F1 Fanatic

Sure, I’ll have a go…

Scuderia Ferrari

1. Fernando Alonso
2. Sergio Perez

Alonso, continues with the team according to his contract and Montezemolo realizes taking Perez on is his only reasonable option for next year. That or someone else might take him. For the first time since 2008, Ferrari find themselves in a position where they have to support both drivers (almost) equally.

Red Bull Racing

3. Sebastian Vettel
4. Mark Webber

No changes. Webber stays for his last season in F1 launching the ultimate WDC challenge. He’ll come relatively close…as per usual. Vettel signs a multi-year deal with Red Bull thus cancelling all speculations of a potential move to Ferrari and clearing the path for Perez.

McLaren Mercedes

5. Jenson Button
6. Nico Rosberg

Hamilton leaves for Mercedes and the german management pushes for a switch with Nico Rosberg. Jenson Button stays with the team and is granted the honorary title of first driver.

Lotus F1 Team

7. Kimi Raikkonen
8. Romain Grosjean

Raikkonen sees the potential in that Lotus and decides to stay with the team. Boullier keeps Grosjean as well, whose performance on track will have improved massively from the beginning of 2012.

Mercedes AMG

9. Lewis Hamilton
10. Michael Schumacher

Michael Schumacher stays with the team for one last season, at Ross Brawn’s request. His jobs will be providing the “glue” that holds the technical team, the german management and Lewis Hamilton together and get that long awaited win in 2013. Hamilton moves from McLaren, obviously starting his 2 years long accomodation period with the team.

Sauber F1

11. Heikki Kovalainen
12. Jaime Alguersuari

Sauber lose Sergio Perez and they decide to let Kamui go as well. They sign Kovalainen to take Perez’s place and, with Carlos Slim’s money gone (or at least supporting just Gutierrez now), they decide to give Alguersuari a buy-in as he can provide valuable experience with the tyres as well.

Force India

14. Paul Di Resta
15. Nico Hulkenberg

Force India keep both their drivers after intense speculations of transfers to other teams. Di Resta is forced to stay with Mallya’s team for another season until Schumacher retires and a vacancy appears at Mercedes.

Williams

16. Pastor Maldonado
17. Valtteri Bottas

Maldonado stays and gets his act straight, Bottas takes Senna’s place. Senna desperately tries to secure a seat with another team but no one wants to pick him up. He takes the only decent option left for him and gets a cheaper buy-in as a test / reserve driver with the british team, practically switching places with Bottas.

Scuderia Torro Rosso

18. Daniel Ricciardo
19. Jean-Eric Vergne

Torro Rosso keep both their drivers as well, as part of a longer learning process. Marko backs both of them for now but that comes with an ultimatum to prove themselves. Otherwise Red Bull threatens to drop them at the end of 2013.

Caterham

20. Alexander Rossi
21. Giedo Van Der Garde

Caterham lose Kovalainen to Sauber and Petrov’s money run out. They decide to start fresh with Alexander Rossi and by promoting Van Der Garde to the big league.

Marussia

22. Charles Pic
23. Rio Haryanto

Glock retires, forcing Marussia to keep Pic (and with him, a bit of stability within the team). Haryanto gets a buy-in for the second seat.

HRT

24. Pedro De La Rosa
25. Ma Qing Hua

De La Rosa stays, Karthikeyan goes. He is replaced with Ma Qing Hua. There’s a huge chinese capital infusion brought into the team thus laying the groundwork for its sellout in 2014.

Alguersuari on Twitter: Soon you’ll all know where i will be driving next year. Thank you all again

Sounds like he’s just signed a contract for someone.

I saw that Alguersuari ‘announcement’. I’m guessing HRT, or Caterham if Heikki moves to Ferrari. I hope he gets a reasonably competitive drive, he seems to be very quick.

Jaime deserves a drive, he’s probably better than half the current grid, still very young (only 22!) and he was really coming to life in the second half of 2011. Only problem was that being decent wasn’t good enough for the Red Bull junior team, and in my opinion he joined F1 too early, in terms of both age and experience.

Alguersuari on Twitter: Soon you’ll all know where i will be driving next year. Thank you all again.

He sounds very confident, that can only mean he’s signed a contract with a team already. I’m guessing either Sauber, Williams or Caterham.

Ok, I’m game. It’s quite a puzzle though – can’t really seem to get it to fit. Can’t wait to see what really happens…

Ferrari – Alonso, Hulkenberg
Red Bull – Vettel, Webber
McLaren – Button, Perez
Lotus – Raikkonen, Grosjean
Sauber – Kobayashi, Alguersuari
Mercedes – Hamilton, Rosberg
Force India – di Resta, Bianchi
Williams – Kovalainen, Bottas
Toro Rosso – Vergne, Ricciardo
Caterham – Massa, van der Garde
Marussia – Pic, Chilton
HRT – de la Rosa, Ma

I change my prediction every 5 minutes, so this one is worthless really, but I’ll still give it a shot:

Red Bull Racing
1.) Sebastian Vettel
2.) Mark Webber

Vodafone Mclaren
3.) Jenson Button
4.) Sergio Perez

Scuderia Ferrari
5.) Fernando Alonso
6.) Nico Hulkenburg

Lotus Renault
7.) Kimi Raikkonen
8.) Romain Grosjean

AMG Mercedes
9.) Nico Rosberg
10.) Lewis Hamilton

Sauber Ferrari
11.) Heikki Kovalainen
12.) Jaime Alguersuari

Force India F1
14.) Paul di Resta
15.) Jules Bianchi

PDVSA Williams
16.) Pastor Maldonado
17.) Valtteri Bottas

Scuderia Toro Rosso
18.) Jean-Eric Vergne
19.) Daniel Ricciardo

Air Asia Caterham
20.) Giedo van der Garde
21.) Alexander Rossi

Marrusia F1 Team
22.) Charles Pic
23.) Max Chilton

Hispania Racing Team
24.) Pedro de la Rosa
25.) Dani Clos

Who’d have thought… As of now: The Most Wanted Seat in F1 for 2012 – Sauber!

I don’t think there are a lot of drivers around that would turn down the chance to line up for a occasionally (sub) top team next year… For any F1 driver not signed to one of the frontrunners it would be a nice promotion, and for anyone in GP2 or WSR it would be a fantastic debut spot – right into the spotlight.

Does the Telmex sponsoring (and losing Perez) make this a done deal for Gutierez? I don’t believe so. Other names mentioned: Alguersuari, Kovalainen, Frijns… (Schumacher?!)
Incidentally, I’m pretty sure that unless Ferrari for some reason grabs Kobayashi, he’ll be staying put at Sauber. They could use some consistency, and I rate Kamui.
So, any news or rumors on this?

Since both Schumacher and Alguersuari are being linked to Sauber, could they both end up there? Then maybe Kobayashi could replace Petrov, who ran out of cash, at Caterham.