2016 F1 Predictions

[legion]

Pulled from my posterior:

Manor stays at the back of the pack.

Haas slots in just in front of Manor.

McLaren moves to the front of the middle group, occasionally challenging for a podium.

Red Bull blames their engine for not winning races.

Renault gets some podiums.

Sauber teeters on financial collapse all season, but stays the middle of the middle pack.

Toro Rosso outperforms Red Bull.

Force India implodes as a team, after Vijay Mallya disappears.

Ferrari wins some races.

Williams wins some races.

Mercedes still pulls off a constructor's championship, but not as decisively as the last two seasons.

Rossberg finally gets his butt in gear and fights more aggressively for wins.

After being dominated by Rossberg for most of the season, Hamilton finally gets his butt in gear at the end of the season, leading to nail-biting last few races, where Ferrari wins some races at critical points allowing neither Rossberg nor Hamilton to outright claim the title.

[tevake]

Well I do like the sound of your season prediction a lot better than my expectations.

The last couple of seasons I've only caught about half of the races yet don't feel like I missed much.

It would be fun to see some competition for the lead once in a while.

Cheers Richard

[5String43]

Mostly I like these predictions, but I rather suspect that Williams will go winless again this season. I hope that I am wrong.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Legion, I couldn't have predicted 2016 any better, some inspired guess work there

[Deschodt]

I like your predictions overall - the only one I doubt is Renault fighting for podiums this year. That would take a first corner pileup of biblical proportions, given how Mercedes and Ferrari will trust the top steps. + Williams (or whoever else) right behind. Hard to score a top 3!

I sincerely hope the Toro Rosso boys embarass Red Bull (Watch Sainz Jr, he was underrated last year vs Verstappen as the recipient of all the mechanical problems)... I also hope (tongue in cheek) that one of those Renault engines explodes near Helmut Marko and gets him in the good eye (while he's busy *****ing about Renault - sorry "Tag heuer" now)... RB is making noise that they hired really good subsystems engineers (The head guy from the Porsche 919 program just quit, I wonder if!!!!) and will be back bit mid season !

McLaren look reliable but still slow. I'm starting to think it's not just the engine. I expect a very lackluster year from them mid pack at best, and implosion from Fernando, plus retirement from Button. Same with Renault - ho-hum. Sauber can't pay the rent before the season starts, you know that's going to end well ! I suspect they will disappear this year.

Mercedes is still the class of the field, and while I hope Rosberg punts Hamilton into a tire wall to make a point and put up a fight, I don't see it.. Man I'd love to see Alonso in Rosberg's seat !

The only unknown to me is HAAS. They could totally suck as first year team - fair enough, or they could be a cinderella midfielder! I truly hope the latter !

[Tervuren]

I would expect Haas to outperform Saaber.

I think Mclaren is still reeling from a silver team hiring Mclaren's engineers away. They still won't know what they are doing. Honda has fantastic engine building capabilities, but Mclaren stupidly kept Honda from being able to cool their systems. This mean the Honda could never really stretch its legs for more than a few seconds.

Ferrari and Mercedes have both been developing their cars non stop, normally Ferrari gives up "to focus on next years car". I have a good feeling that the shift to continual development for Ferrari is going to yield better results. They are using the races as their test bed. Problem for Ferrari - Kimi has an unlucky cloud that follows him.

Renault is a mystery to me.

[Jeff Higgins]

I would dearly love to see Williams continue to improve, someday recovering to the level of their former glory. Not a prediction, just dreaming... I would also love to see the oddball McLaren/Honda package come to fruition and stomp Mercedes into sauerkraut. Again, just dreaming. And, while I'm dreaming, I would like to see Kimi have one last good year, and I would like to see Hamilton's head explode, no longer able to contain his ego. In my perfect F1 world...

Back to reality. Chris, I think you have likely called it pretty darn close.

[David]

So... what do you think they thought this new qualifying system would do? I don't think it worked out quite the way they expected.

