F1 2019 Predictions

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Mr Jack

Mr Jack

Mr Jack

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Now that testing is done, I figure it's time to humiliate ourselves with predictions for the coming year. Here's mine:

Top 3 in the drivers championship:

1. Hamilton
2. Vettel
3. Leclerc

I think the Ferrari is a smidge better than the Mercedes this year, but not enough to give Vettel the edge over Hamilton. My heart says to put Leclerc ahead of Vettel, but I think overall experience and experience within the team will take it for Vettel. If Leclerc does beat him, which is quite possible, then I don't think Vettel will keep his Ferrari seat for long. Verstappen I think will be fourth, without the car under him to really challenge.

Top 3 in the constructors:

1. Ferrari
2. Mercedes
3. Red Bull

Ferrari look to be the team to beat, and have a strong overall drivers line-up. Mercedes have the best driver on the grid in Hamilton but Bottas is the least deserving driver in any of the top teams, he will drop points leading to Ferrari winning the season. Red Bull will rue their decision to jump engines and find that they're further behind the top two than before, fighting with the best of the rest for points at some races.

Other predictions:

1. One of Renault, McLaren, and ToroRosso will win a race this season.
2. Williams will come dead last.
3. Mercedes will drop Bottas mid-season, probably bringing in Ocon who will do no better.

What are your predictions?
 
I spoke to George Russell's sports agent today, who called to try and sell sponsorship. Packages starting at £50,000. George is apparently very excited about the Williams. We had a good chat after I stopped laughing. I told him I'd be happy to discuss it at hospitality in Baku. Brightened up a dull afternoon.
 
Drivers:

1 Hamilton
2 Leclerc
3 Bottas

Cars

1 Mercedes
2 Ferrari
3 Red Bull


Still think Merc and Hamilton will come out on top. I think Vettel will have a season like he did with Ricciardo at Red Bull. I think Leclerc may be something special.
 
Drivers:

1 Vettle
2 Hamilton
3 Leclerc

Cars

1 Ferrari
2 Mercedes
3 Red Bull

Think Ferrari have taken the right design decisions (new style wing), which will take too long to copy and by the time Merc do, Ferrari will have perfected it.
 
Drivers:

1 Hamilton
2 Leclerc
3 Bottas

Cars:

1 Mercedes
2 Ferrari
3 Red Bull

Hamilton seems to be in a good place mentally with a very good car under him to deliver on that. Bottas is slotting in as the Massa to Alonso.

Leclerc and Vettel will be fighting between themselves, but I think Leclerc has more drive and will ultimately come out ahead.
 
Drivers
1. Hamilton
2. Vettel
3. Leclerc

Manufacturers
1. Ferrari
2. Mercedes
3. Red Bull

I think Mercedes will be on pace with Ferrari over the season but I don’t think Ferrari will implement team orders from race 1. So Vettel and Leclerc will take points off each other allowing Hamilton to take the WDC. Though Vettel and Leclerc is in my opinion a stronger pairing than Hamilton and Bottas so Ferrari will take the WCC.
 
Top 3 in the drivers championship:

1. Hamilton
2. Vettel
3. Leclerc

Top 3 in the constructors:

1. Ferrari
2. Mercedes
3. Renault

Red Bull will pay the price for taking Honda's dismal engine and drop to 4th in the constructors because of it.

Other predictions:

1. Bottas will be out at the end of the season. Ocon in for 2020.
2. Kvyat will have some more stupid accidents and be dumped again by Austin. He'll be replaced by Ticktum.
3. Williams will score no points this season.
 
Not many RB drivers in the pipe line ready to step up of recent or right now. That's why Hartley was given a punt, Kvyat is back and Albon was given a chance last minute. Although I rate Albon from the F2 races I've seen.

Shame as driver's like JEV were given the boot who imo is more deserving. People forget that he beat Ricciardo in their first season together and then fell victim to reliability issues in his 2nd season, he soundly beat Kvyat too.
 
I'd say

Ferrari
Merc
RB.

If RB don't make 3rd it will be a miracle.
I'm placing ferrari ahead of merc due to pre season (I know, risky) and leclerc being better than Bottas

Drivers is much much harder

Hamilton, leclerc, vettel.
I'm gambling on leclerc beating vettel just because it would be hilarious, and Hamilton in front if merc and Ferrari are close.

Id love to see another driver up there, only option is RB have an amazing package and max gets it.

No, I don't think Bottas will be in that 3.

Id love to see Renault get a legit podium, but I have a fear. Honda have overtaken them. I love Honda though and hope they do well.

