142 replies to this topic

[EddyCurrents]

I think the Pirelli tyres will make a great deal of difference. Jenson has an advantage when the car is almost at odds with the orthodox compared to Hamilton. This was evident at Albert Park, Shanghai and Monza. So if the tyres suit the 2009 WDC then he could very well push Lewis even harder than in 2010.

Absent team errors and attacks by wayward RB's he really would have placed higher in the WDC than his teammate. Jenson tends not to make signifiicant driver errors.

JB was very consistent in the races and often managed to haul himself from lowly qualifying positions into contention with his team mate. If he can qualify closer to Lewis on a consistent basis, then the battle between the two of them will be very interesting.

[marcoferrari]

JB was very consistent in the races and often managed to haul himself from lowly qualifying positions into contention with his team mate. If he can qualify closer to Lewis on a consistent basis, then the battle between the two of them will be very interesting.

We all are waiting for some consistency in terms of performances from Jenson for about 11 years... Aren t we? Nothing has changed... He has only his 5 to 7 tracks, where he can be a real danger to Lewis, but that s all I doubt he will be any better in qualifying, that was most of the time since he is in F1 his weakest point...

Edited by marcoferrari, 13 December 2010 - 09:23.

[velgajski1]

I can see that this is a British message board. Really people, voting for Hamilton by rote erodes any credibility that may exist.

I think that Vettel will be an even more dominant winner in 2011 with the RB07 and Webber of course delivering another constructors title. The German driver is the quickest in the world and will be an even better driver.

Adrian Newey is the ultimate weapon and Vettel has stated his aim to beat ten pole positions. 2010 flattered f1 because of RB07 problems he had first with mechanical reliability and then a damaged chassis wihich allowed Webber to have a fairy tale summer.

There isn't anything more moronic than 'British bb' comments. Maybe most people really think that Hamilton is best in F1 and thus give him biggest WDC odds, maybe not whole world is deluded but you are

P.S. I'm a Hamilton fan, think he is best in F1, but I voted for Alonso.

And in a 'british bb' Button would definitely get more votes than Massa which he didn't in this one.

Edited by velgajski1, 13 December 2010 - 09:29.

[Mekola]

I expect Vettel to repeat. With most clear opposition of Hamilton and Alonso.
I don't think Webber will be allowed again to battle against his teammate.

[bauss]

I can predict Red Bull will have a very strong car, but I think its premature to assume they will have the clear fastest one again. For one thing, its another year...regardless of Neweys genius, he is going up against two great teams in Ferrari and Mclaren (perhaps add Ross Brawn/Mercedes), he is not gonna keep destroying them year after year. Another thing, new tires.... those can easily work for one car more than the other. We saw a glimpse of that with Ferrari going fastest in the Abu Dhabi tests...

Its gonna be close... most likely btw Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton....Button might also show up strong if he keeps his consistency and the Pirelli tyre degradation plays into his hands... also the rear-wing thing would likely result in more crashes, which could easily benefit a risk averse Jenson.

My heart says Hamilton, My head? hmm... Mclaren making the right noise (which they always do of late), but assuming they deliver a roughly equal fastest car to Redbull/Ferrari, my head also says Hamilton. I believe he'll beat any of the other elite guys in equal machinery over a season. The rear-wing thing could also play into his hands more often than not.

Edited by bauss, 13 December 2010 - 11:42.

[barni]

I declare that Vettel is the quickest driver because he still extracted more from the RB6 compared to his teammate and remember during the summer the German driver raced with a damaged chassis which allowed Webber to be quicker and win. Also he is achieving numbers only reached by the greats of this sport. How good he is will take time to assess but out of all the top drivers he is still the least experienced.

For me the inkling we had just how good he was, was at Monza in 2008. The greatest qualifying performance for me since Schumacher was Q3 at Suzuka 2009. Phenomenal. I share Bernie's idea of the current f1 dream team: Alonso and Vettel. of course it would be an impossible sitation for any team

relax, man. i didn`t react at your previous posts, but now it`s too much.
tell me, please, how you rank bourdais performance in the other torro rosso, with more fuel on board, that day. i remind you the guy was 4th on the grid.
don`t you think that this might have had something in common with some adrien newey`s participation in upgrading 2008 torro rosso cars, that were, by the way, very quick in wet conditions even without it?

now, after 2010 rbr title saga, i`m sure that it was also pr project to back in the second half of 2008 torro rosso instead of rb main team with 2, let`s say, "retired" drivers in order to promote the young gun, "baby schumi", to elevate the selling numbers of some energy drink.
who is better advertising platform vettel or maybe webber?
the answer is easy.

and this talk about broken chasis is just pathetic, vettel admited he had had problems with throttle operating until some changes were made in engine electronics.
that`s right, he was fractionaly faster, mainly in qualifying, but he also enjoyed last run advantage most of the time, you must admit. and we all know qualifying is all today,.
so i would recommend you to wait a while with comparing him to senna.

