The Crystal Ball!

About a year ago I made the prediction that Juan Montoya would break into F1 big time, and that Ralf Schumacher would be one of the very few drivers to be able to keep up with him. I think I was pretty much spot on, in that Ralfie held the upper hand initially, until Monty found his feet. By now Schumacher can't keep up with the Full Monty, and I doubt anyone else will in 2002. Given a half-decent car, Montoya will walk the Championship next year.

I'll lean out the window one more time (and even further, as it might seem), predicting much the same about Takuma Sato. Giancarlo Fisichella is a VERY good driver, and it will take his all to keep the Japanese behind. I just hope that Sato will be able to change to a better team for 2003.

Tell you what, if I was a team manager and had the choice of ANY driver for my line-up in 2003, I'd skip all the Schus and sundry, and pick Montoya/Sato. Maybe Frank Williams can forget about Ralf and Jenson, and take on Takuma? Let's hope so!

I agree, Fines, J-PM really does seem to be The Real Deal. What I particularly like is what seems to be his state of mind. He manifests a calm, a serene analysis of the situation reminiscent of Fangio and Clark, to name but two. Yes, I think he just may have Ralf licked mentally, despite Schu Junior's undoubted strengths.

Can't, however, quite embrace your assertion that: "Given a half-decent car, Montoya will walk the Championship next year."

The MS/Ferrari combination is tremendously strong and will surely be very hard to unseat.

I truly hope that the car Williams and BMW put under Montoya is around the Ferrari pace. If so, the Montoya/MS battles of 2002 could be truly epic. I've long held the view that MS has something of a glass jaw when placed under real pressure and for various reasons, the pressure over the last year or two has, IMHO, been occasionally strong but not consistently intense.

Juan Pablo I think is the man to bring real pressure, session after session, race after race.

Roll on Albert Park.

Vanwall

Fines,

I agree with your view about JPM over RS. In my opinion, JPM is one of the few drivers that have realised that the mental stability and balance is paramount for achiving your goals. Many other drivers are easily affected by 'metal games' of their rivals and are easily distracted by outside occurences(in my opinion, Damon Hill was a prime example), it seems that all these 'attacks' are deflected by JPM'S ability to focus and concentrate on the primary target. Ralf has realised that and he started his 'attacks' on JPM already this year with his brother's support. Ralf's silly demands of team orders though will backfire..... JPM will be all over him next year...

Talking about 'the crystal ball': While I cannot comment on your views about Sato due to lack of knowledge of this guy (I haven't seen any of his races yet), I would also foresee a decline in Raikkonen's performance at McLaren next year compared to 2001. I think that his move from Sauber to McLaren came to early and he will not be able to bear the pressure which Ron will, maybe unconciously but certainly put on him. While driving for Sauber was 'fun' because nobody really expected anything from him in the beginning and lady luck also helped to points in the early races, there was no real pressure on him during the year. But in his efforts to equal or even surpass Coulthard next year, he will go over the edge and we will see a few hefty crashes of him next year. I'm not so sure if the top brass at Mercedes will be happy about that. And every 'failure' to deliver a top result will increase the pressure. I'm not 100% sure if we will see Raikkonen in 2003 also at McLaren...

Anyway, all this is of course pure speculation and the 'real life' will start in March 2003. As they say: "When the flag drops, the bull**** stops..."


Bert

Wow, just realised that we are posting predictions for next year in 'The Nostagia Forum', where things of the past ought to be the topic ....

I just hope we get away with it

Bert

Me too, Bert, me too!;)

Re Räikkönen, I echo your sentiments. I don't think it was too clever by McLaren signing him just to prevent Ferrari from doing so. Panis or Heidfeld would've been much better options!

Originally posted by BertlF
Wow, just realised that we are posting predictions for next year in 'The Nostagia Forum', where things of the past ought to be the topic ....

I just hope we get away with it

Bert

We will, Bert, we will. There are precedents in TNF

Vanwall.

Originally posted by Vanwall


We will, Bert, we will. There are precedents in TNF

Vanwall.

Phew, what a relief. I was dreading having nightmares....;)

Bert