I won't likely follow this year with sky deal and no access to it however
 
Hamilton to win again and retire because he's run out of blessings.
Honda to surprise us finally with a good result but ultimately have some reliability issues abd cause Max to throw a tantrum or ten.
Gasly to be completely eclipsed by Max regardless.
Mid field to be chaos until the dev race allows richer teams with parent team backing to move forward then racing will be boring again.
Alonso to be mentioned at least once a race because we just can't get rid of him and he's an easy headline. Seriously, just go away now kthnx.
Race threads to be very quiet because nobody can watch it live anymore unless they want to hemorrhage £££ to Rupert Murdoch.
 
Drivers
1. Hamilton
2. Leclerc
3. Vettel

The two Ferrari's are going to be very strong but will take points off each other leaving Lewis to win. I think Vettel will be rattled and won't be able to handle the young upstart leaving him out in third position.

Manufacturers
1. Ferrari
2. Mercedes
3. Red Bull

Lewis will fly the flag for Merc but Bottas will be poor again, losing points and in doing so hand it to Ferrari this time.

Predictions: This will be Vettels final year in a Ferrari and Bottas final in a Merc. The former will be rattled and will leave or be fired, bottas will be dropped because he simply is not fast enough.
 
Spunkey said:
Good point. In that case, replace Ticktum with next RB junior driver in line :)
Click to expand...

As they move back through their RB drivers, I think Webber is next in line for the seat. ;)

On this season, too much unknown really. How good was Leclerc, how good was the Sauber, how bad was Ericsson. He put in some good races but I didn't really get that Verstappen vibe in terms of racecraft. He seems decent but I'm not sure how good he is. We'll see. Watching back some 2017/18 races, I forget how many mistakes Vettel made in 2017 as well, Baku, Mexico, Singapore. Twice he's been in an at times close fight for a title and he's gone completely useless under the pressure.

Drivers
1/ Ham
2/ Verstappen
3/ Vettel

Manu
1/ Ferrari
2/ Merc
3/ RBR

Really too much unknown to make good guesses outside of that Hamilton can make up for a significant gap in car performances because he's simply a faster and better driver than Vettel and very likely Leclerc. Verstappen I think might actually be really really close to Hamilton in terms of race pace/qualifying but just won't have the car often enough. I get the feeling Honda have made an okay step but if it's enough or not, who knows. Renault won't be anywhere on chassis performance even if RBR lose half a second on engine they have way more than that ahead of Renault on chassis. Even with ridiculous numbers of non race finishes by Max and Ricciardo RBR had over 3 times Renault's points. No one will come close to last year's front three again.

Gasly hasn't been impressive that I've seen, he just seems to be the one available rather than the one they wanted or the one who deserved it. Leclerc showed some signs of potentially being really good but frankly I don't think I saw anything that made me think Verstappen in his first season level. It's hard to say, Sauber took such a step forward and I rate Ericsson poorly so how much of the gap was Ericsson being useless, how much was the car improving and how much was Leclerc getting something epic out of the car.

My gut feeling is Leclerc won't challenge Vettel yet, but Vettel's mistakes may make the difference. I think the team with a slightly faster car and a better no.2 driver could certainly beat Merc in the manufacturers race but Ham will be the difference in the drivers. If Leclerc takes some points off Vettel and the Honda holds up, I think verstappen can pip Vettel.
 
Dup said:
Hamilton to win again and retire because he's run out of blessings.
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I was going to put that in my predictions, but I think if Hamilton wins his 6th title this year he'll stick around to try and equal or beat Michael's record. He'll have another 2 years of this hybrid formula to do it before the big rules change for 2021.

I can see him walking away at the end of this year if he doesn't win the championship, though.
 
Drivers:
1 Vettel
2 Hamilton
3 Leclerc

Cars

1 Ferrari
2 Mercedes
3 Red Bull

Vettel will be given preference, I reckon Ferrari actually have a decent car this year over the race distance. Mercedes was struggling at the end of the year. Of course, I can equally imagine Mercedes turning up to Oz and destroying the field.

Spunkey said:
I was going to put that in my predictions, but I think if Hamilton wins his 6th title this year he'll stick around to try and equal or beat Michael's record. He'll have another 2 years of this hybrid formula to do it before the big rules change for 2021.

I can see him walking away at the end of this year if he doesn't win the championship, though.
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Yes, I think this too.

Dup said:
Race threads to be very quiet because nobody can watch it live anymore unless they want to hemorrhage £££ to Rupert Murdoch.
Click to expand...

I'll be there, in glorious UHD :D
 
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