Just over a month away.
Prediction:
Lewis Hamilton for another WDC!
Just over a month away.
Prediction:
Lewis Hamilton for another WDC!
Bold predictions:
McLaren will win at least one race and beat Ferrari in the constructors.
Verstappen wins his first WDC.
Leclarc and Vettel hit each other and Ferrari continues with bad strategy calls
Lewis skates to another WDC, while Bottas underperformed late in the season
Verstappen fights for the WDC, but loses his cool in the second half of the season
Mclaren Podiums
Alfa Romeo-Kimi podiums one race on his farewell tour and Gio puts it into the wall every other race
Alpha Touri fires one of their drivers mid season
Race Point, Haas, and Renault continue to disappoint (Ric takes a close look on how to get out of his contract)
Williams financially closes the doors after 2020
Seb recaptures his spirit, and drives an error free season to beat Lewis, Charles and Max, who are fighting for second place.
Na, just E36 M3tin you. Lewis worries all season, and wins comfortably. Seb retires. Danny Ric tries to get the Ferrari seat, but they buy Max. Danny goes grovelling back to Red Bull.
Haas is the first to release it's 2020 car- https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/28645499/haas-offers-first-glimpse-2020-f1-car
Given they were the team with the biggest drop off from '18 to 19, seems that the early release means they really, really want to forget last year.
I do expect the Mercedes to still be the top car, even with them and Ferrari hinting at not being all that great. Ferrari's lowballing their chassis aero problems may not be real, but Red Bull's indication that they fully plan on protesting the prancing horse is likely to be a real problem.
I think Williams is going to climb out of the bottom- IMHO, the real problem was Paddy Lowe, and once he left, the indications seemed a lot more realistic, and they did improve a HUGE amount last year. Just not enough to be 18th on a speed basis.
McLaren podiums or Zach Brown is out.
Alpha Tauri does nothing significant.
Alfa and Renault? Alfa goes with the Ferrari engine- so they look to be in trouble relative to the rest of the field. Renault may be in better shape than we give them credit for.
Racing Point focues too much on the son, and they still struggle.
Haas does fix their problem from last year, but the Ferrari engine puts them fighting with Alfa wherever that ends up. If the engine ends up being ok, I still get the feeling that Haas' ability to focus on the specific parts they make vs Sauber doing more of the car means Haas beats Alfa and Haas should have the better chance of getting the magical podium.
I agree that Paddy Lowe somehow destroyed Williams. That plus I heard a rumour that many men at Williams just don't want to work for a woman as in Claire Williams.
Whatever it was (or is) I think they will get back to the upper midfield this season. Russel seems to be really good.
McLaren will podium as Renault finally get their power systems figured out. As such when Hamilton and Bottas stumble somewhere along the way Renault Ricciardo will get a win.
Ferrari I am not saying much about as I think they will continue to crumble due to infighting and internal politics.
I'd love for Williams to have a good year.
I would like to see Lewis win 10 races and the WDC then declare that he's going to Ferrari for 2021
Merc showed their new livery over the weekend, with new title sponsor Ineos.
This partnership was announced a while ago, but it appears that they are a pretty minor player for the F1 team given their pretty small space on the car. And by small I mean relative to the bike team and the America's Cup team- where they are totally the number one sponsor.
For the F1 car, a small strip of maroon on the intake and the inside endplates for the front wing is it for Ineos. In terms of square meters of coverage, seems about the same as Epson.
In reply to alfadriver :
I think while presence on the car is still important, the real key of a modern sponsorship deal is getting the cars and drivers into your social media ads. As in watching Hamilton talk about the environmental conscious science at your facility in xyz. Etc. Those rights might bring better value than car surface.
With the "Stability" of the regulations for this year, it is gong to be a close season all around. Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull will again be the top 3 but wins more evenly spread between the three teams. We will see Leclerc gain the advantage over Vettel and keep it this year. Hamilton will again be top dog, and Verstappen will be in the hunt from the beginning.
Mid-field battle is going to be heated. McLaren and Renault will be battling for 4th spot, each with podiums to their name. Racing Point, Haas and Alfa x2 will be in the next group with Williams better but still at the bottom. I hate saying that, but realistically they still have alot of work to do. They will score more than 1 point but maybe not enough to get out of the bottom. Claire will be relegated to Name of Car only with a new Managing Director taking point to drive Williams forward for 2021.
I can't wait for another exciting year of Ferrari stepping on their own dicks as Mercedes-AMG takes the championship while talking about how big of a disadvantage they have to SF 
It's interesting that lots of folks seem to dog on Mercedes regularly saying they're worried about Ferrari but end up beating them regularly. Along the same lines, the consensus seems to be that Ferrari's issues are in team management more than anything else. I wonder if Mercedes knows Ferrari has a good car and is always worried that if they ever figure out their management stuff, they'd be a serious competitor, hence Mercedes constant mention of being worried about Ferrari?
