F1 2021 – spoilers here

I didnt even realise it was Grosjean, I thought it was still Wurz🙈

I see it’s prediction season in the media. So, anyone want to make some bold predictions here just for fun before the season starts? How about five each, and you’re not allowed “Hamilton wins the title”.

Let’s kick off with:
1. Bottas won’t finish in the top three in the championship.
2. McLaren will join Merc and RB at the top tier and Alpha Tauri will be best of the rest.
3. The Ferrari drivers will come to blows on-track and off.
4. Perez will have fewer poles and no more wins than Verstappen but will finish the season with more points.
5. Mazepin will get a race ban.

Your crystal ball says…?

Good idea, here’s mine:

1. Verstappen will announce that he is leaving RBR at the Austrian GP.
2. Williams will switch to Renault engines for 2022.
3. The McLaren drivers will hit each other during a race.
4. Aston Martin will score at least three podiums, none will be Seb.
5. Alonso will not finish the season.

1 Williams will make at least one Q3 session
2 Vettel won’t outclass Stroll at AM
3 Alonso to be out qualified by Ocon overall but end up with better race results
4 Rich Energy will not buy a team, become a sponsor or even sell a can of drink at an F1 circuit
5 Mclaren will win a race, it’ll take unusual circumstances but it’ll happen

1. Vettel and Lance Stroll will run into each other more than once.
2. Verstappen will get a race ban for punching someone in the pit lane
3. Binnoti will be sacked after Monza as Ferrari are still underperforming
4. We’ll have a new race winner
5. Haas will either disappear or by bought out by the end of the season

Bottas and Perez will both be demolished by their teammates. Perez will struggle to qualify near Verstappen, while Bottas will struggle in races, with Ricciardo and Alonso picking those two off quite regularly.

Ricciardo will finish in the top four, with Bottas fifth.

Vettel will get thrashed by Ricciardo, Alonso, Leclerc, and Sainz.

Merc and Red Bull will take the first two championship spots, with McLaren third, Alpha Tauri fourth, then Ferrari and Renault. Tsunoda’s inexperience will leave Gasly battling the McLarens on his own for the first half of the season.

Norris and Sainz will be close to Ricciardo and Leclerc, and that will lift those two teams in the constructor’s championship, but Ocon will struggle against Alonso and cost Renault.

Hmm, some good predictions so far. Here are mine:

1. Mazepin will receive a race ban for unsportsmanlike conduct
2. Ricciardo will be a regular top six qualifyer
3. Russell to score maiden Williams points at Silverstone
4. Gasly will outscore Stroll, Alonso will outscore Ocon
5. Norris will score at least two podiums

I predict that by July my wife will be saying “Isn’t this s-hit coming to and end soon?”. 🤣

“No dear, it will be done just in time for Christmas!” 😬😬

Here’s mine:

1. Mclaren will win a race
2. Russell will sub at Merc again
3. Alonso will get a podium
4. Championship will come down the the last 2 races
5. Merc will struggle for dominance

The podium is probably a fertile ground for predictions so I’m in for a second helping:

1. The team with the most double podiums will be Red Bull.
2. The only teams with double podiums will be Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren.
3. Alonso will get multiple podiums. Ocon will get none.
4. The driver with the most podiums will be Perez.
5. In one crazy race thrown into chaos by either weather or safety cars, a stroke of luck on pit stop timings will see either Alfa Romeo or Williams on the podium.

Mika Hakkinen to announce return from sabbatical.

