Having previewed five of the ten teams in the first two parts, here in part 3 we preview the remaining 5 teams. Force India Last year the team achieved their best-ever points finish in the constructors' championship, scoring a total of 187 points en route to fourth place. However, there was some friction between the team-mates (Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez), to the point that they collided in Baku and Belgium. If they are to replicate their successes of last year, they definitely cannot afford to throw away points carelessly such as from team-mates colliding with each other, particularly as Renault, as well as Haas, look strong, not to mention that McLaren have the potential too to challenge for that fourth place. During testing the team did encounter some considerable struggles, such as being well down on lap times (although that is less significant), and the car looked tricky to drive. A major car update is expected in Australia, so it would be fair to reserve judgement on Force India at this stage, but it will be an undoubtedly tough challenge to maintain that spot of 'best of the rest'. Williams Go into the season with the youngest driver pairing of all the teams, with a combined age of just 41 years old. They have a rookie once again this season, with Russian driver Sergey Sirotkin replacing the retired Felipe Massa. However, that move has not come without criticism, as it is said that he comes with significant backing from SMP Racing, and his record in the junior categories is hardly all that promising. To make matters worse, the team have been struggling considerably during testing. The lap times are as I said potentially misleading, granted, though they were the slowest of all (OK, tyre adjusted, they probably would be faster than Sauber). Technical chief Paddy Lowe, for who it is his first season where the car is fully designed by him from the start, said: "The limitation in the car at the moment is corner entry and stability. I mean, that is quite often the limitation in a car to be honest, but it's particularly exaggerated at the moment with what we're running. I think if we can unlock some progress there, we will find a lot more lap time than we've got at the moment."
It is sad to see that a team like Williams who have won several constructors' championships resorting to so-called 'pay drivers', and the team are right now struggling big time - at the moment the only team who you could argue are worse off going into Melbourne are Sauber, though there is a big possibility of the team finishing last, which would be extremely sad to see. There certainly is a lot of work to do at Williams if they are to have a successful season.
Toro Rosso
Have switched to Honda engines for 2018. They have had a fairly respectable start with their new engine partner, and reliability has been pretty good, quite a marked improvement by Honda, and they did a total of 822 laps - only Mercedes and Ferrari did more. As much as Honda have improved their reliability, the question mark remains however as to how much they have improved performance of their Power Unit (PU).
This year will be the first full season for both their drivers (Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley) who will have a lot to prove. Arguably Toro Rosso start the season as the seventh-best team, but there certainly is potential with the Honda project.
Haas
Last season the team decided to stop development on its 2017 car in order to focus on this year's car. Based on testing, this approach seems to have paid off. They have shown some impressive pace, and on harder tyres. Now it would be foolish to just look at the times at face-value, but Haas have definitely shown a decent turn of pace.
One issue they struggled with last season was the brakes. The problems with the brakes were not helped by constantly switching supplier, however, they have chosen a permanent supplier for this season (Carbone Industrie), and the benefits of such a change have been felt, with Grosjean not complaining all the time with the brakes so far this time, whilst the drivers clearly seem much happier with the car in general.
On the basis of testing, you would say that Haas start the season as possibly the fifth-best team, and they definitely have the potential to stay there, the question is: can they deliver when it really matters and on a consistent basis?
Sauber
In recent years, the team have been faced with considerable financial struggles, with the team finishing 10th or lower in 3 of the past 4 seasons, and arguably survived 2016 thanks to mid-season investment.
For this year, they have strengthened their ties with Ferrari, with an upgrade to current-spec as opposed to year-old Ferrari PUs (they used 2016 Ferrari PUs during 2017), as well as investment from Alfa Romeo - which has resulted in an increased optimism from the team.
As part of their Ferrari ties, Sauber have taken onboard Ferrari Driver Academy member and Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc, who comes in with considerable hype in the wake of his Formula 2 exploits, where he won 7 out of 22 races and took 8 out of a possible 11 pole positions en route to becoming champion (as a rookie in the category). As good as Leclerc may be, it would be unwise to set too high expectations of him as a rookie in Formula 1, the target should be to show a consistent and stable improvement, anything else other than that would be a nice bonus.
For all the optimism, the team have been arguably struggling during testing, and still probably go into Melbourne as the last-placed team. The team encountered several spins during the test (both from Leclerc and Ericsson), as well as a minor crash in the wall by Leclerc, though so long as he learns from those mistakes and cuts them down, then it is no concern at this stage. The team may start the season as the last-placed team, however, it is clear that first of all the team have closed the gap to the midfield, and likely they will undergo a relatively steep development curve.
Follow Zarb times for regular updates and race reports during the season, which begins in just a week's time in Australia (Melbourne), with a race start time of 07:10 CEST - live and exclusive on GO Sports 1 for Maltese followers.