49 replies to this topic

[pRy]

Predict 2001 F1 events here, have a go, its all for fun.. and im sure someone can keep a record of them for the end of the year to embarass everyone and *please* dont turn this thread into a "that wont happen" arguement, its for fun and people have a right to predict things

--
My Predictions :

- Mika Hakkinen will win the World Championship
- McLaren will win the Constructors Championship
- Jenson Button will win his first F1 race (British GP)
- Jean Alesi will announce his retirement
- Murray Walker will decide not to quit, yet
- Ferrari will see key team members say they wish to leave and the team will suffer bad performances because of this
- David Coulthard announces switch to Jaguar
- Montoya will do well, but not as well as the hype expects
- Traction Control has little to no difference on results

Have a go!

[JayWay]

Barichello will slip in the Ferrari garage, start crying, then dedicate his fall to Senna.

[stoopid]

ralf will crash into michael in an important race. michael will jump out of his car and punch ralf in the head... ralf's helmet will still be on, and michael will suffer a hand injury that will force him to miss two races.

[The Swerve]

pRy,

- Murray is definately going, no doubt about it.
- Coulthard won't be going to Jag because there is no room for him there
- Traction Control will make no visible difference to the results.;)

[JayWay]

Jaguar will lose a bet made over a drunken exhcange with Eddie Jordan, and will be forced to change their name to Faguar.

[The Swerve]

Jayway - Great Sig!

[Falcadore]

predictions for the season of 2001?

First corner at Albert Park, David Coulthard and Michael Schumacher will collide while jostling for positions during the dash to the first corner the two crossed over each other like a Scalectrix track, each trying to out do each other in the voilent starts stakes. Hakkinen wins in a canter.

The Arrows-AMT explodes spectacularly and simultaneously on the grid. Puzzled AMT technicians pore over how two 2000 Peugeot units could have installed without being refreshed.
The new Prost AP04 Ferrari features a very prominent nose, when asked about where the idea for the nose came from the chief designer said the idea came up at a meeting with Prost.

The new Jaguar R2 is an immense disappointment. New boss Bobby Rahal pushes the team to find the problem but insistpersonally it is due to the long held American belief the green is a bad luck colour for cars. This belief was widely held in contempt until a desk in the design office spontaneously combusted after being doused in green paint. Or was it the new 'green' fuel?

Minardi is purchased by Renault with a long term plan to field two full time teams, and creating a listening post much closer to Maranello. Problem is when they turn up to take posessions, Telefonica is inside with the doors locked stripping the place. And Pedro Diniz turns up with identical bill of sale papers insisting his family bought the team. Just as the arguement turns vicous, Luca di Montezemolo arrives with a set of signed Minardi bill of sale papers....

Young Mark Webber steps into the Benetton after Fisichella is injured ina shunt at Hungary. In a huge collision at La Source which involves more than half the field, Webber picks his way through the chaos to win Benetton first race since 1997. It's also the last with the team becoming Briatore the following year.

Ralf Schumacher arrives suddenly with a dominant wet weather win at Monaco heralding the return of Williams and BMW. Juan Montoya then surprises everyone by leading at Indianapolis until pulling over and retireing when the rain comes down late in the race. When questioned Montoya states plainitively that's what they always do at Indy when it rains.

It's announced that Jordan have taken their animal them tonew levels and Jarno Trulli unveils his new car nick named Cheetor. The idea is based on Beast War Transformer range of toys and Trulli's car ar change into a Cheetah, then into a metallic battle warrior if called for. Hopes are not high for Heinz-Harald Frentzen and his 'car', Waspinator. The whole idea is written off until Albert Park when Trulli's car dashes off to the Albert Park lake searching for springboks to stalk, while Frentzen's car performs the ultiamte act of humanity and stings Bernie eclestone before the big E dismantles Waspinator in true Waspinator fashion.

and the silverware?
Champion; Michael Schumacher
2nd: David Coulthard
3rd: Mika Hakkinen

Constructors: McLaren-Mercedes
2nd: Ferrari
3rd: Williams-BMW

[kenny]

Ok... I'll have a go...

