1/2 McLaren–Mercedes, Button vs Hamilton.
-A driver pairing I'm looking very much forward to see. Qualifying will be Hamilton's territory all the way I think, and certainly amplified by this being Button's first season with new engineers. I'm thinking around two-three tenths in Hamilton's favour.
As I've touched on before, the races might be more interesting between the two, as Button's smoother style should (could?) preserve the tires better. However I'm not sure, so this is something I'm itching to see. Conclusion is that Hamilton will come out on top nonetheless, but I've always thought of Button as very strong, so I think he'll be pretty close on points. (I've included him in my top10 performers each season since his debut. OK, he only got a mention in '08...)
3/4 Mercedes GP, Rosberg vs M. Schumacher.
-Wooho, this should be great to watch! I refuse to believe Schumacher has lost speed so Rosberg will face his toughest challenge yet, and probably wont face a more complete team-mate for as long as he's racing. Having said that I think Schumacher's raw speed is the same, by default I have to say he'll come out on top. But I've always held Rosberg in high regard, so I'm of the opinion that this will not be one-sided.
5/6 Red Bull–Renault, Vettel vs Webber.
-Didn't Vettel actually wear his rear tires more than Webber last year? If tire-wear will indeed be a factor - no-one knows really how the compounds will cope - this could be something to tip the weight-scale. Webber lost his qualifying edge with the slicks - are there any reason to expect a change this year? Red Bull have a tremendously formidable driver pairing and I'm expecting a repeat from last year really; on balance evenly matched.
7/8 Ferrari, Massa vs Alonso.
-Alonso will be what Ferrari missed in Räikkönen as Schumacher's successor. As he's more interested in the broader side of working with the team, I think Alonso will, atleast with some time, get the car to his liking. Massa is no slouch, but he wont topple Alonso apart from on a handful of Saturdays and Sundays I think.
9/10 Williams–Cosworth, Barrichello vs Hülkenberg.
-I've said before that this is to my mind, an underwhelming driver pairing. Barrichello can be amazing on his days, and if those come often, any rookie will feel he's banging his head against the wall. I know very little about Hülkenberg, but "everybody" says he's very quick. I have to go with Barrichello though, as the German is a rookie. Suspect he'll line up infront and see the flag before Barrichello a few times in the second half of the season though.
11/12 Renault, Kubica vs Heidfeld? d'Ambosio?
-If it's d'Ambrosio Kubica will get bored putting several tenths on him. If it's Heidfeld I'm expecting the same small but consistent advantage to continue.
14/15 Force India–Mercedes, Sutil vs Liuzzi.
-I'm expecting Liuzzi to just come out on top this year. I've always rated him highly but said that he probably needs guidance from the right team, and another ingredient is to be comfortable and I think he is at Force India. If he really wins this battle, it wont be with a big margin though, 'cause Sutil is also very quick.
16/17 STR–Ferrari, Buemi vs Alguersari.
-Buemi. ...but I'm not too interested.
24/25 Sauber Ferrari, Kobayashi vs de la Rosa(?)
-I think Kobayashi will beat dela Rosa.
About the new teams, I'm not really excited about any of them, but there should be some interesting driver battles.
Trulli will beat Kovalainen, but it'll be tight I think. Glock will beat di Grassi, but he'll show good speed, the rookie.
Lotus–Cosworth
18. Jarno Trulli
19. Heikki Kovalainen
US F1–Cosworth
20. Jacques Villeneuve
21. Jose Maria Lopez
Virgin–Cosworth
22. Timo Glock
23. Lucas di Grassi
..................................................
Guys and girls, over to you!
Edit - took a look today and edited spelling errors.
Edited by race addicted, 11 May 2010 - 19:38.
