive leap technically, but not big enough to challenge Mercedes on merit. Those occasional successes over the silver arrows all required some form of slip-up or misfortune to strike first.

In Malaysia Mercedes gave up track position under an early safety car period and couldn't recover; in Hungary its duo failed to get off the line properly and again handed track position to the red cars; and in Singapore it was not competitive in qualifying or the race owing to difficulties generating sufficient tyre temperature in the soft and super-soft Pirellis.

All three of Vettel's victories this year were opportunist, the very definition of underdog glory. This is something his predecessor Alonso became all too familiar with during his own stint at Maranello. True, Alonso came close to winning the world championship twice during that time, but ultimately he never did.

Ferrari life started well for Alonso too, but frustration followed © LAT

The Spaniard won races in every year he raced for the Scuderia, except the last one, and three times finished runner-up to Vettel in the points. Alonso was the living embodiment of the heroic underdog during his spell at Ferrari.

Triple world champion Jackie Stewart talks of how winning races in a car that isn't the best is something that elevates a driver into the top echelon of F1's greatest. Among the current breed, Hamilton has done that, during his latter McLaren years, and Alonso too. Now it's fair to say that Vettel has clearly shown he's more than simply a one-trick bull.

But the status of heroic outsider, achieving against the odds, eventually wears thin on a driver who has been world champion before, and is driven to do nothing else except win again.

The warning of Alonso's time at Maranello is clear: spend too long as the underdog and cracks in the relationship will start to appear. Winning occasional races in a car that isn't the best can give enormous pleasure for a while, but that won't be enough in the long run...

So far, Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari appears a match made in heaven. But they are both still very much in the honeymoon phase of their new union. It remains to be seen whether these two are simply a flash in the pan, or made for life.

RAIKKONEN REMAINS, BUT FOR HOW LONG?

2014 was a trying year for Kimi Raikkonen fans. The Finn remains an undoubted hero of the Formula 1 faithful, but last season was comfortably his worst since he arrived in F1 in 2001, as reigning Formula Renault UK champion.

Purely based on results, this one has been substantially better. Raikkonen has finished on the podium three times (last year his best finish in a race was fourth) and scored more than double the number of points he amassed last year, improving from a lowly 12th in the 2014 standings to a much more respectable fourth.

Raikkonen's year improved, but not enough © XPB

But this season still represents another campaign of underachievement for the 2007 world champion, who was comprehensively outqualified, out-raced and outscored by his team-mate Vettel.

Vettel won the intra-team qualifying battle 13-3, discounting June's Canadian Grand Prix, where Vettel suffered an MGU-H problem, and the Belgian and Mexican GPs, where Raikkonen's car broke down. That's a similar ratio to the one by which Alonso defeated Raikkonen last year. Vettel won three races and finished on the podium 13 times in 19 races; Raikkonen managed no wins and just two podiums...

By rights he should not have beaten the Williams of Valtteri Bottas (with whom he had two separate collisions this year) so narrowly in the drivers' championship, but at least has improved his overall scoring ratio compared to his team-mate - up to 54 per cent of Vettel's points tally this year from 34 per cent of Alonso's in 2014. That ratio would be better still without a few technical problems, but Raikkonen also admits he has simply made too many mistakes this year.

When the constructors' fight is closer than it was this season, Raikkonen could prove expensive to Ferrari, but the Finn did enough to convince the Scuderia he is worth keeping for another year, earning a contract extension for 2016 that was announced ahead of August's Belgian GP.

"I'd say from Spa onwards it's been a mighty close-run thing," says technical chief James Allison of the internal battle between Raikkonen and Vettel.

"I think we're very fortunate to have drivers that a) get on with one-another, b) trust each other, c) are fast and d) are putting pressure on each other."

All told Raikkonen was better this season, but not much better. He needs to step up his game to really put the pressure on Vettel in 2016.