[cairns]

Legion your posterior is pretty smart.
Qualifying results for Australian GP:

1. Hamilton (Mercedes)
2. Rosberg (Mercedes)
3. Vettel (Ferrari)
4. Raikkonen (Ferrari)
5. Verstappen (Toro Rosso)
6. Massa (Williams)
7. Sainz (Toro Rosso)
8. Ricciardo (Red Bull)

Eliminated in Q2
9. Perez (Force India)
10. Hulkenberg (Force India)
11. Bottas (Williams)
12. Alonso (McLaren)
13. Button (McLaren)
14. Palmer (Renault)
15. Magnussen (Renault)

Eliminated in Q1
16. Ericsson (Sauber)
17. Nasr (Sauber)
18. Kvyat (Red Bull)
19. Grosjean (Haas)
20. Gutierrez (Haas)
21. Haryanto (Manor)
22. Wehrlein (Manor)

[javadog]

The new qualifying format sucked. Predictably, Bernie is already railing against it. I don't know if the system is that bad, as most of the teams screwed up their timing. Almost no team got that right, which is a bit of a mystery. It was really odd to see the two Merc guys give up with a few minutes to go. Rather odd.

I think Haas will do a lot better than just staying in front of Manor. I think they'll have the speed to run around 15th, if they don't shoot themselves in the foot.

JR

[bell]

I predict I will stop watching all together if they don't eliminate the new qualifying format. .......how embarrassing. .....wtf....

[James Brown]

^^^^^^^WTF is right, 300 bucks to watch that from the grand stands? not me. Put all the cars out there or one at a time, but not this

[bell]

I've been a longtime follower of f1....since senna.....
A lot of friends hate it now, I always defend it and the technology. ......amazing stuff......
However, they changed the rules/cars to create a better"show", and this one particular format has absolutely killed the sport imo, they need to go back to last year's qualy format immediately. .......it was a perfect system, anticipation, excitement, positions being swapped quickly in the final minutes......it's the only way having 3 sessions works....
If they want to do the elimination system then run one session, 30 minutes long, eliminate 1 team between 20 minutes and 8 minutes left every 60 seconds, the last 8 minutes no more eliminations and there's your top 10......
They went the complete wong direction........I've never used the term jumping the shark, but that is exactly what they did.....

[nostatic]

I predict that the old quali system will be in place by the next race. That was an embarrassment. Not that F1 hasn't done that before, but they accomplished the exact opposite of their stated goal. And no cars on track for the last 4 min of Q3?!?!? That was insanity. If I had paid for tickets I'd be demanding my money back (albeit to no avail).

[bell]

It is being reported that the new elimination system is done, it needs to formally go before the fia for approval.....but I hope what I read was accurate

[bell]

F1 set to return to old qualifying format for next race | FOX Sports

[URY914]

I DVR'd it and I'm watching it now.

[nota]

monza is threaten for 2017

[legion]

I think the new qualifying system sucked. I'll be glad to see it disappear.

I gave it some thought, and the problem is this: Even if teams straighten out the timing issues, it is highly likely to catch some fast cars out. Think about it.

Let's say Grosjean is on the bubble, Hulkenberg is a place above him, and Button is a place in front of Hulkenberg. The clock starts ticking on Grosjean. His team has this sorted out and he is on a flying lap. He crosses the line with 50 seconds left and improves his time, moving two places out of the danger zone. Hulkenberg, whose team anticipated this, is also on a flyer. He crosses the line 10 seconds after Grosjean and also moves up several place. Now Button is on the bubble with 40 seconds. He is in the pits because his team thought he was three minutes from needing to be on a flying lap. He doesn't have time to get on track, get around to start a flyer, and finish the lap in 40 seconds. So he sits and takes his place. This is what we saw a lot of in qualifying last weekend.

In order for this format to work, all of the cars need to be on the track the entire session, which means no low fuel loads and no review of laps in the pits.

Under the previous rules, even if a few cars sat out, we never saw Q3 go the last 4 minutes with no cars on track...

[regency]

I used to watch, I used to know the drivers & what teams, I used to think about F1....


1973 911 T MFI Coupe, Aubergine

Steve