[TennisUK]

Massa will leave at the end of the year due to being bored (and humiliated) with the (current official non-tacit) relaxation of team orders. Kobayashi will fill the void at Ferrari for 2012 - evoking the spirit of Alesi and Villeneuve in 2012 ;)

[WhiteBlue]

The team mate battle in the Betfair odds after the first testing day. The market was 61 k€ at that time.

Vettel, Alonso and Hamilton are all predicted to comfortably beat their team mates. Rosberg vs Schumi is the exception.

Edited by WhiteBlue, 02 February 2011 - 18:24.

[MichaelPM]

WDC: Alonso
WCC: Ferrari

It will be a fight mainly between Alonso and Massa but the entertainment will come from the snot nosed kids of F1, Vettel and Hamilton, as things fail to go exactly how they want and we hear lots more radio messages from them whining to the pitwall as they battle each other in close fights. This will allow the more reserved Webber and Button to keep their heads down as plug away to take advantage of their teammates hot headed mistakes. Vettel will be favoured again by the team in more obvious ways to try and reduce Webbers lead and the same will happen in McLaren as Ron can't help but get more involved to help Hamilton.

Massa will unfortunately trail Alonso a little and end up being more concerned with fighting Kubica who ends up taking a close 3rd behind Massa, Luca publicly compliments Kubica on his determination and skill which sets off big rumours about him taking Massa's seat, this eventually becomes true as Massa gets Webbers seat in RBR unfortunately but at least its a top team. Webber having left RBR stating he felt the team had would not give him equality.

[apoka]

The team mate battle in the Betfair odds after the first testing day. The market was 61 k€ at that time.

It seems that McLaren is slightly falling back behind Ferrari and Red Bull in those odds.

[phil1993]

The way I see it is that Vettel only just won the title in the best car, but equally I think he'll be a much better driver this year. So I'm not sure how to judge that exactly. Webber I think blew his best chance last year and won't compete for the title this year. Hamilton was only 16 points behind in a less than great car so he'll be up there but I personally believe that Alonso can win it this year. I mean he was so so close to the title in the 2nd/3rd (whatever your opinion/fanboyism is on that one) car and he's more suited to the Ferrari team this year. WCC I think will go to McLaren.

[Afterburner]

After the Abu Dhabi race last year, I figured Red Bull and Vettel would either dominate this year or end up behind the rest of the frontrunners. I'm beginning to think they'll have the best car again, so I'm leaning towards Vettel earning a second WDC in a successful title defence.

Just for fun, I also predict that all of the following will happen:

- We'll see a driver be issued a questionable penalty which will tear the forum into two distinct camps over the issue.
- Silver cars will score six or more podiums throughout the year.
- German and British drivers will score a combined total of more than five-hundred points.
- We'll see a driver win his first race, or we'll see a driver win his twelfth race.
- Only twenty of the drivers that start the season will compete in every race.
- Massa will move over for Alonso on track more than twice.
- We'll see a car retire from the lead due to a reliability issue.
- Hamilton will complain that his tyres have gone off too early.
- On track during a race, Kobayashi will pull off an overtaking maneuver on a driver who wins a race or has won a race in 2011.
- No driver who isn't racing for the 2011 Constructors Champions will win more than four races.
- A driver from Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, Renault, or Red Bull will win a qualifying battle against their teammate that they lost the previous year.

I'll be maintaining this list to see how many of these come true. Should be an interesting experiment by the end of the season.

Edited by Afterburner, 03 February 2011 - 20:45.

[AlanWake]

I hope Alonso & Ferrari

I think Vettel & Red Bull

[WhiteBlue]

The pecking order will be Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari this year and all the #1 drivers will comfortably pull away from their team mates. So by the middle of the season the it will be Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso, Rosberg due to Ferrari using hidden team order from Monaco. After public riots in Brazil Massa will reveil that his head injury is still giving him much trouble and will retire with a secret severance package from the red cars.

