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Post by chrisb on Jan 5, 2019 7:45:56 GMT
well it's here! apparently anyway, 2019 has officially commenced and a new season beckons, who do you think is going to achieve greatness this year and who do you think is going to flatter to deceive?
in Formula One, we have Renault saying they have made great gains, Honda paired with RBR could they achieve? or will the might of Mercedes prevail again? or will Ferrari finally re-achieve? will Alonso return?
Moto GP- will Honda with its two brilliant riders sweep the field? will Ducati finally achieve the championship? Will Yamaha provide the platform for the brilliance of one and the intelligence of the other? will KTM or Suzuki achieve the top step this year? will Aprilla with the maniac provide the next step-up?
F2- I have no idea-
WEC- will Teflonso achieve his ambition? will he succeed at Le Mans?
Indycars will they break through? Japanese single seaters provided many a champion, what will happen this year?
WRC- will the great Seb achieve another championship or will Kris Meeke finally match his ability with a championship?
BSB- will Scott do it? WSB - can anyone stop Jonathon?
what other series would be of interest?
that seems to be a lot of questions, and in one sense I see that as a very positive thing, as I do feel this year is open, be interested in all your thoughts chaps,
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Post by mikael on Jan 6, 2019 12:08:07 GMT
Formula One: I believe - honestly and seriously - that Hamilton will take the title again in 2019 ... and again in 2020. With the new rules in 2021, the pecking order might be shuffled a bit.
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Post by Carl on Jan 6, 2019 16:56:33 GMT
Formula One: I believe - honestly and seriously - that Hamilton will take the title again in 2019 ... and again in 2020. With the new rules in 2021, the pecking order might be shuffled a bit. Mikael, Your belief may be proven right. Hamilton often dominates, but the sport would be better with more balanced competition and more teams in with a chance to be on the podium.
In the barnyard, pecking is sometimes fatal. 
Cheers, Carl
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2019 8:45:10 GMT
I might have to take a few bites at this, too many series to knock off in one go.
I'll start with F1 because its the series that I think I'm least ill informed about.
We'll only start to get an indication of how the teams are lining up when testing starts, but F1 being what it is, we can pretty much guess that it will be the three teams with the biggest budgets that will have the best shot at producing a leading car under the latest set of new regulations.
My feeling is that Mercedes will come out on top, because they are the most aligned in the way they work, have the most resources, and have made the fewest mis-steps in the changes in the hybrid era. So I think they are most likley to come up with the best overall package in integrating the new front wing into their package. Plus I suspect they'll find a way crank a few more KW out of their power unit.
With Ferrari, I fear that the rumours of internal politics since Marchionne's passing, and the mis-steps they made in the second half of the last two seasons, mean that they don't have the cohesion to make the right bold moves that they will need to keep the pressure on Mercedes.
Breaking News - MS are reporting that Binotto has replaced Arrivabene as Ferrari Team Principal - that could change the dynamic at Ferrari, and possibly allow them to take the technical fight to Mercedes through the season, though I expect the initial 2019 car is now loced in, and Binotto has little time to chnage that, or the structure of the Team ahead of the start of the season.
Red Bull are probably going to nail the aero changes, but either they will follow the McLaren path and make minimal concessions to the Honda power units cooling needs, or they'll make concessions, and compromise their aero. Personally, I don't think that the Honda p.u is going to provide the performance step up that the RBR team have been hyping over the last few months, plus reliability is still very suspect.
The rest of the grid......
I'm expecting that Renault will keep on improving. Their team is growing and developing year one year. They have a strong design and management team, and an updated p.u coming, and two kick arse drivers. That might get them to third in the championship, if RBR have lots of reliability issues with the Honda p.u. Unfortunately probably still 0.5 sec off the pace of Mercedes, though maybe competitive with Ferrari on some races if I'm right about them imploding.
Williams and McLaren are in 'can't fail, again' seasons, so will probably come up with substantially better cars, but won't be taking any risks or bold innovative steps. So are likely to get up to the middle of Class B but not much further. Though I am concerned that they have both cleared out a lot of their technical leaders, so the potential is there that they fall flat again.
