Evidently not! 102 days 19+ hours to go before Australia http://www.planetf1.com/news/3213/8307763/Herbert-Button-Could-Win-2013-Title Mine are: Vettel - WDC(strong baseline car to start with) Mclaren - WCC Dark horse - Button per the link above. Would be nice to see him win another title.
Some other predictions: - Pirelli will throw in a curve ball by messing with the rubber compounds thereby invalidating this year's performance baselines and mixing it up at the start of the season - Ferrari will role the dice and design a substantially different car for this year - McLaren will get on top of reliability and will do a better job of converting potential to points - Adrian Newey will remain a genius so RB will continue to dominate - Mercedes will win more than one race and Hamilton will best Nico - Massa will suck and will finally depart the team - McLaren will replace one driver at the end of the 2013 season... - HRT will be gone - The season will quickly become a 2 or 3 horse race for the WCC at which point all other teams will switch focus away from developing their 2013 cars and dedicate more track time and resources to developing 2014 contenders
For a McLaren WCC, they'd need two strong drivers - I doubt they'll be in that position with Perez. For the WCC, I see the Vettel/Webber pairing as the dominant one. The WDC IMHO has a lot more question marks.
Interesting points! I wonder if Perez could surprise JB and be stronger. He certainly has the fire to take risks.
- Vettel for the WDC - Massa's last season - Nico will become a foot note - Lettuce will toss more carbon fibre in laps 1 - Sauber leapfrogging MB (hey, at least that's my dream) - No German GP and no French or Turkish GP instead either, just a longer summer break We will have another season with multiple winners: - Vettel - Alonso - Hamilton - Kimi - Webber (Remember him? He is that other dude next to Vettel) - Perez - The Incredible Hulk
Bernie will come through with races to cover those gaps, maybe- and if it goes as you post TV ratings will soar again with multiple winners!
I hope that Lotus can built a stronger car (no, not front wing wise) for Kimi and he can mount a serious WDC challenge. If they hire Kob or Lettuce boy I don't think they'll claim WCC even if their car is by far the fastest. I'd hope they won't hire LB though. You have to say that Red Bull once again look good for a double title as I don't think any special devices are banned from this season as there weren't any serious ones to start with. That said...on to the next one > Mclaren have a phenomenal car, it's just hugely unreliable. They have a good driver in JB and Perez (the latter can get a bit...excited, so to say, which can gain or cost point equally throughout the season). They lost their star driver who got more out of the car this season than JB did but ended on almost equal points due to his car going wrong more. If their car is reliable I can see them also mount a strong challenge for the WDC title with JB taking it. I wouldn't want to count out Ferrari, but it really depends if they can sort their car out and if the Cans or Mclaren don't have cool tricks in their new car. I hope Massa will beat Alonso, or at least gets a fair chance to do so. If he is as quick as he was in the last quarter of this season we can certainly see Alonso whinging and crying. God I want to see that happen ASAP. Mercedes are looking promising again and will mount a strong challenge for both titles. Their car has been going backwards since 2010, especially in the 2nd half of 2012 when it seemed they crashed through a detergent factory on top of the Andes. Surely the only way now is up as that team can't sink much lower. They've started their very own super engineering team making sure that they have the very best and everyone else gets the losers. Neener neener. Also, they hired no one else but Hamilton, the black and british equivalent of Cole Trickle. This team is going to blow everyone else into oblivion. Sauber to beat Mercedes.
Let it be written that 2013 will proceed as follows: Maldonado will continue to ruin everyone's day. He will have a brick thrown at him before the end of next season. Ferrari will slip to 5th place, and I will tell you why. Ferrari are using Toyota's wind tunnel while Ferrari are upgrading. The logistics of such an arrangement will cause more down time for Ferrari than other teams. I thoroughly believe Ferrari are evolving F2012 which may not have much further to go in terms of development potential. F2013 will feature revised internal cooling but will be nothing special as Ferrari wasted entirely too much time making F2012 work. Much of Ferrari's data is based on their previous wind tunnel which we know is flawed because it birthed F2012. If they're just now catching on to really go hard with using an accurate wind tunnel then I can easily see problems. Bold, I know. Lotus, 4th. Mclaren will run a close 3rd not due to their cars but due to their drivers, unless Perez is a phenom which I can see happening. Red Bull and MB will fight for top honors. That is bold, I know. I believe the dream team have something special coming for W04. MB have the finest wind tunnel and simulator on the grid now, and I believe the only technical team who can compete engineering-wise with Adrian Newey. Someone gloat later if I'm wrong. No worries, I'm a good sport.
Ferrari had a terrible choice to make last May, continue developing F2012 to an evolved model in 2013, or trash it and go with something else. While all this is going on, their wind tunnel data is questionable. They pulled off a miracle with F2012 but I'm really failing to see how much further this concept of theirs can be strung along when Red Bull and Mclaren are out there with a completely different concept kicking their behinds with it.
So who here believes Ferrari will evolve F2012 or have a clean sheet for 2013. Or I should say, who cares if F2012 will be evolved believing it doesn't matter if Ferrari do either development, clean or evolved.
I agree with all except I'd swap McLaren and Mercedes. I expect vast improvement but I think MB needs one more year before they are fully sorted.
Evolution. They have to devote resources to 2014. By race 8 or 9 they devote the rest of the year to the next car for 2014. Im betting every team has a schedule where they pull the plug early on development. Too much will be changing for the future, for 2013 to be a risk of substantial resources. Now I could of course be very very wrong lol!!!
Way too early to predict. but since we like to speculate then retract then go boldenly against the tide till the end here's mine: 1. Force India will win constructor's cup 2. Shumi will retract his retirement 3. There will be a Hate Massa thread milestone: 10,000 posts 4. Bernie will get a higher piece of the F1 Pie only some of these may be true.
i think Ferrari may finally get it right have win it all next year. I also think LH and Mercedes may be very strong. It's easy to pick red bull, and i almost did it, but I think just based on statistics it's hard to 4-peat as a champion and run the table like they've done. I expect Mclaren to struggle. Jenson isn't the qualifier Hamilton is and Sergio is still young and has much to learn. So I'm picking: 1. Ferrari 2. Merc 3. Lotus 4. Red Bull 5. Mclaren
- Bernie will develop dementia - Hamilton will release an LP - Kimi will be asleep under a table - Massa will cry again - Karthekayen will go to hell
We all may see this, but the car was sound and fast at the end and should give them something strong to build on. Reliability if improved will make them a strong force if the drivers can deliver.
wow! here they are ending 2012 with the quickest car of the season but I could see what you're talking about happening without a driver like Lewis there. Shephards pie and chimichanga may place Macca in obscurity for a while. I can't believe no one is thinking about Ferrari's 2013 car! F2012 needs a massive revamp in the other direction as that concept just doesn't quite work compared to say Mp4-27. Ferrari made it work, but it is clearly a very fickle system as it just didn't want to work 'everywhere'. If Ferrari have a clean sheet for 2013, expect them to not have their hands around it for 6-7 races as they will indeed be playing catch-up again. If they evolve 2012, they can only hope and dream they repeat 2012s success but I don't believe they will.