Mika Hakkinen wil win the championship
DC will do better than last year, but will be troubled by bad luck...
Barrichello will not win a race...
by the end of the season... Mclaren will announce that Barrichello will join them... DC will join Jordan...
Montoya will do some amazing stuff, but no race win yet...
Fisichella and button will be a match for eachother...

and euhm... I will be elected new president of the FIA...;)
--> welcome back slicks!!! haha

[AD]

Michael Schumacher will be WDC, Coulthard will come second with Hakkinen third.
Montoya and Ralf will win their first grand prix, and Frentzen will give Honda their first win.
Arrows will actually prove to be competitive.
Ferrari will win the constructors championship, with McLaren 2nd, but Williams are lurking omoniously behind them with 3 wins.

[The Swerve]

Bernie will cut some sneaky deal, bail out Minardi, and they will make the grid for 2001.

[Linus27]

The Swerve

Don't be silly, that just won't happen, we don't get sneaky deals in F1.

[The RedBaron]

Ferrari & Mclarens will not be as dominant as in 2001, some surprise victories (2 or 3) for the Michelin teams (wet races)

WDC will be closely fought once again between Michael & Mika
with Michael just edging it in the final races. Rubens will finish a close 3rd winning 2 to 3 races. Coulthard will be huge dissapointment finishing a distant 5th with only 1 victory (France GP). The WDC will be won with less than 100 points.

Ron releases DC at the end of the season and signs Wurz as a replacement for 2002.

Mika decides to call it a day at the end of the season. His decision is prompted by an accident which he was lucky to come through unscathed. (realises family life is far more important)

Ralf and Montoya both shine, with Ralf (4th in WDC) just edging his team mate (6th in WDC) in terms of race results. Montoya involved in controvesary because of his aggressive driving, also begins his whining campaign..and loses some support from fans.

Panis surprises everyone and outshines his illustrious teammate both in qualifying and race results. Jax
negotiating move to Mclarens by mid-season as it becomes apparent that DC is being released. Mclaren to go for
JV/ Wurz line-up during 2002

Jordans fail to shine as do both its drivers. Huge dissapointment for Eddie & co as BAR becomes no.1 Honda team.

Ron continues with his war of words with Ferrari. Nothing new here. Ferrari remain silent as the results are forthcoming and don't find a need to reply.

Jaguar make little progress with the exception of the odd sterling performance from Irvine.

Traction control produces closer racing.

Sauber the surprise team of 2001, both young guns achieving
regular point scores (4-6th places)

2001 season more exciting than in 2000

Frans to start new campaign on Ferrari/ MS cheating...flexible floor boards.;)

[nigel red5]

Michael Schumacher will win the championship again (shame), and will probably equal/beat the 51 race victories of Alain Prost. Hakkinen will give him a good run for it, but will lose out at the final round.
BAR will score a lot more points than they did in 2000, and JV will make 2 podiums (Canada & Germany).

Montoya will beat the drum for Williams-BMW, and he`ll beat Ralf in qualifying for most of the races.
Prost will be the surprise outfit for the coming season, they have got key, experienced people covering all areas of the car now. The car could very well be one of the easiest cars to set-up, and in a wet Austrian GP Alesi will benefit.

At the back end of the season there will be more action off the track, rather than on it. The crux of the fighting, will have been initiated by Mclaren......who have been pushing for the re-introduction of active suspension since August `01.

The nutter who walked the course during Germany 2000, will make a return during the Nurburgring race. The Ferraris had their race spoiled this time, as they were 1-2 before he arrived on the scene. The nutter was seen holding a board, which stated that he thought (after his compensation) that he should now thank Mercedes and even everything out!

One last prediction.....the tapemaster will be on the case, and will have coverage of every practice/qual/warm - up/race during `01!!!

[senninha]

JV won't achieve the podium, again
JB will destroy GF
JPM will win for Williams

and

RB will be WDC !!!

[Indian Chief]

- MS wins the WDC again

- The AMT engine is hopelessly uncompetitve.:(:(

- Hakkinen retires, although I hope that he carries on atleast for 2002.

- Alesi retires

- Montoya turns out to be less than a sensation, regularly outraced by Ralf.

[ClashCityRocker]

Ferrari will announce that Rubens will have a chance to fight for WDC, then he won't for the good of the team, then he will, no,yes,no....

Villeneuve will outrace Panis with a couple of podiums
JPM will outrace Ralfie boy big time
Bernie will use some of his vast fortune to get a half decent haircut.

[man from martinlaakso]

pRy. I agree with you, except that I don't think, that Button will win his first GP in 2001 (it will happen in 2002). Montoya or the Junior Schumacher will win his first GP in F1.

