Rob Dylan wrote:2015 will be a repeat of 2007 except with the roles reversed.
I doubt so, simply because Nico Rosberg won't challenge Lewis Hamilton anymore. As I have said on the chat more often than not, whomever would lose the 2014 title would basically become the David Coulthard to the champion's Mika Häkkinen. Hamilton won, and therefore that will happen. Incidentally, it has this same "no team order, really, but..." undercurrent towards Lewis. History sure repeats itself.
I agree, but only in this case. If the roles were reversed I am sure Hamilton would come back to it. Lewis is the faster driver and every year he becomes more consistent. He now knows he is faster and that he can beat Rosberg in the course of the season so the title fight will not be so lively.
Colin Kolles on F111, 2011 HRT challenger: The car doesn't look too bad; it looks like a modern F1 car.
Rob Dylan wrote:2015 will be a repeat of 2007 except with the roles reversed.
I doubt so, simply because Nico Rosberg won't challenge Lewis Hamilton anymore. As I have said on the chat more often than not, whomever would lose the 2014 title would basically become the David Coulthard to the champion's Mika Häkkinen. Hamilton won, and therefore that will happen. Incidentally, it has this same "no team order, really, but..." undercurrent towards Lewis. History sure repeats itself.
I agree, but only in this case. If the roles were reversed I am sure Hamilton would come back to it. Lewis is the faster driver and every year he becomes more consistent. He now knows he is faster and that he can beat Rosberg in the course of the season so the title fight will not be so lively.
I see the situation panning out as being similar to Vettel and Webber after Vettel's first title, i.e. Hamilton could be dominant over Rosberg and it remaining ambiguous over whether Rosberg is being held back by the team to Hamilton's favour or whether he develops an inferiority complex.
DanielPT wrote:I agree, but only in this case. If the roles were reversed I am sure Hamilton would come back to it. Lewis is the faster driver and every year he becomes more consistent. He now knows he is faster and that he can beat Rosberg in the course of the season so the title fight will not be so lively.
To be honest, I don't believe Hamilton is mentally strong. A driver whom's psyche is so weak that he can have a year like 2011 is not mentally solid enough to blow what I consider to be the only assured shot at a world title and not get away with some mental scars in a sport where you can afford none. This year was make-or-break for both of them. Ultimately, Rosberg broke, so this argument is admittedly moot.
Klon wrote:To be honest, I don't believe Hamilton is mentally strong. A driver whom's psyche is so weak that he can have a year like 2011 is not mentally solid enough to blow what I consider to be the only assured shot at a world title and not get away with some mental scars in a sport where you can afford none. This year was make-or-break for both of them. Ultimately, Rosberg broke, so this argument is admittedly moot.
I see your point, but Hamilton had two advantages in case Mercedes mechanical troubles had hit his car instead of Rosberg's in the last race: a) He was already a world champion and b) He could at least still believe he was the fastest by having won almost twice (in the fictional scenario) the races Rosberg won. As it is, Rosberg has none of those and logically his future prospects at a World Championship title don't look great next year.
Colin Kolles on F111, 2011 HRT challenger: The car doesn't look too bad; it looks like a modern F1 car.
Well, HERE'S a prediction for you: the title will go down to the last race again, because Rosberg didn't and won't suffer literal psychological trauma from losing 2014.
Hamilton will still win, of course.
Rob Dylan wrote:Mercedes paying homage to the other W12 chassis by breaking down 30 minutes in
UgncreativeUsergname wrote:Well, HERE'S a prediction for you: the title will go down to the last race again, because Rosberg didn't and won't suffer literal psychological trauma from losing 2014.
Now the third and final test has finished, I thought that I'd open this up again to predict the early pecking order in this year's championship (best to worst):
Mercedes - Their testing performance is ominous for all the other teams. They completed the most laps and often were at the top of the teamsheets despite doing long runs and using harder tyres. The Mercedes still seems to be the best engine by a long chalk. The only question that remains seemingly is just how big will the chasm to the other teams be?
Williams - Posting the fastest time on the final day seems to me to be a statement of intent. Williams have a very good base to build off of in term's of last year's car and Bottas is going to be full of confidence after such a strong season last time out. Massa too seems very relaxed. As above, the Mercedes is still seemingly the engine to have (look at how it has helped Lotus) and they will be keen to come out all guns blazing as the pace of their development might not be able to keep up with the likes of Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren.
Red Bull - Difficult to say where there car is pace-wise, so I'll use a double-negative and say that it can't not be fast. Red Bull are the most innovative team on the grid and with their camouflaged car they seem to believe that themselves. They now have a year's experience of how to package the Renault turbo unit and ERS into the car so they should be more reliable (unless Newey has been super stubborn). I'm not expecting Kvyat to come flying out of the blocks as he's still pretty inexperienced but Ricciardo will be champing at the bit.
Ferrari - The big question is whether their pace is genuine. The drivers have made good noises about the car, unlike last season. Vettel and Raikkonen both seem refreshed after suffering last season. However, you can understand why they may have had the need to run fast laps in testing, what with the number of heads they rolled last season. I still can't help but feel that their engine is the weakest.
Lotus - They seem to have come on leaps and bounds. It appears that Lotus really did write off last season to focus on this year, perhaps unsurprising considering last season was their last with Renault. Gone is the hopeless twin-pronged nose and in are far more elegant ideas and solutions. In short, they are far more prepared than last season and have not really experienced any major problems in testing.