That will do for now. I'll be interested to hear what the rest of the table think
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Post by René on Jan 7, 2019 16:36:10 GMT
Those are a lot of questions Chris and a lot to look forward to! I always look forward to Daytona at the end of this month, traditiionally the start of the new racing season. I expect Alonso to do well in the Cadillac and possibly go for the win. It's a strong team with my countryman Renger van der Zanden as one of his teammates. Formula 1 will be about the big 3 again, simply because they have the biggest budget. Mercedes will be strong, no question but I do expect (and hope) Ferrari to challenge them even more.
I just read that Ferrari replaced Maurizio Arrivabene with Mattia Binotto which I think is a good move. I believe Binotto can bring back the focus and direction that is needed much better than Arrivabene can. I also think Ferrari has a stronger driver line-up now compared to Mercedes. There is not much to chose between Lewis and Seb but Leclerc is much better than Bottas. I know he still has to prove that but I would be very surprised if this was not the case. Leclerc will win championships and Bottas will be out of Mercedes after this season (or earlier when he doesn't perform). Red Bull is the biggest question mark when looking at the top teams. And that is of course all about Honda. Can they finally make that step, performance wise and reliability wise? The car will probably be good (even Newey has the occasional miss) but if Honda does not perform, how much patience will Horner and Marko have? And Max?
Renault needs to make a step and finish the season a convincing 4th. They really should. I hope and believe Danny can create some magic there and a few podium finishes should be possible. Sauber-Alfa will also be interesting to follow with Kimi in the team. We could see some surprise results there also. Kimi is a good test driver. I am also curious as to how Mick Schumacher will perform in F2. He is not making that much noise yet but he is getting better and better. His late season charge in F3 brought him the title so let's see if he can take that momentum into F2. As for the bikes, I am not very knowledgeable in this field but I enjoyed the MotoGP season last year. I hope for a Ducati/Dovi title, that would be very cool.  Oh, and I also look forward to the Indycar season! Some great racing there last year. Let's see how Marcus Ericsson does.
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Post by chrisb on Jan 9, 2019 21:56:45 GMT
I think of the Monte and Daytona as the start of the new seasons, sadly I cannot get too much coverage of Daytona but do sometimes come across some older video's and that is some circuit, the Monte looks pretty good this year so will be looking forward to that-
F1 is likely to be more interesting this year than recently, Mark Hughes doesn't usually vocalise his distaste of someone but he has really let loose his opinion of Arrivabene and seems a lot more optimistic of Ferrari taking the fight to Mercedes, and I understand Ferrari has signed someone else who is also rated, so I am wondering if this is Seb's last year there, we will no doubt find out,
Young Mick has kept his image quiet and gotten on and done a very good job, so good luck to him in F2 and maybe 2020 will see him in F1,
I was wondering about Mick and I can think of several sons of great drivers who have gone on and achieved much, Damon, Jacques and Nico all champions but were they as good as their respective Father's?
In Moto GP I think the focus will be on Lorenzo and Marquez and that will be fascinating, I hope my favourite wins - Maverick is just so much more human, with frailties and strengths alike, but I will be very interested to see how the KTM's go, should be good,
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Post by Carl on Jan 10, 2019 5:08:23 GMT
I think of the Monte and Daytona as the start of the new seasons, sadly I cannot get too much coverage of Daytona but do sometimes come across some older video's and that is some circuit, the Monte looks pretty good this year so will be looking forward to that- ....I can think of several sons of great drivers who have gone on and achieved much, Damon, Jacques and Nico all champions but were they as good as their respective Fathers? Chris, Daytona has an interesting layout, but the expanse of high banking can be dull until a corner is approached. A long endurance race benefits from a track with greater variety of features. Sebring is smart to stop the clock after one revolution. Across the vast western sea, Michael Andretti and Al Unser Jr. were both outstanding champions but neither was as good as his father. Michael Andretti was close in talent to Mario, but never as motivated. His son, Marco, is not as fast or interested and any son of his would be wise to stay out of racing. There may be a burden of expectation that handicaps a son like a balance of performance weight penalty and makes it harder to excel. Nico Rosberg may be the exceptional son nearly as talented as his dad. Neither had easy access to the very fastest cars until later in their career and for Nico to retire when even with his father was a great display of the love between them. Cheers, Carl |
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