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Amidst all those glorious handbags being tossed between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes camp last season there was a different kind of drama being played out across F1 in 2014. It wasn't one likely to grab the tabloid headlines but it was every bit as spectacular, as the torque provided by the new breed of hybrid power units worked in unison with more slippery aerodynamics to make for cars that could really dance. Look back at the strong-armed heroics of Valitteri Bottas as he wrestled the Williams FW36 in that delicious Martini livery on corner exits, the tail wagging like that on an excitable puppy. The turbo V6 units might not have made as much noise as their high-pitched V8 predecessors, but they provided an edge to F1 that had been missing for some time.
After the somewhat lacklustre F1 2014, a stopgap for Codemasters' F1 series as it bought time to work on its new generation debut, it's pleasing to see those heroics are front and centre of F1 2015. These cars are a real handful, requiring a delicate throttle finger and the need to curb the desire to simply floor it when heading out of a corner. Even with a feather-light approach, you'll still be micro-managing your way out of several near-disasters as the rear tires paint all that horsepower on the tarmac with the free-form dynamism of an abstract expressionist.
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