McLaren - An absolute disaster so far, but I can't help but feel that they have something up their sleeve. Honda are throwing money at this McLaren partnership and will expect results quickly and when the cars have been out on the track they have done OK considering the power limitations that the cars have been running at. The paddock indications are that they have a fundamentally fast car if they could only work out how keep it running!
Toro Rosso - Nothing much can ever be expected from Toro Rosso but their main hope is that they've been pretty consistent throughout testing and the drivers seem comfortable. Both Sainz and Verstappen have huge expectation on their shoulders given there are big question marks over their right to be in F1 and they will be pushing it to the max (sorry for the pun), which could end in impressive results or carnage.
Force India - It was a bit of a surprise that their car was released so late and the whole situation has a wiff of the Lotuses about it. Did they overstretch last year in order to fight for 5th place in the WCC? If they did, they are certainly suffering now and from the very limited running of the new car there is nothing to suggest that they will be plumbing the heights of early 2014. Getting the slight impression that Hulkenberg is becoming a little disillusioned with F1 too, giving his interest in running in Le Mans.
Sauber - Oh dear. Quite clearly trying to run fast laps on super soft tyres to attract sponsors but not even really succeeding in that. They've likely get the least money on the grid and also what looks like the least ambitious design team. They were cut off from the back of the grid last year and they may be even further away this year.
watka wrote:Ferrari - The big question is whether their pace is genuine. The drivers have made good noises about the car, unlike last season. Vettel and Raikkonen both seem refreshed after suffering last season. However, you can understand why they may have had the need to run fast laps in testing, what with the number of heads they rolled last season. I still can't help but feel that their engine is the weakest.
I actually believe Ferrari engine is the second-best engine on the grid. Maybe they already were last year. They appear to be the most improved engine even taking Mercedes into account (Sauber results will confirm that as they aren't looking as far off the pace as last year). If Honda is the worst on account of reliability, you have a good picture on the engine pecking list.
Colin Kolles on F111, 2011 HRT challenger: The car doesn't look too bad; it looks like a modern F1 car.
DanielPT wrote:I actually believe Ferrari engine is the second-best engine on the grid. Maybe they already were last year.
So you mean between an engine that was absolutely awesome and an engine that was undeniably underperforming, the third option out of three was the second best? What a shocking observation!
DanielPT wrote:I actually believe Ferrari engine is the second-best engine on the grid. Maybe they already were last year.
So you mean between an engine that was absolutely awesome and an engine that was undeniably underperforming, the third option out of three was the second best? What a shocking observation!
There wasn't much between two underperforming engines. And seeing that both Lotus and Toro Rosso managed to do better than Sauber and that the Ferrari apparently had a good chassis, it is not so easy to pick smartass!
Colin Kolles on F111, 2011 HRT challenger: The car doesn't look too bad; it looks like a modern F1 car.
So with Manor getting Mercedes engines, I'm making the prediction that Manor-Mercedes will beat McLaren-Honda next season.
Is it too early to make avatar bets for next year?
Murray Walker at the 1997 Austrian Grand Prix wrote:The other [Stewart] driver, who nobody's been paying attention to, because he's disappointing, is Jan Magnussen.
Rob Dylan wrote:So with Manor getting Mercedes engines, I'm making the prediction that Manor-Mercedes will beat McLaren-Honda next season.
I don't think so. They might beat someone but McLaren-Honda will be a lot stronger next year. You heard it here first.
Well, you would hope that it would be hard for them to do much worse than they are now, although I wouldn't be surprised if McLaren finish outside of the top six in the constructors championship in 2016. McLaren are still yet to announce that elusive title sponsor that Ron Dennis has been talking about for a long time, and they have admitted that they are expecting a budgetary shortfall for 2016 due to their poor performance this year - it does sound as if McLaren are still going down the long and painful road that Williams started all those years ago as they fell from grace.
Martin Brundle, on watching a replay of Grosjean spinning: "The problem with Grosjean is that he want to take a look back at the corner he's just exited"
Rosberg will be the next Barrichello. Having missed his best chance at getting the title, he'll spend a few years in the comparative wilderness before suddenly getting another good car, and will then proceed to blow it and his teammate will get the title.
Murray Walker at the 1997 Austrian Grand Prix wrote:The other [Stewart] driver, who nobody's been paying attention to, because he's disappointing, is Jan Magnussen.
Rob Dylan wrote:Rosberg will be the next Barrichello. Having missed his best chance at getting the title, he'll spend a few years in the comparative wilderness before suddenly getting another good car, and will then proceed to blow it and his teammate will get the title.
Rob Dylan wrote:Rosberg will be the next Barrichello. Having missed his best chance at getting the title, he'll spend a few years in the comparative wilderness before suddenly getting another good car, and will then proceed to blow it and his teammate will get the title.
But with more hissy fits and less blah blah blah
I'm a big critic of Rosberg, although I think he's good I don't think he's as good as some people believe. However, I don't think he's prone to 'hissy fits' if my definition is the same as yours. Sure, he cannot hide his feelings as Hat-Gate and Standing-Around-On-The-Austin-Podium-Looking-Pissed-Off-Gate shows but I think those actions are justified under the circumstances. The way he handled losing last year, finishing the race and all that shows that not all achievements are measured with trophies.
