F1 2011 world champion?
- Thread starter Leeroy Jenkins
- Start date
Soldato
It pains me so much to say it but I agree.
I want to see Vettal, Webber, Hamilton, Button, Massa, Kubica, up there as well but who knows until we see the cars.
I'm a Button fan, but frankly, if Hamilton is given a car even remotely decent he'll kick the **** out of everyone on the grid on the grounds that consistency aside, he's faster than everyone else by a mile.
Not really, I'd say Alonso, Vettel, and maybe Kubica if he has the car under him would mathc Hamilton.
Associate
Webber I think deserves to win this year by his performance in 2010, however in terms of the new regulations to the Formula 1 car, and the driver himself... who knows :/
If the McLaren is a contender, you'd be hard pushed to bet against Hamilton. That being said, I'm going to wait until the 2011 cars start appearing and testing before making any rash predictions! Wouldn't want to give sunama any ammunition
LOL.
You will still probably think that your man Button will beat Hamilton in equal machinery. This year more so, if only because he is now more accustomed to the team.
Unless RBR come out with another corker, I would have to go with Alonso and Hamilton and Alonso finishing in the top 2.
I'll wait till the final test though, before I give my prediction. You never know Mercedes or Renault may come out with a car which obliterates every other car by a second/lap.
I love stats and those stats are almost unbelievable.
This is what happens when you have a good No.1 and No.2 driver combo who understand their duties. It also helps when you have a great design team and fantastic team management. Basically, everybody in the team were pulling in the same direction.
Ferrari can emulate those sorts of results with Alonso, but I think they will need to bring in a new No.2, as Massa is mentally finished. I'm not sure how any driver can recover from the beating Massa took last year - that was a hiding to nothing. The worst thing for him is that he has no idea where and how he is going to make up the time which is losing to Alonso. If he had an idea, he could make some changes to his driving style and perhaps believe he has a chance to fight Alonso at some level. Through out last year, when he was getting beat, he had absolutely no idea how he could make up the time he was losing.
All Ferrari need is a No.2 driver who knows what job he has to do and not to create any drama if he has to give way to Alonso.
In saying all of the above, unless Ferrari produce an absolute lemon, I can't see how Alonso won't win the title this year. In the 2nd half of 2010, he was stunning.
Webber drove very well in the middle of 2010, when I think he won 3/3 races. He beat his team-leader fair and square and put Vettel (and the RBR team) under immense pressure. Many F1 fans actually believed that Webber had the ability to beat Vettel in the World Championship. However, there is a saying..."Form is temporary and class is permanent".
When we got to the business end of the championship, Webber just couldn't live with Vettel and even in a faster car was finishing behind the slower cars of other teams.
Webber wouldn't even figure in my top 8 list of top drivers and did not deserve to win the title in 2010. I remember in the middle of 2010, I kept saying that Vettel would finish the season ahead of Webber, due to his raw speed/skill. This was when he was at least 20 points behind Webber. Many people probably thought I was potty. Low and behold this is exactly what happened.
Some people have to understand that Vettel is RBR's No.1 for a reason. The management didn't pick names out of a hat...they made a considered decision (just as Ferrari did), that Vettel is the guy most likely to win them the title and as such resources should be biased towards Vettel's cause. This is quite normal and there is nothing wrong with this.
Just as in football, you would ensure that your best striker would be the striker who spends more time on the pitch than the other (weaker) strikers of the team.
Soldato
Remind me again why I took you off my ignore list....Did you actually read the post that you quoted?
Once more:
And again for luck:
You get that one now? You know, the part where I posted that I feel that if the McLaren is a contender then it will be Hamilton who wins the title? Jesus H. Christ, it's so strange typing a post out only to see you seemingly read one word in five and then make the rest up to have an argument. Yeah, back on the ignore list you go. Sorry for the thread de-rail gang, I'll try to not let it happen again.
Aaaaaaaanyway.....
Looking forward to the start of testing now, the upcoming test is going to be pretty interesting. If sunama will allow me to make a prediction without going all LOL BET YOU THINK BUTTON WILL WIN REALLY LOL, I might post some thoughts about how I see it all stacking up after the first pre-season test in Valencia. Until then, I shall cross my fingers and hope that Ferrari have built a car that can be a front-runner all season.
My understanding is that Mercedes are giving preference to MSc (and not to Rosberg). Unless MSc really does badly (as he did last year), I can't see how Rosberg will finish ahead of MSc.
If Mercedes have a World Champion this year, it will almost be MSc.
Alonso (rather surprisingly) has said that he believes that MSc is the man he fears. To me, this makes no sense, but perhaps Alonso has some inside knowledge. We shall know in a few weeks time any way.
For the record, I do not rate Rosberg highly. Yes, he beat MSc last year, but last year, MSc was truly a shadow of his former self. Put Rosberg up against Alonso, Hamilton or Vettel and I feel Rosberg would consistently finish bottom of the pile.
Soldato
Webber, just need to hide the mountain bikes from him this year.
Out of interest, why are you not backing Button, to finish ahead of Hamilton, like you did last year?
Logic would dictate that this year, Button will be more settled in at McLaren and will hence give Hamilton a better fight than he did last year.
Do you feel that Button isn't as good as you thought he was a year ago? Or do you feel that Hamilton is actually better than you thought he was, 12 months ago?
