Mercedes- Hamilton, coming off a 4th WDC, looks to keep his pace going against promising youngster Max Verstappen, who took 3 dominating race wins last year for Toro Rosso. Toto decides to part ways with Rosberg, who finished a disappointing 5th in last years standings. For the second year in a row, Esteban Ocon will remain as reserve driver after jumping from DTM, the series he finished 3rd in last year, to GP2 with Racing Engineering.
Ferrari- Last years 6 time race winner Sebastian Vettel, who missed out on a 5th WDC due to reliability problems causing DNF's in Sochi and Brazil. Joining the German is Finn driver Valterri Bottas, who joined Ferrari after scoring a shock win in the wet Sepang event. He replaces the retiring Raikkonen. Bottas, unsure of his 2017 Whereabouts, had done multiple tests for Ferrari's GT team, also hinted at Ferrari's upcoming project of entering an engine into Formula E, most likely where 2017 reserve driver Esteban Gutierrez will end up for extra seat time.
Williams- Nico Rosberg headlines this historic team, as he is lucky to find a competitive drive in Formula One. Sergio Perez makes a surprising move from the podium-contending Aston Martin-Mercedes to Williams, who can score points easily. With 2016 GP2 champion Alex Lynn already scoring a drive with another team, Williams looks to the promising Nick Cassidy, who won the GP3 title, and moves to Super Formula for the year along with his reserve role.
Aston Martin- Many fans wanted to see him in a top car, but in 2015 there hoped seemed non-existent. Aston Martin put this talent to use, winning in Baku and his home GP at Hockenheim, 4th place in the standing last year Nico Hulkenburg leads the Aston Martin squad into the battle that is the 2017 F1 season. Joining him will be another veteran, Daniel Riccardo, who left the Red Bull squad after a crash with his then-teammate Kvyat in Brazil, causing a 5 car pileup taking out Verstappen (3rd in points in Brazil), Rosberg (4th in points in Brazil), and Rio Haryanto. Speaking of Haryanto, he will become the third driver, moving from a second-to-last in the standing drive with Manor.
Red Bull- Red Retains Daniil Kvyat, who is content in his position as lead driver. Joining him will be Toro Rosso graduate Carlos Sainz Jr., who gave the Junior team a double podium in both Montreal and Hungary. Antonio Felix Da Costa and Sebastian Buemi will split reserve roles.
Mclaren- Fernando Alonso continues on leading the Honda-powered team, as Honda showed improvements in late 2016 and pre-season testing, as Alonso scored 3rd in COTA and Button 3rd in Brazil. The 16-season F1 career is over for Jenson Button, as he turns to IMSA in an interesting move. The most poorly-kept secret in the 2016 garage was Button's retirement and next year's debut of Stoffel Vandoorne replacing Button. Vandoorne, who finished 3rd in the Super Formula championship to former F1 drivers Kaziuki Nakajima and Kamui Kobayashi. Seregy Sirotkin will assume reserve roles. Sirotkin said," It will be a pleasure working with an well experienced team that knows everything about the mechanics of Formula One, and the need another promising talent to fill the reserve role, as it would be better to have a good driver than one who doesn't know much about F1 mechanics."
Haas- Romain Grosjean returns to the American team, hoping that 2018 will be his chance to land his role of Ferrari driver. For now, he will continue with Haas, a team that had a stable debut, which is good for new teams. Joining the team is Alexander Rossi, who replaces Esteban Gutierrez. Gutierrez scored 0 points in 2016, and was replaced by Rossi for COTA. Taking Reserve driver roles will be 2016 European F3 champ Charles Leclerc.
Renault- Renault cleans out the visible remnants of the lotus team and fully establishes the Renault Team. His third team in 4 years, swede Marcus Ericsson joins Renault on a high note, after scoring a career best 3rd at Monza. However he missed Silverstone after a freak accident at Baku where his car hit a wall where it was not secured, Ericsson then left the track and hit a concrete pole, he suffered bruised feet. Joining Ericsson will be Alex Lynn, last year's GP2 champion. Lynn is the first GP2 champion since Romain Grosjean to go straight from GP2 to F1. Competing in GP2 for his second season, Felix Rosenqvist joined the team for the young drivers test and reserve driver roles.
Sauber- Felipe Nasr and Banco De Brazil continue racing and sponsoring Sauber, as it is their 3rd season together. Coming off a strong 3rd place effort in GP2 last season, Raffaele Marciello will move from FP1 driver to full time driver for Sauber, replacing the migrating Marcus Ericsson. Oliver Rowland is looking to become the first British driver since Johnny Herbert in 1998 to drive for Sauber, something he could accomplish next year.
Toro Rosso- An all-new lineup graces the Red Bull Junior team, as Red Bull young driver Pierre Gasly enters Formula 1. Filling the 2nd seat will be former Mclaren Works driver Kevin Magnussen, who tested for Toro Rosso last year, as Rio Haryanto took the 2nd Manor seat. Toro Rosso's reserve driver if they need him will be Dean Stoneman.
Manor- Returning driver and former DTM Champion Pascal Wehrlein will again drive at Manor for a move to Mercedes hopefully later in his career. Wehrlein may have moved to Aston Martin to fill he seat vacated by Sergio Perez until Daniel Riccardo filled that open slot. Taking the #2 drive at Manor is 2016 Formula 3.5 V8 Champion Jazeman Jafaar. Brit Joylon Palmer takes over as FP1 driver (reserve driver).
My Prediction of 2017 F1, but still 16.6 months away.
*verstappen won't probably win three races in 2016, nor will the AM takeover happen in 2016. Ericsson won't hit that barrier and maybe GUT will score a point. But, all in all, who knows? anything's possible in motorsport.
Edit: sorry i wasted your time.....
Edited by Volcano70, 11 November 2015 - 03:18.