At the German GP Montezemolo will be announced as the next Italian president. His first legal action will be a switch of all official cars to Ferrari and Maserati. Domenicali will be fired half way through the season and Aldo Costa will be promoted to head the gestione sportiva in a desperate attempt to prevent him messing up the 2012 car. At the following race Ferrari have a catastrophic failure of pressure to the air guns and Alonso sits two minutes in the pits before his tyres are changed. After much public outcry heads roll at Ferrari. Costa and Dyer are dismissed. Ferrari secretly approaches Gerhard Berger to take over the team running. He takes his new role at Monza and announces a five year plan to bring Ferrari back to glory.

On track Red Bull and Vettel are fighting with Hamilton and Rosberg for the championship. Webber is 85 points behind Vettel and decides to call it a day. His fans show conclusively by comparative CoG analysis that he would have seven world championships by now if he had the same physical attributes as Michael Schumacher. Webber promises to publish a book revealing all his secrete 27 accidents which led to him racing his entire career in pain.

Red Bull and Vettel seal the championships in Korea. The Interlagos race is cancelled due to the ongoing Massa riots in Brazil. Abu Dhabi sees a massive rear wing battle to get into second place for the penultimate lap. Rosberg manages to come through and beats Alonso to take the last victory of the year.

[Hole]

Williams and Renault fighting for the championship. Mark my words, save them for good use.

[FlatOverCrest]

I go with Alonso for the WDC and Red Bull for the WCC

[JosTheBoss]

Webber and Red Bull. I think consistency will be Mark's key - less victories than finger boy, but more points finishes.

[plastik2k9]

Jaime Alguersuari will win the WDC, having discovered that pressing KERS, ARW and the pit limiter button at the same time enables a hidden turbocharger feature and disables tyre degradation.

[Alfisti]

Very tough year with KERS and especially new rubber. I think the top 3 will remain the same with Renault a clear 4th and Mercedes in a complete meltdown in 5th or even 6th. The top 3 are hard to pivk, I suspect the McLaren to be the least consistent from track to track but at some races untouchable.

If pushed i'd back Vettel again for WDC with Webber to retire. Hamilton to again show Button a clean pair of heels and Rosberg again beats Michael easily.

[goldenboy]

my feelings on the poll are button, webber and yes also massa way underrated and kubica very overrated (for him thats reflection on the car not his talent)

[OO7]

The way I see it is that Vettel only just won the title in the best car, but equally I think he'll be a much better driver this year.

My prediction is that he'll be a double world champion come seasons end.

[Senna1Forever]

I vote for Hamilton.
It's time the fastest driver to dominate this sport.
He is the best and most skilled driver in my opinion.Also is the most fun to watch driver.

[KavB]

I think this will be Alonso's season. His 3rd title is overdue, and I think he'll finally manage to win it. I also see Massa improving a lot, and will fight for the title. The WCC will be much closer than last year because of this.

[DILLIGAF]

I will open my predictions by saying that Ferrari will not have the fastest car in Bahrain. They are only good at copying what others invent and that will be increasingly difficult with restricted resources in 2011. Red Bull will once again have the fastest car initially. Mercedes will catch up with the other top teams but their genuine deficit in simulation technology will not be compensated next year. They will once again be the tail end charlie of the top teams.

Having the fastest car the media attention will again focus on Seb Vettel and Mark Webber. Seb will put his experience to good use and will have less reliability problems with his car. Ann Neal will continue to over sell Mark Webber and will finally piss off everybody in the paddock with her sniping. Horner will detach a bimbo to record everything she publicly says in the paddock. They will catch her telling an Australian mate that Mark's RB can really contains a special bug juice formula that she invented and sold to the royal navy. She will be banned from the paddock and retreat from public life to prepare the ultimate Mark Webber book that will conclude his racing career at the end of 2011.Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso and Rosberg will all dominate their team mates with Alonso by the highest and Rosberg by the smallest margin.

By the first European race in Barcelona Alonso will start throwing his toys and demanding team orders. By Silverstone he will demand that Ferrari dismiss Massa's race engineer Smedley for not delivering the traces of Massa's qualifying runs online to Fernando's race engineer. Massa will get crucified on a Brazilian airport when he visits his wife and children for the summer break. Ferrari will loose the Monza race again to Toro Rosso.