Soldato
Last words on the subject to you, since you appear to have posted a sane and reasonable question for once:
Last season I felt that Button could conceivably beat Hamilton in equal machinery due to coming off a year in which he became World Champion, whereas Hamilton had suffered a year that you could kindly call 'challenging' and at worst call 'bruising' (Liegate in Australia being a prime example). The McLaren was likely to be a much better car from the get-go than the '09 one and therefore be unlikely to upset Button too much. And indeed, Button hardly disgraced himself going up against a guy with better raw pace who had been in the team for a lot longer.
This year there are a few more things in Hamilton's favour. KERS experience, for one. The double diffuser is going, so the cars are likely to have less stability in the rear end (especially with KERS adding to the braking effort at the rear of the car). And there's still the unarguable point that Hamilton is a better qualifier overall than Button. On a day when everyone is losing their head and conditions are appalling I reckon you're likely to find Button leading Hamilton home (if Hamilton hasn't already thrown it off the island)....on more normal days, Hamilton probably has him covered on pace alone.
Button is a great driver, a loyal team player, a supreme athlete and a decent human being. He'll grind out points results when the car isn't to his liking, and is untouchable when the stars align just right.
Hamilton is quicker.
That's all there is to it. I do find it highly amusing that you're still sore about my '10 prediction - had I known the trouble it was going to cause, the resultant Spanish Inquistion (nobody expects them, you know
), I might have kept my thoughts to myself. Hey ho, live and learn.
There you go. You came up with a well constructed reason as to why you feel that Hamilton will do better than Button, in 2011 and the reason why you have reversed your thinking from 12 months ago.
Just a straight answer, which for the most part you gave and I find logical.
There is no reason to create any drama.
Depends on cars but i would say alonso.
Mclaren can't make a good car at the moment but kers should put ten in the game. I expect The top be up there but without a clear advantage expect them to flag at the tail end of the season. I'm expecting Mercedes to easily be best of the rest and maybe infusion mix on some races.
Probably be wrong like usual though.
Mclaren can't make a good car at the moment but kers should put ten in the game. I expect The top be up there but without a clear advantage expect them to flag at the tail end of the season. I'm expecting Mercedes to easily be best of the rest and maybe infusion mix on some races.
Probably be wrong like usual though.
schumacher happily played second fiddle to rosberg at the last half of the season even though in the last few races he was the quicker of the two (looking at telemetry, and pit stratergies)
i think he was beeing smart knowing that if he can carry on improving through testing with a car which is more balanced he will start out already with the edge over rosberg who will now feel obliged to tow the #2 line like schumacher did for him.
i wouldnt rule schumacher out of the championship if mercedes can provide him with a car capable of winning races.
alonso knows the reality hes one of the smarter drivers on the grid and he knows you dont win 7 titles by chance, its always going to mean more to alonso if he can win a championship vs a competitive schumacher to
This was after MSc was hopelessly out scored (points-wise) in the first half of the season. Hence, it comes as no surprise that MSc had no problem playing second fiddle to Rosberg.
Bear in mind that no matter what MSc was trying, he just couldn't handle Rosberg (in the first half of 2010), which allowed Rosberg to get a decisive lead in the points standings.
In 2011, if MSc can run neck and neck with Rosberg, MSc will DEFINITELY be given No.1 status and as such will get preferential treatment.
MSc has not come back to F1 to play second fiddle to anybody. His ego and status will not allow this.
MSc returned, to lead an all-German team (Mercedes)...this was understand by all concerned (including Rosberg).
If memory serves me correct it was Alonso who was shown to have the best tyre wear of anybody last year. At no stage was Button's tyre wear mentioned in the same vein.
Button's tyre wear wasn't much better than Hamilton's (who is notoriously tough on tyres, due to his uber aggressive, gung-ho, driving style). I remember hearing radio communications between Button and his engineer, where he was complaining about worn out tyres, in quite a few races.
I think Button has developed a reputation for being able to take care of his tyres better than anybody else, yet, for the life of me I cannot remember any occasion where he made them last (significantly) longer than anybody else on the grid.
Driving smoothly is all well and good, but as we saw last year, Hamilton (most aggressive driver in F1) Vs Button (most smoothest)...the smooth driver was hopelessly out-gunned.
Where Button excels is variable/chaotic weather conditions. This is his strength. If we could have 20 wet races, Button would be my favourite to win the title. On a dry track though, Alonso and Hamilton have no equal and as we saw last year, the only drivers to finish ahead of those 2 were in cars, which were vastly superior.
Button's tyre wear wasn't much better than Hamilton's (who is notoriously tough on tyres, due to his uber aggressive, gung-ho, driving style). I remember hearing radio communications between Button and his engineer, where he was complaining about worn out tyres, in quite a few races.
I think Button has developed a reputation for being able to take care of his tyres better than anybody else, yet, for the life of me I cannot remember any occasion where he made them last (significantly) longer than anybody else on the grid.
Driving smoothly is all well and good, but as we saw last year, Hamilton (most aggressive driver in F1) Vs Button (most smoothest)...the smooth driver was hopelessly out-gunned.
Where Button excels is variable/chaotic weather conditions. This is his strength. If we could have 20 wet races, Button would be my favourite to win the title. On a dry track though, Alonso and Hamilton have no equal and as we saw last year, the only drivers to finish ahead of those 2 were in cars, which were vastly superior.