There are several writers, who predict, that DC will be ahead of MH in WDC points. Come on, remeber that in 2000 DC was much more lucky than MH or MS. If his luck does not continue, he has no realistic chance to beat MH in a regular base, even if he might beat MH in the qualifications.

I assume, that the WDC title will be solved in Suzuka - as usual. I think, that MH has an edge there. Whether he will win the title or not, he will probably continue in F1 for a couple or more seasons. I don't see him quitting now. Why would he do so ? Of course if McLaren will be dropped so way back, that the car is no more competative, that might change the situation. MH is not motivated just to hunt a sixth place.

[Ned Dorsey]

Jaguar become a bitter disappointment, again. Rahal gets so fed up he fires Burti and Irvine and replaces them with himself and Jackie Stewart. They dominate the rear of the grid, constantly blaming traction control and the electronics for their poor performances. After all electronic systems are banned, they fail to qualify by several minutes. They then blame team orders, saying they each thought they were the number two in the team.

Panis goes faster than JV in the first practice session at Albert Park, but gets out-qualified by 1.4 seconds. Panis is happy though: "HHF was 1.7 seconds behind in his first race with JV, so I'm looking pretty good".

Jordan install handbrakes in the back of their cars for cornering as they experience 1996 all over again. "Eghbal's great...our cars are fifty km/h faster than anything else on the straight bits, it's just the corners are a little too curvy for our liking". The Jordan cars are also entered into every drag racing championship around the world, and set the first sub 4 second run on the quarter mile.

Prost continues to languish at the back of the grid. "We had the same people as last year, so it can't be them" Prost claims. Things took a turn for the worse when the Ferrari engines were tuned to play the Brazilian National anthem before grenading themselves whenever they went near a first corner. "Ferrari might have something to do with it, I saw them laughing a little when I offered them 20 million for the engines. When they said they'd waive the cost I should have cottoned on". Ferrari stated that it was money well-spent.

Zonta replaces Trulli after Trulli was mugged and injured during the New York Marathon. Zonta qualifies down in 15th, Frentzen 10th. "I just don't feel I have any enemies in the team. Everyone is too nice. It's very unsettling. How can anyone perform when you have equal status!".
Zonta roams around waiting for an overtaking manouvre, but accidently runs into Schumacher head on. "I got tired of waiting for him to come around". Schumacher was livid. "He did 20 laps going the wrong way. They should black flag these idiots". The incident makes news worldwide: Zonta becomes the first driver to be classified as "incident on 4th qualifying lap"

Renault have problems with their new magnetic engines, in particular with the engines collecting debris from the tracks. The cars rarely make it past the halfway point, with the most common cause of retirement being "stuck on overpasses". The cars also cause problems for Hakkinen, who has been revealed to be a robot after being found stuck to Button's Benetton during a pitwalk.

Coulthard misses out on the championship....by 40 points. He plans a new tactic for 2002: he decides he is going to be the tough man of F1, after failing as the hard man, the iron man, and the pull-over-for-team-mate man. Calls for him to adopt the title of Journeyman are dismissed as ridiculous. He did, after all, have a bad car in 1996.

Barrichello agains finishes a distant second to Schumacher in the championship. He states in the 2002/2003 off season "If I had the best car, Number 1 status, no serious title challengers, and a dog called flea, I could bring Ferrari a championship in five years time" His hopes were raised a little when McLaren again signs DC for a few more seasons to partner Irvine.

[Pikachu Racing]

Ferrari and McLaren continues their hold onto the F1 field. Michael, Mika and DC go for the title all the way. Come final race of the season, Michael ahead with DC and Mika few points away. Michael drops out and the McLaren's lead. DC refuse to let Mika go thus taking the win and the championship. Ron Dennis isn't happy with DC decision and fires him and put Alex Wurz in the car 2002.

Ralf vs Juan-PABLO - their feud will also eat up and split the team in half.

Renault gets to winning form with Jenson Button then Giancarlo Fisichella finally taking the win in Canada.

Despite the Ferrari engines, Prost woes continues

Arrows will shock everyone as they compete for the lead in few races

Jordan downfall continues showing another example how a good team can fall onto hard times

Eddie "the Shooter" Irvine continues on shooting, Rahal had enough of his big mouth and fires him. He immediately hires Dario Franchitti in result buying his contract from Team KOOL Green.

NASCAR driver Jerry Nadeau announces his intentions to race in F1 in 2002.

[Pikachu Racing]

NEWSFLASH: This just in....