McLaren will finally launch their MP4-12C for the twenty fifth time at the magic round about in Swindon and will finally deliver the car to customers. They will simultaneously announce their new F1 engine for 2013 which will have the most revolutionary MAGnetic Internal Combustion Kinetic Energy Recovery System (MAGICKERS). Martin Whitmarsh and Ron Dennis will be wearing pointy hats and wands at the final launch.

Vettel will be champion again and everybody will say that he knew it before the season.

Is Ann Neal an ex-girfriend of your's WhiteBlue? You sound like a gilted lover!

[Stormsky68]

I predict the season will be very close until RB are the subject of some type of technical ban and Alonso and Ferrari take the titles by a whisker.

We will then have 3 years of arguments on here over accusations of FOM / FIA title manipulation.

Meanwhile Bernie laughs all the way to the bank.

[Owen]

I predict the season will be very close until RB are the subject of some type of technical ban and Alonso and Ferrari take the titles by a whisker.

We will then have 3 years of arguments on here over accusations of FOM / FIA title manipulation.

Meanwhile Bernie laughs all the way to the bank.

Yes, you know the drill.

[metz]

I predict the season will be very close until RB are the subject of some type of technical ban and Alonso and Ferrari take the titles by a whisker.

We will then have 3 years of arguments on here over accusations of FOM / FIA title manipulation.

Meanwhile Bernie laughs all the way to the bank.

..Yes. No doubt.

[Mastah]

Just for fun, from various threads. More to come...

Well it seems someone is gonna look a bit silly come Bahrain. Beating Virgin and HRT sure, STR maybe; Sauber, Force India, Williams .... - no way in hell. I'll gladly eat my hat if they do though. [Lotus]

It was about first race, which was cancelled, but still Yes. No need to eat hat.

I dont buy that PR bullsh1t, not one bit. If they are the 4th best team, I'll be shocked. They'll be fighting over positions 8 to 10 at best. [Mercedes]

Yes. 7th and 11th in quali, 5th quickest car.

[CaptainJackSparrow]I'd say its:

1.Redbull/Ferrari
2. LRGP
3. McLaren?
4. The rest

The Merc is a turkey.

I mark your words. Mercedes will kick LRGP ass. Again.

No.

James Allen is right Mclaren do need time to sort the car out. The Mclaren is complex, loaded with technology and has handling issues.

But all the other teams developed cars to be ready for Bahrain. Woking mission control clearly understood that the Mclaren didn't need finishing until the Australian race and so this is why the front wing isn't finished yet and why we will now have plenty of time to start the season on pole.

No.

But from what I've bee seeing, come Melbourne Q3 I wouldn't say Ferrari has an extra 0.5 to pull out of their sleeves. [over Mercedes]

No. Ferrari > Mercedes in Q3 by 0.447 (almost 5 tenths ).

im gonna stick my neck out here and say there will be a macca in the top 3 come aus!

(...)

....im probably completely wrong but its fun to speculate!

Yes.

Heres my prediction: Williams will outqualify both Mclarens in Melbourne.

No.

And by the way, Mercedes is NOT faster than Ferrari, get over it. (you can laugh at me freely if they are faster come Saturday)

Yes. No laughing.

[THE "driverider"]

1. Vettel
2. Hamilton
3. Alonso
4. Button
5. Webber
6. Rosberg
7. Massa
8. Heidfeld
9. Barrichello
10. Schumacher
11. Petrov
12. Kobayashi
13. Sutil
14. Buemi
15. di Resta
16. Perez
17. Alguersuari
18. Maldonado
19. Kovalainen
20. Trulli
21. Glock
22. d'Ambrosio
23. Liuzzi
14. Karthikeyan

The top 5 will be close all staying into the title chase til the end, the next four will form a group (I want Massa to do well but I just cannot see it) and Schumacher will round out the top ten (Same as Massa).

[MclarenManiac]

2011 prediction?

[velgajski1]

Heart says Hamilton/McLaren, mind says Vettel/RBR.

[MclarenManiac]

Heart says Hamilton/McLaren, mind says Vettel/RBR.

Vettel/RBR has the clear advantage at Q.I'm not sure if they have the clear advantage in the race.
Vettel has the best car.Mclaren and Ferrari have the best drivers.
RBR>Mclaren/Ferrari
Ham/Alonso>Vettel.
So let's see.

[abc02]

If Vettel's race pace this evening is as good as his qualifying pace, then I think the championship will just be a formality for him and RBR. We know he'll be collecting poles like stamps, so the key for him is to avoid any mishaps and convert those poles into wins.