Ferarri’s engine will not be as bad as everyone is expecting and LeClerc will be 3rd in the championship

smokey_jo
Full Member

Ferarri’s engine will not be as bad as everyone is expecting

Are we expecting the engine to be bad? I thought we were expecting a fair old leap back up the way (at least from the engine if not the rest of the car)

1 Alonso won’t get a podium, cos the Renault (sorry, Alpine) will be heap of junk
2 Mclaren to score a race win with Riciardo
3 Bottas to finish outside top 5 in the Championship
4 Perez will be soundly beaten by his team mate
5 Christian Horner will blame everyone else for Red Bull not winning

1. Gasly will get a podium

2. Alonso will make the Alpine look like a better car than it actually is

3. Perez will give Verstappen a run for his money

4. Vettel will make Stroll look like an amateur.

5. Norris will outqualify Ricciardo in most races, Ricciardo will place higher in most races

and…

Verstappen 1st, Hamilton 2nd ,Bottas 3rd in the championship

oh yeah, forgot one, Hamilton will break the 100 barrier for race wins…which if it happens will be just amazing!

I would be bloody delighted to see McLaren score a race win, but realistically it’s only going to happen if both Mercs and Red Bulls run into difficulties. Even then it’s going to be hard work against the Astons. Even so, I do expect that they will maximise any opportunities in a way that Alpha Tauri, Aston and Alpine won’t.

Here goes:

1. McLaren will win a race on merit.
2. Redbull will have issues with Perez and Ver when Perez starts to run Ver close.
3. Haas will be miles off the pace.
4. Alonso will get fed up at Alpine, quickly.
5. Ferrari will suck again.

1. This will be Vettel’s last year, Stroll will beat him too often and he will call it a day. Replaced by Hulk.
2. Williams will beat Haas and Alpha
3. Perez will win two races
4. Bottas will lead the championship early on and then fade away (again)
5. The two drivers to hit each other most often will be Verstappen and Leclerc

1. Vettel will have a major tantrum because he will be out performed again

2. Verstappen won’t be consistent enough to win the title

3. Russel will race in the merc at some point. It would be great if it was in bottas’s car. Not that I wish any harm to bottas

4. Alonso wont last the season

1. Vettel will do just fine, to the point he’ll hardly be noticed. It’ll be his last year anyway

2. Russell wont get in a Merc, other than for a test

3. Alonso will underperform (relative to his ego), couple of 3rds

4. Perez will have a tough year, LeClerc will win 3 races

5. Norris wins 1

Mick Schumacher gets a podium out of nothing.

Hamilton to retire at the end of the season.

Hamilton to retire at the end of the season.

As champion, with Vettel and Alonso not bothering to finish the season, leaving no world champions on the grid next year.

Mick Schumacher gets a podium out of nothing.

Then gets punched by his teammate and sacked by teammate’s dad.

Okay, my predictions

1. Championship will finish 1st Max, 2nd Bottas, 3rd Lewis.

2. At least three races will be cancelled due to the coronavirus.

3. Vettel won’t make a full season.

4. There will be a major issue with the new tyres with teams demanding the old ones back.

5. Ferrari will be caught cheating and will have points removed.

As champion, with Vettel and Alonso not bothering to finish the season, leaving no world champions on the grid next year.

You’re assuming that Raikonnen swaps his superlicence for his bus pass next year?

Jesus, forgot about Raikonnen. Easy to forget he used to be pretty quick.

1. Hamilton retires before the end of the season having passed 100 wins and eighth championship.
2. Red Bull disappointing after winter testing, Horner accuses Merc of sand bagging. Vettell returns for 2022.
3. Ferrari have problems with Sainz being quicker than leclerc.
4. McLaren pair provide plenty of on and off track entertainment.
5. Alpine turns out to be worse than Renault were and Alonso jumps ship,

Raikonnen is still pretty quick, some pundits suggest that the Alfa Romeo will be top of class C this year and may even embarrass Ferrari on occasion.

2. At least three races will be cancelled due to the coronavirus.

Thats already happened hasn’t it?

Not sure why so many people think any of the multi-titled drivers would retire mid-season. Both Vettel and Alonso have their eyes (and contracts) on 2022 when the pecking order in theory goes out the window, so they’ll stick out this year whatever; and it’s unimaginable that Hamilton wouldn’t see the year out: why leave a huge stain on a stellar career by quitting mid-season?