My prediction is Hamilton takes another title, Bottas 2nd again. Ferrari and Red Bull duke it out for 2nd. McLaren 3rd, Renault 4th, basically like last year.
I hope Ferrari decides LeClerc is #1 and unleashes him on Mercedes and he gives Hamilton a serious run for the championship, like right up to the wire. That McLaren is quick enough to give Red Bull a run for 3rd, Haas gives Renault a run for 4th and Williams tops the rest of the field. It won't happen, but I wish it would.
-Rob
It will be interesting to see whether the fuel flow sensor situation ends up being proven. Ferrari sure seemed to lose a step last year after the rules clarification, although that could have been the nature of certain tracks, too.
There's only one team on the grid that knows how to win championships, really. And they have a driver who is currently at the top of his game. That's tough to beat.
I fully expect LeClerc to pick up a few more wins this year, and Max should be good for a couple. LeClerc vs Max vs Bottas might get interesting at times if those guys manage to get into a three-way scrap. But I think the driver and constructor wins are going to stay where they've been for the past few years.
It's do or die time for Vettel. If he continues to step on his crank, he'll probably end up retiring this year. That'll definitely make the 2021 driver shuffle more interesting.
Mike924 said:With the "Stability" of the regulations for this year, it is gong to be a close season all around. Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull will again be the top 3 but wins more evenly spread between the three teams. We will see Leclerc gain the advantage over Vettel and keep it this year. Hamilton will again be top dog, and Verstappen will be in the hunt from the beginning.
I’m not really into F1 predictions since there are way too many variables and questions. That said . . .
Agreed re the "Stability". The teams with problematic cars should have them sorted better this season. Tires “should” also be figured out by the teams that did not do so last year. The effect of those 2 things would likely be the field bunching up some. That could be good if the cameras show that action. Or, it could be messy.
I think the questions are:
Mercedes: have they developed enough to maintain their lead over the other’s developments? Will Hamilton “worry” about everything? (Probably) Will Bottas be Bottas 2.0?
Ferrari: will they continue to step on their own . . . uhmmm . . . horsey parts? Re Vettel, Hamilton has not rented space in Vettle’s head – he owns vast acreage in it. Also, it looks like Leclerc is at least a renter with an option to buy. How will Vettel address that?
Red Bull: has Verstappen really grown up or will he still be Vercrashen and Verwhinen again? Will Albon push him like Leclerc pushes Vettel?
Racing Point: has the Aston Martin purchase taken away from the race team? Will they give Perez good support/equipment or will the son get that?
Renault: is the car fixed? Will Ricciardo step back up if it is? Will Ocon be to Ricciardo what Leclerc is to Vettel?
Haas: Grosjean?
McLaren: are they spread too thin?
Alfa Romeo: will Räikkönen at least podium on his farewell tour?
Alpha Tauri: who? Will they remain behind Red Bull or Romeo? Of course to either one
Williams: will they sort out their various issues?
I think Hamilton "worrying" is part of how he motivates himself. He likes the pressure to make himself perform just that much better. There were a few years there where he didn't win any races after the WDC was decided because that pressure was off.
LeClerc as a renter with an option to buy, that's good :)
Keith Tanner said:I think Hamilton "worrying" is part of how he motivates himself.
Agreed. He understands himself enough to know how to stay on top of his mental state. He needs the parties and travel to get his mind off of the racing business to avoid over stressing. And he seems to need the "worrying" to keep him and his team from feeling like they got the season locked up until they do.
Much better than the emotional and performance rollercoaster he used to ride at McLaren.
Keith Tanner said:I think Hamilton "worrying" is part of how he motivates himself. He likes the pressure to make himself perform just that much better. There were a few years there where he didn't win any races after the WDC was decided because that pressure was off.
LeClerc as a renter with an option to buy, that's good :)
Yes, and it is also more like keeping his thoughts to the business at hand and making sure everything is handled as it needs to be. It just comes across as worrying.
Tip your waiter and try the veal.
Ferrari SF1000! Can't say the livery is much of a change :) But it does look like not being allowed to run as a two-stroke required some real changes. Did they lose their power advantage?
An 'extreme' version of last year's car with tighter packaging, optimised suspension, higher downforce levels, a change in engine architecture & the combustion chamber to cope with the oil consumption being reduced by half for 2020.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
That is, of course, if they still have it by the time the season starts:
I don't think that's something that's actually going to happen, of course, but I find it pretty funny regardless.
You should try reading the Mission Winnow website. It'll make your brain bleed.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
It was Ducati who first brought it to my attention, but... Yeah. I figured it was a marketing failure to realize that "WinNow" doesn't work because "winnow" is a word, but it's apparently even weirder than that... Given that PMI feels they're getting enough reflected glory at the bottom line to justify that, can there be any question that advertisement is scarily effective?
The McLaren looks great, but that could be the livery talking.
AlphaTauri car is sharp. I like it.
But I thought from the rules changes reviews that for 2020 the driver number would be just a flag poking our of the rear engine cover. Instead it seems like everyone just has a sail along the spine of the rear engine covers.
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