Doing away with the token system means that Renault and Honda can completely scrap their old engines and start from a clean sheet of paper. Mercedes have much less to gain, so the other engines should be much closer. The Red Bull and Torro Rosso cars were both very good last year, let down by underperforming engines. If Renault can produce a good engine, Red Bull should be title contenders and Torro Rosso might surprise. The McHondas seemed to be about 4th or 5th best team by the end of last year despite the worst engine. If Honda produce a competitive engine, I expect McHonda to be fighting with Ferrari for 3rd in the championship. Ron Dennis may be gone, but McLaren have a very strong technical department and don’t seem to be in disarray like Ferrari, so they should be able to produce a decent car. Force India and Williams are hard to predict. They won’t have the resources to keep developing their cars like the richer teams, so it will be important for them to be competitive at the start. I expect Torro Rosso, Williams, and Force India to be fighting for 5th through 7th in the teams championship.
Hamiltion seems a bit mentally fragile. When things go well, he is breathtakingly fast, but he seems to lose focus easily. It will be important for him to dominate Bottas from the start, otherwise I suspect he will go back to tantrums and sulking. Bottas’ early performances with Williams were very impressive, so I suspect he will be much tougher than many Hamilton fans assume. Alonso and Ricciardo both seem to be mentally much tougher than Hamilton. They both have to cope with fast teammates, but I don’t think they will suffer the slumps that Hamilton seems to suffer from. Hamilton has got to be favorite for the title, but I expect Bottas, both Red Bull drivers, and possibly Alonso to win races and challenge for the title.
