2015 season

The 2015 Formula 1 World Championship was a year of change. In terms of regulations, the rules governing the power unit became even stricter with only four ICEs to be used before penalties were incurred, instead of the previous five. Reliability, therefore, became even more important.

Under the sporting regulations, the Virtual Safety Car was introduced, requiring drivers to slow down immediately – maintaining their position – without the need to bring the actual safety car out on track.

It was also a year of change for our team, starting with the driver line-up. We introduced two excellent rookies, both sons of famous fathers, the Dutchman Max Verstappen and the Spaniard Carlos Sainz. The pair got behind the wheel of the STR10, the car designed by James Key, which represented an evolution of the previous model.

The car was powered by the Renault hybrid power unit, the Energy F1-2015. Right from the start, our car was competitive and finished in the points 13 times, the first of which came in Melbourne with Carlos Sainz, then in Malaysia with both drivers.

In Australia, Verstappen became the youngest driver in history to take part in an F1 race and in Sepang he became the youngest ever to score points. Max did best in the last part of the 2015 season, managing to finish in the top 10 six times in his debut season, emulating Lewis Hamilton (2007), Jacques Villeneuve (1996), Kimi Raikkonen (2001) and Jackie Stewart (1965).

It was the Dutchman who achieved our best result of the year, finishing fourth in Hungary and the USA. The team finished the 2015 F1 season seventh in the Constructors’ Championship with 67 points.