Few months within his retirement, Murray Walker comes out of it and buys Minardi. He changes the name from Minardi to Murray and continues his shop in Italy where his buying of the team wasn't well recieved. His first immediate move as owner is hiring drivers Johnny Herbert, who just ended his F1 retirement and Jean-Christopher Bullion. With only two new chassis in the shop, Bullion crashes one thus leaving Herbert in the only Murray car. Come first race, Herbert crashes the only Murray car at the first corner in the first lap becoming the first driver to drop out first in three consecutive season debut races without completing a single lap in all three. Too much costs and too many damaged cars, Murray shuts down the team and goes back to retirement along with Herbert.

[b3nster]

Ok here we go:

At an early race, Coulthard, having done a 180 and praised Schumacher's ballzy moves at the end of 2000, will try a ballzy move himself. Unfortunately, Coulthard and Schumacher will have a lurid crash at high speed. Coulthard having used one of his nine lives in the plane crash, will not be as lucky, and break something, prompting Wurz to replace him for a good part of the season.
Hakkinen will look strong in the first half of the season, buy by midseason will be stressing out, probably because of a lack of sleep from the baby. Not given time off in 2001, he will find the pressure getting to him more and more, and will lose the cool facade. We wont see him crying behind a bush, but after a win we will see unusual emotion from Hakkinen. It will be his last season.
Schumacher will score a win in an early race, probably Interlagos or Imola, then will have a showdown with Barrichello in Barcelona or Montreal. Since Schumacher will not have had several wins yet under his belt, there will be a lack of team orders, and both drivers will nip at eachother, with Schumacher eventually accidentally tapping Barrichello out of the race. This will be a real accident, not a Jerez-97 affair. Schumacher will apologize profusely, but the relationship between the two will be strained.
With Coulthard injured the remainder of the season, Hakkinen will only win 3, 4 max, races. Wurz will step up and get a big win on a famous track, like Monaco or Spa. Other first time winners will be Fisichella (who will be chewed out by Briatore at the end of the year for slacking), Trulli (who will end up 4-5 in points, with several podiums and a win at high speed Indianapolis or Hockenheim), and Button (who will have a legendary dogfight involving Hakkinen and Villeneuve, with Schumacher out of the picture with a failure).
Montoya will not win, but will get a few podiums, collect points and finish in the top ten.
Frentzen will be the surprise of the year though, in a Jordan vastly improved at Eddie's demand. Frentzen will collect several wins, with the championship picture mainly between Schumacher, Frentzen and Hakkinen, with Wurz (like Irvine in 1999), Trulli and Barrichello as darkhorses in contention until the last 1/3rd of the season.
Villeneuve will again be consisten, besting himself with a pair of second place finishes, and giving Schumacher a run for his money at Sepang and Hungary.
In the end, Schumacher will collect his second straight WC, but Jordan will shock the world with the team title, McLaren will a poor year, considering the potential. At season's end, Hakkinen will retire and Coulthard, oddly enough, will eventually end up a Ferrari driver at the end of his career. Schumacher will stick around another year. Barrichello will fume and realize he must either a) outlast Schumacher at Ferrari, or b) replace a retiring Frentzen and go back to Jordan or replace a fired Burti at Jag. Kimi will be horrible, proving Button the exception to the lack-of-experience rule. All this, and Tyrell will come back to sport, buying a share of Minardi. Minardi and Prost will end the year with large corporate sponsors (most likely Coke or Mcdonalds), ebbing the financial slant of F1 teams. There will also be increased talk of Mid-Eastern and Russian grands prix, but nothing in writing yet. Michelin will make no large difference, as wont traction control.

[MuMu]

The gap between Ferrari and the rest of the field continues to increase, with Ferrari getting 16 pole positions and 14 wins.
At Spa, Hakkinen gets pole and wins the race, but is later disqualfied as the sponsors' logos on the two Macs are not the same size.
Rubens falls asleep at the wheel and spins of three times in one year, fortunately no-one is injured. He cries every time.
At Imola, there is a huge first corner pile-up that takes out the whole field except for the Ferraris and the Minardis. The race is not red-flagged, and the FIA defends the decision, saying that it was 'unnecessary'.
The FIA passes a new resolution whereby all stewards must have worked for Ferrari at some point in time.
Ron complains and Moseley tells him to F*** off to CART.

[SchuMic]

If only half of these predictions should come to be true then what a great season it will be :-)

But unfortunately reality should be less exciting...

