🙂

Not long now. My money’s on Lewis. Might be able to get some good odds

I’m going for Alonso as a wildcard as Mclaren will nail it! 😉

Max for me.

Mr Newey will have found the magic bullet in the new regs and trounce everyone! 😀

And Nico will only finish in the WDC top three if Merc have a car that is a lot better than anyone elses.

Really looking forward to seeing the new cars.

Redbull to come back strong, but Dan and max will have a massive falling out around Monaco and whichever one comes out on top of that will challenge Lewis for wdc.

I have watched every GP since late 1993; despite a lifelong motorsport fan I have really lost my mojo with it. The only times I watched this year were the first and the last, and I gave up half way through.

I actually find it reasonably interesting, but I can’t get excited about a race for third, and I can’t commit 2 hours 21x a year on the off chance a race for the win breaks-out.

I vote Mercedes are banned for ruining it.

ATMO the status quo will remain, there won’t be any big gains on the front runners. Honda will draw a but closer, but will still be down on power, as will Red Bull.

My money is on Bernie finding his precious before the nasty bagginses.

Essentially new engines from everyone next year so the staus quo on that front could be altered somewhat.

And I want Liberty Media to announce a subscription streaming service so I can dump Sky! 😀

They’ve pretty much dumped the rules preventing development as well haven’t they? So the other suppliers can effectively copy all the good bits of the Merc. engine so should close the gap a lot – enough that it should be a lot more down to the chassis. Fingers crossed that there are multiple different cars fighting for the win every weekend.

They’ve pretty much dumped the rules preventing development as well haven’t they?

Yep – stupid token system gone – free for all now. But only 4 engines per year, so updates can’t come every race like the old days.

Much less reliance on a car which looks after its tyres well too, with the tyres being much more robust. Allegedly.

Hopefully next year’s regs will spice things up a bit.

I think it will be a Redbull – merc showdown in 2017.
Merc with build an epic engine and RB will build an epic chassis and aero meaning they will both have tracking playing to their respective + – points.

I know that sounds obvious but I can’t see any other challengers. Ferrari – meh. Williams/FI/ TR/McHonda etc will all be midfield and squabble for 5,6,7,8,9,10 places though the year.

I guess pretty much the same as late 2016 🙂

Next year has the potential to be very exciting – new regs, new tyres, closer racing, and some very good and exciting drivers who can overtake. If Redbull and Ferrari have caught Mercedes, then it’ll be between Hamilton, Verstappen, Ricciardo and Vettel. If not, it’ll be Hamilton and Rosberg again, and I don’t think Rosberg will win another championship – he lacks that killer instinct IMO.

Hopefully not just that they’re new, but that they won’t have the same “designed in” thermal degradation which stops the drivers from pushing. Not that I’m sure I believe everything they say about it being totally deliberate how the current tyres behave.

My money is on Bernie finding his precious before the nasty bagginses.

😆

Proper racing tyres next year for the first time since we had V6 turbos before?
Should suit Lewis, Max and a couple of the noobs closer to the back I imagine. And probably the Red Bull and McLaren chassis.
Can’t wait.

Agreed, I think Red Bull are going to smash it next year. As much as I’d like it to be Daniel Ricciardo my money would be on Max Verstappen coming out on top

Actually, what engines are Red Bull running next year?

Renault? masquerading as something else.

Renault again (badged as Tag Heuer).

Not bad. I reckon the extra development will make it a good engine for next year. If they let Red Bull have the updates!! 🙂

Here’s my suggestion to liven up the races:

Each driver is given a prawn phall and two pints of Guinness before getting in the car and has to complete a full race distance before getting to use the kharzy. Soiled shreddies at the end of the race = disqualification. Two emergency changes of underpants may be permitted to mitigate cloth contamination, which will happen in the pits. The bloke who holds the stop sign in the pits will have to account for keks swappage and wiping time before releasing the driver out on the track again.

Oh and car to pit communications would be fed through loudspeakers in realtime, in order to add some drama to the proceedings.

Hopefully McLaren in the top three. Otherwise I can see Alonso quiting before mid season

Not bad. I reckon the extra development will make it a good engine for next year. If they let Red Bull have the updates!!

Maybe Hora was right in the 2016 thread, maybe most people commenting don’t have a clue.

Interesting snippet about redbull is that their announcement about extending tag heuer branding of the engines didn’t actually mention Renault. Makes you think…

Hopefully McLaren in the top three. Otherwise I can see Alonso quiting before mid season

Haven’t we heard that before, or is this thread a white hole?

the-muffin-man – Member
Renault again (badged as Tag Heuer).

they will be one to watch them
IGMC

My money’s on Ricciardo. He’s fast, determined, and more mature than Max. Hamilton’s fast when his mind is in the game, but he seems to be a bit fragile. I think Alonso and Ricciardo are mentally much tougher than Hamilton. The Renault engine should be very close to the Merc and Red Bull will most likely have the best chassis. Ferrari will start with the 3rd best car, but I doubt Vettel will stay motivated if the car isn’t a title contender. The McHonda will be much improved, still not up there with the Red Bull and Merc, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Alonso’s consistency and determination had him finishing ahead of the Ferraris.

Say what you like but the last three seasons have been a lot more watchable than 2000, ’01, ’02 and ’04 where Schumacher won virtually every race and the championship.

Renault again (badged as Tag Heuer).

Should run like clockwork…

Is that a wind-up?

retro83 – Member
Say what you like but the last three seasons have been a lot more watchable than 2000, ’01, ’02 and ’04 where Schumacher won virtually every race and the championship.

but at least back then you could appreciate you were watching something special, and failing that just enjoy the noise. Last 3 years have just seemed very ‘meh’. Watched 1.5 races this year, a record low for myself. Even the 2016 thread was 33 pages shorter than the 2015 one

Anyway, high hopes for wide cars and new engines. Wish they’d relax the 4 engine rule though, let economies of scale kick in at the manufacturers 😉

Merc to steal a march with a mighty engine upgrade, RB aero to pull them closer and then mid season when they’re getting a handle on maximising the cars somebody will have a huge off at great speed (remember 5 secs a lap quicker) forcing a re think on the going a lot faster business.

Interesting snippet about redbull is that their announcement about extending tag heuer branding of the engines didn’t actually mention Renault. Makes you think…

I hadn’t noticed that – good spot!

And now with Mobil confirmed as Red Bull supplier perhaps a last minute switch to Honda power to try and oust McLaren as the factory team? If the Renault F1 team have designs on the title themselves, in the long-term they won’t like playing second-fiddle to Red Bull.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/red-bull-confirms-switch-to-exxonmobil-for-2017-855835/

Are the cars still hybrids ?

Yep 🙂

Maybe Hora was right in the 2016 thread, maybe most people commenting don’t have a clue.

Not sure what you are trying to get at here. Are you saying that the Renault engine won’t be any good or that there is no way to stop them getting the updates?

Spent today testing the oil filters for one of the big teams.

Quite surprised how much better something as simple as an oil filter could be relative to the standard part you’d maybe fit to a road car (and im not talking skodas and fiestas, we do a lot of work with sports/super car components).

So if the engines are still hybrid by nature, are they starting to look at the power outputs of them ?

I know nothing about what they’re doing…

Ta.