It's much too early to take a guess at next year's winner. Who would have been predicting Button or Barrichello at this time last year?
Its too early but if Massa is back, I dont see Alonso getting that many points as Massa wont be his #2. Maybe Alonso will be Massas' #2. When Massa finishes ahead of Alonso next season, it will shut a few up in here. Those same Alonso fans were thinking he would come to Ferrari and have another piquet type driver to back him up. Oh yea baby....there will be some fireworks at Ferrari next year. Cant wait for Alonso to start throwing the toys out of the pram.
With no refueling and the same crappy aero rules from this year it is going to be a boring season. The driver that qualify well is going to win the most races. The cars are going to be too heavy to make passing moves early on in the race. Pit stops will be lightning quick without refueling. So there will be little change in order due to pit strategy. Who will win the championship??? The team that has the best handling car with a full load of fuel and does not eat the tires up quickly. a car that gets longer life out of there tires will spend less time in the pits and more on the track.
Every point is spot on. I wouldn't discount Mclaren or Brawn quite yet (the former for spending tons of money in aero development and the latter for proper tire management.)
+1 I think it will be a battle Hamilton - Alonso - Massa, advantage for Hamilton due to the Mercedes engine's low fuel consumption. I don't think that Vettel / Red Bull and Brawn will play a role in the WDC fight... their benefit from the double diffusor loophole and the big teams struggling with KERS will be gone.
+1 Also, with the refuelling ban, it will spice things up more. Plus, i think both Rubens and Button won't be in a Brawn next year.
Will McLaren be running a Merc engine next season? Red Bull didn't have the advantage of the 'double diffuser' early in the season and were still strong. The KERS teams will not have the KERS problems, but neither will they have the extra horsepower! It should be interesting.
The presumption is that McL WILL be using Merc engines. There was some idle speculation (I emphasize the word speculation,) that they may try to do a deal with the engine division of the departing BMW team. There seems to be a lot of problems with such a scenario, but it's out there. Lewis Hamilton just recently expressed his wanting to get this season over with because he feels the work they've done on the 2010 car is far and away superior to the MP4-24. But, as you rightly stated, it should be quite interesting.
+1 The refueling ban is great, will spice things up more, is a start towards returning to the older 60s - 70s simpler rules, making F1 again something worth watching.
and it might persuade some of the drivers to actually try to pass one another on occasion, rather than using pit stop strategy as an excuse not to bother.
Kimi will be WDC at Brawn. If not Kimi, then Vettel at Red Bull. Alonso will NOT be WDC at Ferrari. Carol
On many occasions Kimi has said that the Ferrari does very well when full of fuel. So next year either Kimi will do well because he can drive heavy cars well, or FA/FM will do well because the car handles well under heavy fuel. Remember, no refueling next year. Cars will be 800+ kilos at the start.
to some extent, however, there's other alternatives that exist that might be more fruitful even if the monetary amount is not as significant as others - depends on what you want...he's already stated he wants a car that will win him a championship, so is McLaren going to tell Lewis to forget it chap don't even try to win...think not and I don't think Lewis would want to do that - the Brawn car has been quite good this year - Button does not have a contract for next year and it's a given that Nico and Rubens will swap locations - Kimi would stand a better chance for a DC with Nico as a teammate Carol
I would love to see Vettel take the title, I'm sure he will more than once in his career. It will be a great season when he's finally at Ferrari. I'm not a huge fan of Alonso, but wish him luck with Ferrari...mostly because I'm just pulling for Ferrari. Time will tell though, so it really is too early to make any guesses.
FOP SURE both drivers won't be there next year. Even if JB wins, he definitely did not win in style or with any dominance first 7 races excluded.
interesting as a link posted on another thread shows a photo of Button with the caption reading Button linked to possible Toyota move I thought since Kimi only wants to go where he can win, Brawn was one of the best of a couple options - intrestingly Aquapuss remarked yesterday McLaren, or Brawn - he knows what he's talking about regarding Kimi. Carol
Wonder if the last two races will be high speed tests of 2010 concepts. Webber seemed to be doing lots of data accumulation last race. There at the back of the field. 5 stops and all.