Ferrari and McLaren will still rule over F1 but things will look more like the 1999 season with BAR, Williams and Benetton getting closer to the leaders and may grap some victories.

Schuey will be Champion again and Ferrari the Constructor champion. They will manage to keep their best men with Ferrari floatation.

McLaren will loose ground and DC will be more and more uncomfortable with the team. Bad luck, bad performance and too much talks. Hakkinen will be more concerned by his new father role and will want to imply more and more, doing additionnal babies ;-) And still DC will failed to take the opportunity that Hakkinen is lee motivated.

Williams will continue its ascenscion to the top with BMW. Ralf will have his first and well deserved win. Montoya will be good but to aggressive and will failed to overcome Ralf.

BAR will also confirm all the good they showed last season but it will come from ressurected PAnis. JV will have its hair shaved :-)

Benetton will get stronger and stronger, and get benefits from Renault involvement. Fisichella won't wake up and will be fired with style by Briatore. Button will be on podium a few times and maybe on the first step once.

Arrows will get very comptetive and fight amongst the best...some of the races while still suffering some reliability problems.

Prost will score a point..Or two. :-)

Sauber will be promising in the first half but won't follow the progress made by the others and will failed to be as good they seemd to be.

Lot of young future champions will test for F1 teams but non will make it to F1...

Wurz won't be back. Neither Zonta.

Jean Todt will leave Ferrari after his second champion title.

And Jaguar will be THE looser of the new century!

I can't wait to be in March!

Happy New Year to all!

SchuMic

[man from martinlaakso]

There seems to be many writers here, who predicts a clean sweep for Ferrari again in 2001. However, keep in mind, that Ferrari has earlier taken the both titles in the same year four times. Every time Ferrari has been unable to take any titles in F1 in the following year. So it is hard to get to the top and it is even harder to stay there.

[baddog]

mfm:

look at some charts of team performance in recent (last 25) years and you will see something very different about ferrari this time.. a sustained incremental improvement in performance, rather than a one off gimmick or driver/circumstance based quality. ferrari are finally probably the most soundly based team in f1.. anyone expecting them to be a flash in the pan is going to get a surprise.

Shaun

[man from martinlaakso]

Baddog, I think, that you are making too hasty conclusions. Keep in mind, that Ferrari has had the biggest budget for years, and that Ferrari is the only team, which owns a test track. Ferrari is one of few teams, which owns a wind tunnel (McLaren is using an RAF owned wind tunnel). Ferrari also has the biggest crew. And when you add to this list a highly professional tactical person like Brawn and an
excellent driver like MS, you have a very strong package.

Then you might ask for yourself, why oh why it took a so long time for Ferrari to take the WDC title (21 years). One reason might be, that the designers of the Ferrari car have not been at the same level as in Williams and McLaren. One reason might also be the intense political game, which is going on all the time. Ferrari looses sometimes also, because its secrets might go public untimely, because of the eager Italian press. The Ferrari drivers are always in a big turmoil of interviews, and this can disturb their concentration. McLaren can keep a lower profile and hit and run from the bushes.

You should keep in mind, that in 2000 Ferrari ans MS were should we say on the last beach : THEY HAD TO WIN THE WDC TROPHY. People had started to laugh to Ferrari and to some extent also to Schumey. So everybody did his best. In McLaren the situation was different. In the last 20 years McLaren had taken the WDC title at least 9 times. So it would naturally have been nice, if MH would have taken his third in a row, but it was not a matter of life and death like in Ferrar's case. In 2001 the motivation for winning the titles will be reduced in the Ferrari camp. It still exists, but the magnitude is now at the same level as it is in McLaren.

The regulations will be changed now pretty much, if we compare the situation in winter 1999-2000. The change will favour McLaren, because the designing of the car is one of the strong points, which has given McLaren an upper hand most of the time lately (not so much in 2000, however). Because Ilmor has left CART, the firm can concentrate to F1, and I predict the Ilmor engine to be the best in 2001. So after a super engine of Ferrari in 2000, we will come to a normal day order.

So when we sum all these groundings, the result is, that McLaren probably has an edge to Ferrari in 2001 at least for a couple of months. That might be enough for MH to get a decisive lead against MS, even if Ferrari would pull to the same level later. We shall see.