I’m also astonished by the numbers of folk who see both Vettel and Alonso as somehow not the brilliant drivers they legitimately are. Everyone presumably saw last year; given the right car, even drivers like Russell can make the front row, when normally he’s “fighting” for 19th.

Both of these drivers are multi-championship winners, with eyes on contracts for 2022 put them in a car that’s even mildly competitive and they will wring every ounce of speed they can from them. It’s daft to let personal feeling get in they way. (although I get that for some F1 is all about “good guys vs bad guys” )

I predict Vettel will struggle this year. It’s been proven many times before (and especially in the blown diffuser days) that he needs a planted rear-end. And all the reports from pre season are saying the new floor regulations have damaged the low-rake principle of the Merc and Aston are damaged a lot more by them. With the high-rake principle working well.

https://the-race.com/formula-1/gary-anderson-have-new-f1-rules-hurt-low-rake-mercedes/

Alonso will destroy Ocon and end his career.

I still don’t get all the Vettel hate, but there you go. He races with the number 5 because he grew up a Mansell fan, he even owns an ex-Mansell Fw-14B. I like the fact that he’s a bit of a nerd too.

TBH, I hope that the move to Aston Martin is a success for him.

Alonso will destroy Ocon and end his career

Sadly, this. Ocon didn’t convince against Ricciardo last year, he absolutely has to up his game against Alonso, especially as Gasly is waiting in the wings to potentially move to Alpine.

Both Vettel and Alonso have their eyes (and contracts) on 2022 when the pecking order in theory goes out the window, so they’ll stick out this year whatever;

Last year’s AM was the third fastest car, but it looked difficult in the tests. If AM can’t get on top of the problems really quickly, I can’t see Vettel having much motivation to try. Stroll senior is not going to be happy to pay a guy who isn’t trying, so danger of that turning into a death spiral.

Alonso just gets frustrated when things don’t go well. He puts in a ferocious effort to drag a dog of a car to points finishes it doesn’t deserve, but then thinks he can motivate the engineers by publicly criticizing them. The Renault engine has improved, but they might be back to being worst engine again if Ferrari have improved as much as they say. If they get to mid-season and Alonso can’t see potential for 2022 being fully competitive, he’s likely to start saying out loud exactly what he thinks.

There’s zero chance Hamilton will walk away mid-season and I think he’ll probably stick around for 2022, but he does seem to be starting to think about what he’s going to do next. Wouldn’t be a massive surprise if he decided he’s achieved enough and wants a break.

I don’t hate Vettel – I rather like him, he’s one of the most light-hearted guys on the grid. Sadly, like Jenson, he needs a car that works in a very specific way.

Alonso just gets frustrated when things don’t go well.

I agree, but poor bloke he seems to jump to teams just as they’re going downhill (see Maclaren and Ferrari) . I think he’s more than aware of the career he could’ve had, I think it boils over sometimes…

@the-muffin-man thanks for the link to the Anderson article, very interesting.

And all the reports from pre season are saying the new floor regulations have damaged the low-rake principle of the Merc and Aston are damaged a lot more by them. With the high-rake principle working well.

That Gary Anderson article is nowhere near as definitive as your summary suggests. And it wouldn’t be the first time Mercedes have started the season with a “diva” and then figured it out pretty quickly. Whereas Red Bull seem to take a whole season to sort their car.

That’s just one report I’ve read Twodogs.

I’m not saying it will send them to the back of the grid – just highlighting how it may affect Vettel.

When Alonso signed, I predicted to a mate that there’d be a super-popcorn sideshow of him and Abiteboul publicly throwing each other’s toys out of their prams, but sadly that’s not to be. Anyway, it’ll certainly be interesting to find out whether he’s learned a shred of diplomacy during his time away.

Abiteboul – now there’s a mystery – not just sacked from leading the F1 Team, but removed from the Renault group altogether.

Just looked on Wikipedia – can’t believe he’s only 43 – looks late 50’s! 🙂