There's no such thing as a bad F1 team

Sixty-four days ago, the first pre-season Formula 1 test got underway at Jerez. On that Tuesday in January any idea that in less than two months, these cars would have been even remotely capable of contesting a grand prix seemed absurd.

Ten cars were hoping to run at Jerez that day, but only eight managed it (Marussia and McLaren proved not to be ready). In total, those eight cars managed a grand total of 93 laps, some of them sounding like a bag of rusty nails on the rare occasions they ventured out.

Appropriately enough, the Mercedes driven by Lewis Hamilton was the first to take to the track for an installation lap, but aside from that things were quiet.

The pitlane was littered with people carrying on their conversations and hanging around having headed down to catch a glimpse of the new cars that were rolled out during the hour or so before the green light. But once the pitlane turned live, it was unnecessary for any of them to get out of the line of fire.

The hyperbole about F1 becoming a farce that grabbed many of the headlines was always over the top, but even the most conservative observer, not to mention probably a few of those working on the troublesome machinery themselves, will have had reason to doubt the grid would be ready.

Only three fewer cars finished in Australia and Malaysia this year © XPB

Yet two grands prix have now been staged. In both Australia and Malaysia, 15 cars were still running at the finish compared to 18 in each of the equivalent races last year. Nobody expected that. What the engine manufacturers and teams have done is nothing short of incredible.

It's not just about dealing with cars built to new rules and a different engine. This is about new technology in F1.

Irrespective of where you stand in the debate about noise, energy-efficient grand prix racing or the style of racing, think about that for a moment. Even if technology leaves you cold, if you are not at least fleetingly impressed, you have failed to grasp how big this change is.

Energy recovery systems way beyond anything used in F1 before, the return of turbochargers, a draconian fuel limit, rear brake-by-wire, proving new engines that had barely run in the real world, new cooling demands and philosophies, modified aerodynamic regulations... any one of these factors would have demanded a lot of work pre-season, but all of them simultaneously? It was madness. So much of the old, proven technology, tried and tested over the years, was displaced in one hit.

Yet these 14 groups of people (three engine manufacturers and 11 race teams) - not to mention the myriad external suppliers that have contributed to these cars - have somehow turned all of that into a grid of 22 racing cars worthy of the name.

It's easy to poke fun at the minnows. After all, Caterham and Marussia have notched up a combined total of 158 races without scoring a point. They have alliances with bigger teams and off-the-shelf drivetrains, but even so to get these hideously complicated working in such a short space of time should be impossible.

But to their immense credit, through sheer determination, hard work and skills honed over the years, these groups of people have managed to go racing at a respectable level against operations with vastly more resources to throw at it. That's a reminder of just how good each and every team is nowadays.

Renault-powered Red Bull has bucked pre-season testing form © XPB

Then look at Renault. A few months ago, the idea of a Renault-engined car even making a convincing start in a race, let alone getting to the finish, was risible. Yet methodically the problems have been worked through and there has been a Renault-propelled driver on the podium in each of the two races staged this year.

Granted, the official results don't tally with that thanks to Daniel Ricciardo's disqualification for exceeding the fuel-flow limit in Melbourne, but who would have bet on that happening at the start of the season at the end of the Bahrain tests?

Mercedes, of course, has done the most remarkable job. The critics will snipe about expenditure, but racing history is littered those who had the cash but failed to deliver. The German marque has approached its V6 project in the right way, it has run it well and is rewarded with what is comfortable the best engine. It's a job well done and there's nothing wrong with doing things properly.

It was inevitable that teams would start short-fuelling to save weight when they could, but few expected it to be as early as Malaysia. The fuel-used percentage figures that appeared on the screen during the grand prix coverage revealed that the Williams FW36s of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas were not using their full allocation.

Was it really only a few months ago that the doom-mongers predicted cars running out of fuel at the end of races?

To clarify, the percentage figures displayed are based on the fuel used but on the assumption that the total load being used in the race in 100kg. So you should read it as a percentage of the maximum allowance rather than percentage of the amount actually on board.

When I asked Valtteri Bottas about this and the fact that Williams had apparently short-fuelled, his reply was remarkable.

"Yeah, it was not 100kg," said the Finn. "There was no fuel-saving required."

Williams appears to be the most frugal with fuel in 2014 © LAT

None required! While Malaysia isn't one of the thirstiest grands prix on the calendar, for a team to be able to complete a race distance apparently without any significant fuel-saving and finish well inside the top 10 is staggering. And that's to Mercedes' credit as much as Williams's.

The understanding of the engines and cars, and crucially all the software that makes the packages work, will continue to grow. As is usually the case during regulation cycles, the field will get closer as time goes on. While the Malaysian GP wasn't a thrilling race by any means, it was far more convincing as a grand prix than many expected from the early season races and in that respect it bodes well for the future.

You might read this and think this is just an AUTOSPORT journalist blowing the proverbial smoke and trying to browbeat people into liking this new F1. But there's no such agenda.

There are plenty of things that desperately need improving in F1, and there are plenty of people willing to complain so relentlessly that you wonder whether they were ever really interested in the first place. Certainly, the controversy over the fuel-flow meters has cast a shadow over F1's new-for-2014 look. But criticism should go hand-in-hand with praise.

The reason for writing this column is far simpler than some pro (insert whichever individual/organisation you personally blame while assuming anyone who holds a contrary opinion to your own is being paid to be vaguely positive about) agenda. It's about giving credit where it's due.

Thousands... tens of thousands of people have had a hand in making this new technology work well far earlier than anybody ever expecting. After slogging their guts out, many for pay that is miles away from the multi-millions of the top drivers and some with no such thing as job stability, they deserve credit.

There is no such thing as a bad grand prix team anymore and 2014 has reminded us of that.

So this is dedicated to the hard work and brilliance not just of the team and engine manufacturer personnel, but of every company that has had a technological hand in what we have seen over the past few months.

AUTOSPORT salutes you.