[Cociani]

Here I go for all its worth. The season will be noted for having more than 2 teams in a position to win races. Ferrari will win both championships. MacLaren will be close behind and struggling with BAR(no kidding). Bar will win at least one race and will have several podium finishes. BMW williams will also be very strong and consistant, they will be fighting it out with Jordan and Benneton. Benneton will be very fast but unreliable. They will come on very strong towards the very end of the season. Jaguar will be better than they were in 2000 and will be fighting for mid to back positions with Prost, Sauber and Arrows. Prost will be better than 2000 but not all that impressive overall. Arrows AMT will be unreliable at the begining of the season but will gain reliability and speed towards the end of the season and be a stronger mid pack contender. Because of such a short pre season testing regime Minardi, sadly will finish dead last.

Look for some spectacular drives from Jacques Villeneauve. Jacques will be quite motivated by the speed of his teammate Panis. Panis will generaly not outpace Villeneauve on race day but may outqualify him a few times. M.S. will be very fast and will make fewer mistakes; the pressure is off. Mika will not be as motivated as he has been and will retire at the end of 2001. DC will put in some great drives but will not be consistant enough to beat MS. Button will win a race towards the end of the season when the Benneton is more reliable. Either Montoya or R. Schmacher will win a race. Because the Prost is improved Alesi will have a better season and may even chalange for a podium at a wet weather race or Monaco. Trulli will be faster than Frenzen.

Well there you have it. I know I left out a great number of other posible stories but my shovel is only so big and my arms are getting sore.

[Mr Pink]

Schumacher to take the title, run close by mika
Jenson too destroy Fissi
Montoya to star in many races.
At least 2 on track clashes between Ralf and Montoya
Heidfield too show his class too, now not in a pile of shite
Arrows to have a stinker
Alesi to retire, leaving the prost seat free for a disulussioned cubehead

[Uncle Davy]

After the USGP, Tony George holds a press conference to complain that since Bernie "won't play nice and share", he feels compelled to protect the integrity of the sport and IMS' future autonomy by forming a rival series, to be called "Indy Formula One Racing Grand Epreuve Teams", or IFORGET.

Ticket sales for 2002 plummet, hotel reservations are cancelled, local businesses panic; under the weight of litigation and debt, IMS is plunged into bankruptcy. Bernie purchases the Speedway for ten cents on the dollar. His subsequent cancellation of IROC as a supporting event for the Brickyard 400 in favor of female mud-wrestling is hailed as a stroke of marketing genius.

The track is closed in honor of Memorial Day, and few notice.

[The RedBaron]

Yeah MFM, but the jinx must end just like the 21-year old itch!;)
So Ferrari for both titles in 2001

[fissijo]

Fisichella get's his debut win...
Schumacher gets the championship
Alesi retires

Joei

[Ricardo F1]

Schumacher wins title as once again Coulthard (2nd) and Hakkinen (3rd) take too many points off each other forcing Mika into retirement and allowing DC a decent stab at the title in 2002. Yes, again.

Rubens Barichello again meanders around each track 30 seconds back from the leading trio in every race bar one where a small rodent runs onto the circuit, gets zapped by a passing rogue laser beam from that darn new space station and mutates into a giant lizard which runs MS, MH and DC off the track allowing Rubens to inherit the race!! By some strange coincidence it begins to rain just as Rubens approaches the lizard which floods its lungs causing it to die and allowing Rubens to an 'amazing drive' because of his car control in he wet.

Jacques Villeneuve barks like a dog constantly at Oliver Panis until Oliver decides it's just not worth beating Jacques. They both score a couple of podiums.

Eddie Irvine is crap, yes again. Bobby Rahal decides to bring in a CART driver mid season who proves to be a whole lot worse. Eddie comes back and nearly finishes in the points in one race where 12 other cars drop out.

Montoya causes several pile ups, including a long running duel with Jarno Trulli to the crown for most in a season.

Button is called God by the British press and actually grows long hair and a beard to try and comply. 2nd is best the Benetton boy can do.

Prost, explosions, long story.

[BrundleBud]

Championship:

M.Schumacher
M.Hakkinen
D.Coulthard

(again)

Race wins:
R.Schumacher
J.Button

Biggest Gaffe:
Ralf sees Jenson in the pits and forgets that he moved teams, so drives through the pitlane without stopping

[Plancton9]

Minardi fail to qualify in Australia and retire from F1 for the remainder of the season vowing to return in 2002.

Both Ferrari and MxLaren have reliability problems toward the beginning of the season giving wins to 'lesser' teams before getting their act together. Between them, Ferrari and McLaren win the last 9GPs.