[Kubiccia]

Mastah, Sauber is the 5th team(atm) as Kamui's Q2 lap is faster than any Mercedes' quali lap.

[Disgrace]

2011 prediction?

Time to pick apart the autopsies that were our predictions.

Edited by Disgrace, 27 November 2011 - 18:21.

[boldhakka]

We all are waiting for some consistency in terms of performances from Jenson for about 11 years... Aren t we? Nothing has changed... He has only his 5 to 7 tracks, where he can be a real danger to Lewis, but that s all ...

[Meanbeakin]

I actually did one over at f1fanatics, time to see how I did:

1. What will be the best surprise? Nick Heidfeld winning a race WRONG
2. What will be the worst surprise? DRS (Drag Reduction System) causing a major accident WRONG
3. Which driver will be replaced first? Liuzzi WRONG
4. Who will he be replaced by? A sack of magic beans WRONG
5. What will be the biggest political story? Controversy over the DRS WRONG
6. How many races will McLaren win? 4 WRONG
7. Will Mark Webber extend his Red Bull contract before the end of the season? Yes CORRECT
8. What will the Horse Whisperer’s first complaint be about? Massa's form I THINK WRONG (It was about not being able to have 3 cars right?)
9. What will Michael Schumacher’s best result be? Victory WRONG
10. Who will crash out of the most races? Pastor Maldonado PRETTY SURE WAS WRONG
11. Which team will have the worst reliability? Team Lotus PRETTY CLOSE TO CORRECT (Looking at the retirements)
12. Which rookie driver will score the most points? Paul di Resta CORRECT
13. Which will be the most entertaining race? Brazilian Grand Prix WRONG
14. Who will set the most pole positions? Vettel CORRECT
15. Who will win the Monaco Grand Prix? Vettel CORRECT
16. Who will be the first retirement at Melbourne? Perez WRONG
17. At which race will the drivers’ title be won? Brazilian Grand Prix WRONG
18. How many points will the winning driver score? 278 WRONG

5ish out of 18, pretty rotten!

[Fastcake]

Also something Hamilton/Alonso/Schumacher does will end in endless controversy

YAY! WOOOO!!!!

That one was hard

[muramasa]

I voted now

Sorry but couldnt help

[Kubiccia]

Poor Hamilton/Mcldaren fanboys, always deceived.

Face reality and be prepared for another Red Bull fest in 2012, as hard as that is.

I'm a Schumi/Kubica fan but I already know they won't be fighting for WDC next year as they won't be driving a Red Bull.

[Afterburner]

So let's see...

- We'll see a driver be issued a questionable penalty which will tear the forum into two distinct camps over the issue. (We saw several. )

- Silver cars will score six or more podiums throughout the year. (Easily met, though remember, at the time, neither Merc nor McMerc were doing too hot in testing.)

- German and British drivers will score a combined total of more than five-hundred points. (Vettel had something like 75% of this total. )

- We'll see a driver win his first race, or we'll see a driver win his twelfth race. (Check. Vettel and Button both passed/hit 12 wins this year, I believe.)

- Only twenty of the drivers that start the season will compete in every race. (Check.)

- Massa will move over for Alonso on track more than twice. (Didn't happen, though likely because Alonso wasn't fighting for the championship.)

- We'll see a car retire from the lead due to a reliability issue. (Almost didn't happen until Abu Dhabi, even though that was after two corners. )

- Hamilton will complain that his tyres have gone off too early. (Surely it happened at least once this season? )

- On track during a race, Kobayashi will pull off an overtaking maneuver on a driver who wins a race or has won a race in 2011. (Can't remember if this happened. He got Alonso once, didn't he?)

- No driver who isn't racing for the 2011 Constructors Champions will win more than four races. (On the money with this one.)

- A driver from Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, Renault, or Red Bull will win a qualifying battle against their teammate that they lost the previous year. (I don't think this happened unless we count Petrov, lol.)

So I guess I wasn't too far off with most of these, though I think I played it a little too safe.

[Tifosi4ever]

I voted now

Sorry but couldnt help

Me too

I got both questions right.

[CrashPad]

Oh dear, I wasn't exactly on the money with my predictions......Keke Jr winning the title, Williams being the best of the rest etc
Well at least in real life I had 50€ on Vettel winning the WDC

And I still got two of my predictions right:

Virgin wont be much better than this year.
Raikkonen will drive for every team in the silly season 2012 rumors.