Well, Formula 1 testing is upon us, which can give a bit of an idea of how fast some teams and drivers might be. Take it with a grain of salt though. I’ve created this thread for people to make predictions for drivers, constructors, etc. Enjoy.
I’ll start with some of mine…
Aston Martin will finish 5th or better in the constructors. I would say Best of the Rest but they still have the Canadian Moron as a driver.
Ferrari will be World Champions with Leclerc. Ok, this seems bold and I am a Ferrari fan, but I genuinely think this could be the year they break Red Bull dominance. They have a new leader, a seemingly fast car, and they just came off a massive improvement last year.
Alfa Romeo will fall off significantly. If you look at their second half of last season, Alfa Romeo fell off a lot towards the end, while Aston Martin was making upward strides. I personally think they could take a while to recover from that.
McLaren will recover back to 4th. Let me explain. Lando Norris is one of the best drivers in the sport right now. In the right machinery, I completely believe that he could be a champion. But in 2021/22, they had Daniel Ricciardo holding them back by becoming King Slow. Now they have Piastri, who seems reasonably quick and already has good experience in lower Formulas.
Man, I doubt MCL will be back to 4th. It’s not looking good at all.
Danny ric could be vindicated that it was the car all along if this season is crap again.
Aston look to be dark horses in Alonso’s hands.
Roll on race 1!
It’s hard to tell if Aston is genuinely incredible, or if Alonso is just doing what he does best and getting performance out of absolute crapboxes. Personally I think it’s a bit of both. Maybe that car is decent and Stroll getting into stupid incidents will hold them back.
I’ve got Red Bull winning it all with Ferrari in second. Hamilton may split Charles and Max in the WDC. His fastest time was only a tenth off of pole last year and with a car that’s balanced in the corners, he may have the confidence to beat Ferrari with his race pace and tire management skills.
Rooting for Alonzo and AM.
Mclaren said they missed their marks during winter development; that and Piastri looks accident prone. They’re starting off behind this season.
Will be interesting to see how Ocon and Gasly get along.
Alfa reliability woes will haunt them again.
Excited to see Nick De Vries get his chance, he sounds like a force to be reckoned with. He’ll beat Tsunoda.
I’m from the USA so of course I want to see Sargeant hang with Albon. He seems like a well rounded guy too, he has a good head on his shoulders.
Anyone seen the new Ferrari strategist’s education? Geez Louise man. I’m excited for this season.
I’ll always support Alonso and I really hope this is the year he gets a midfield car that isn’t an unreliable crapbox. This will be a good year.
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I’ll be rooting for RB. OK, they have the fastest car and a 2-time world champion in Verstappen, but Merc were only 0.6s slower than them during testing. The Ferraris were 0.2-0.4s slower.
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All aboard the Aston hype train!
Race day, go go go
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EL PLAN EL PLAN
THE FERNANDO HYPE TRAIN HAS LEFT THE STATION
Alonso podium, YES!!
Race spoilers ^
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IT’S RACE DAY
YESSSS
Hoping it’s not just procedure with RB dominance and Max leading by Lap 3 despite starting 15th. I want good battles at the front.
My hope is Leclerc can fight Max as they climb through the field so we’ll have some decent battles. Maybe Alonso vs Perez at the front?
This has the potential to be a banger race. Jeddah was great last year, so we’ll see what happens.
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Well, at least there’s gonna be a fight for Best of the Rest…
…and allow me to clarify, Best of the Rest is any team that isn’t Red Bull
For god’s sake Ferrari BECOME FAST AND WIN CHAMPIONSHIPS
Spoilers for Saudi GP below
WHAT THE HELL. First a penalty for not properly lining up in the grid box, then a penalty for not serving the first penalty correctly. ALONSO YOU’RE NOT AN ALPINE DRIVER ANYMORE.
That was unfair!
Edit: Nevermind!
I can see where they are coming from. Alonso might not have passed Perez at Turn 1 if he wasn’t so far to the left. A 5 second penalty seems excessive to me, but I don’t know what else they could’ve done.
From what I’ve read it was the jack man touched the car before 5s were up.
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Yep, just like Ocon in Bahrain. Once an Alpine driver, always an Alpine driver.
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Nando embracing the meme
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Twitter has AM in discussions with FIA over the penalty.
Could be some precedence with LH at Silverstone in 21 serving a penalty with the jacks in place.
In my opinion, just having the jacks in place shouldn’t be a problem. As long as the team isn’t actually working on the car, it should be fine.
EDIT: He got the podium back! Number 100!
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Just saw what Alonso’s penalty was for, what the hell? The jack made a tiny contact with the rear of the car, and one mechanic might have touched the sidepod. Thank god it was reversed, but still a W T F moment. And they decide to give him a penalty 35 laps after the pitstop in question? There has to be a rule regarding that, right?
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