Arrows AMT is quick, they qualify well on the quick tracks and althogh reliability tends to let them down in most reces they get their first ever win.

Murray loses his voice while singing karioki at a farewell celebration and is unable to commentate his final GP.

BMW and Williams compete for 3rd in the constructors. McLaren and Hakkinen are bridesmaids once more to the Ferrari, MS combination.

[vroom-vroom]

There will be three groups:

Group 1: Usual first two rows and most wins: Ferrari and McLaren.

Group 2: Top half of the grid; possible odd race win; podiums: BMWilliams, BAR-Honda (Panis a big plus), and Benetton-Renault (Button will shine):

Group 3: Lower half of the grid; possible odd podium: Arrows-AMT (will do better than Prost with the same engine), Sauber-Petronas (still ticking like a Swiss clock but not going anywhere quick - driver lineup a bit wet behind the ears), Prost-PSN (will be as erratic as their bosses/organization - watch for fireworks), Jordan-Honda (slipping; loosing momentum and engineers), Jaguar (still rebuilding - weak driver lineup).

Irrelevant: Minardi (bye-bye)

[alain]

Originally posted by MuMu
The gap between Ferrari and the rest of the field continues to increase, with Ferrari getting 16 pole positions and 14 wins.
At Spa, Hakkinen gets pole and wins the race, but is later disqualfied as the sponsors' logos on the two Macs are not the same size.
Rubens falls asleep at the wheel and spins of three times in one year, fortunately no-one is injured. He cries every time.
At Imola, there is a huge first corner pile-up that takes out the whole field except for the Ferraris and the Minardis. The race is not red-flagged, and the FIA defends the decision, saying that it was 'unnecessary'.
The FIA passes a new resolution whereby all stewards must have worked for Ferrari at some point in time.
Ron complains and Moseley tells him to F*** off to CART.

Nice story.

Alesi will become champion,Räikkonen will be 2 and Gene 3.What you think about that

[cuckoo bird]

there are only two things that i look foward to.

who is better between Button and Fisichella

who is better betweem Ralf and Montoya

[cuckoo bird]

there are only two things that i look foward to.

who is better between Button and Fisichella

who is better betweem Ralf and Montoya

[bigblue]

World champ--Mika will win and retire.
2nd wdc--MS
WCC--Mac
2nd in WCC--Mac

BAR win will a race--JV
Williams will win 2 races--one each for RS and Montoya--JPM will be fast but crash alot-
Arrows will be fast a few times
DC will leave Mac at end of year
Button will kick Fissi's butt

[AyePirate]

Tom Walkinshaw's body found in a
Moscow car trunk

[Bell]

Rubens and Michael's realationship will become strained when Rubens becomes frustrated at being overshadowed by his teamate, he will swop seats with Trulli at the end of the season.

Mika and Michael will have a coming together

There will be some controversy surrounding MS

Ron Dennis will moan and groan re. backmarkers, FIA etc, etc.

Mika will announce his retirement

Button will get more than one podium but no wins

Ralf will be only non Ferrari/Mclaren winner probably a wet race.

Michael will win WDC
MClaren will win WCC

[Dsilence]

My prediction for 2001 is MH WDC
&
The pope will die...

[ASaSeN]

I predict montoya will win a race.

Michael will again dominate the season.

DC will again match mika,and mika will retire at the end of the year.

[madmac]

MS gets his 4th WDC begining a Ferarri dominant era which will ultimatley see MS pass Prost's record's. Ruben's Will be a distant 2nd in the WDC. Hakker's & DC will continue their fine tradition of robbing point's from each other, coupled with early season relabilty problems they nearly fall back into the clutches of the hard charging mid pack.....

Who of course are lead by Ralf, JB, JPM & Fisi who give us the best actual racing of 2002, of course this action is missed by TV producer's the world over who prefer to show us red or silver/black cars 20 seconds clear.

Jaguar & Bar squabble over whose lead driver has the bigger ego, but not point's. Sauber, Jordon & Arrow's all show some promise but fail to really shine thru in the end. Prost manage to fail even with a decent motor & end up slugging it out with Minardi who are using DFV's on loan from the Lotus collection. A strong rumour circulates the paddock that Mansell is to buy out Minardi & drive himself, but to no suprise all parties deny it.

As everyone seems to agree Alesi finnaly hang's up is lid & Max/Bernie continue to make themselves unpopular.

[John]

Alesi will have another spectacular crash (Trulli is one of his favourites to run together with), and it will scare him into retirement.

MH will be world champion.
DC will be 2nd
MS will be 3rd

Ferrari experiences many reliability problems.

Jag sinks further.
Jordan experiences no change from last season.
Williams is the up and comer as a challenger to the front. They finish as #3
Ralfie and JPM both win this year.

Rubens is lost in the shuffle.
BAR is the next challenger behind Williams finishing #4.

Panis outqualifies JV in Melbourne and Brazil, and JV wins at Imola.

[AD]

Originally posted by AD on 1/1/2001
Michael Schumacher will be WDC, Coulthard will come second with Hakkinen third.
Montoya and Ralf will win their first grand prix, and Frentzen will give Honda their first win.
Arrows will actually prove to be competitive.
Ferrari will win the constructors championship, with McLaren 2nd, but Williams are lurking omoniously behind them with 3 wins.

I wasn't too far out was I

[BRG]

Originally posted by ASaSeN
I predict montoya will win a race.

Michael will again dominate the season.

DC will again match mika,and mika will retire at the end of the year.

Yes AD, you did pretty well, but ASaSeN seems to have been pretty spot-on also. But I am glad that I didn't stick my neck out last January, 'cos I would definitely have egg on my face now!

[John]

My successful predictions:

Alesi retires (who cares why, so I was 50% right)
Jag sinks
Ralf & JPM win
Williams #3

but there's still one GP left and you know what Murray says....
"Anything can happen in Formula One and it usually does....."

[Cociani]

Originally posted by Cociani
Here I go for all its worth. The season will be noted for having more than 2 teams in a position to win races. Ferrari will win both championships. MacLaren will be close behind and struggling with BAR(no kidding). Bar will win at least one race and will have several podium finishes. BMW williams will also be very strong and consistant, they will be fighting it out with Jordan and Benneton. Benneton will be very fast but unreliable. They will come on very strong towards the very end of the season. Jaguar will be better than they were in 2000 and will be fighting for mid to back positions with Prost, Sauber and Arrows. Prost will be better than 2000 but not all that impressive overall. Arrows AMT will be unreliable at the begining of the season but will gain reliability and speed towards the end of the season and be a stronger mid pack contender. Because of such a short pre season testing regime Minardi, sadly will finish dead last.

Look for some spectacular drives from Jacques Villeneauve. Jacques will be quite motivated by the speed of his teammate Panis. Panis will generaly not outpace Villeneauve on race day but may outqualify him a few times. M.S. will be very fast and will make fewer mistakes; the pressure is off. Mika will not be as motivated as he has been and will retire at the end of 2001. DC will put in some great drives but will not be consistant enough to beat MS. Button will win a race towards the end of the season when the Benneton is more reliable. Either Montoya or R. Schmacher will win a race. Because the Prost is improved Alesi will have a better season and may even chalange for a podium at a wet weather race or Monaco. Trulli will be faster than Frenzen.

Well there you have it. I know I left out a great number of other posible stories but my shovel is only so big and my arms are getting sore.

Lets see, I was right about Ferrari's two championships and MacLaren finishing second. I was right about Villeneauve Vs. Panis and M.S. making very few mistakes. I was right about Mika seeming to lack motivation most of the season and retiring at the end of the year and I was right about DC putting in some great drives but not being consistant enough and right that one of the Williams drivers would win, both did. Trulli was faster than frenzen and Alesi may just yet get a podium.

I was wrong yes I was wrong about a number of things too. I suggested BAR would be fighting with MacLaren for second place:blush: and that Williams would be very consistant but implying not as fast as BAR, Maclaren and Ferrari. Wrong about Prost being fast and Arrows as well generally I botched up most of the mid pack predictions. Wrong about benetton being fast but unreliable though they have improved reliability towards the end as predicted. Oh and Villeneuve putting in some spectacular drives, really I can't think of any.

All and all I am not unhappy about my predictions, many did come true. Really I think I predicted more things than I expected to. This thread was a good idea. I hope we do this again before the start of next season.

[KinetiK]

1. Rubens get replaced at Ferrari
2. I get banned from Atlasf1.com for this (http://www.atlasf1.c...70&pagenumber=2)
3. Ferrari cars will remain that 'fake' red they have today.
4. McLaren will have a boring paint scheme.
5. Toyota wins a race. ...yeah right. I have no credibility anymore now, do I?