F1 Fanatic

I don’t recall seeing a topic like this, but do feel free to point me in that direction if there is one :P

We’ve finished testing now, and we know as much as we will now until Melbourne. So, I thought it would be good for the community to say what we think the order is, so we can look back on it and laugh at ourselves later on!

Personally, I feel that the order will be something like this:

1. McLaren
2. Red Bull
3. Ferrari
4. Lotus
5. Mercedes
6. Williams
7. Sauber
8. Force India
9. Toro Rosso
10. Marussia
11. Caterham

I’m going to say that this will be the order at the end of the Championship. I do expect Williams to be very fast, and get some podiums this year, if not a win.

I also wanted to get the speculation of someone who isn’t an F1 fanatic i.e. my fiancé. I merely wanted to do this to compare whether an educated guess by someone who has been watching F1 for the past…as long as he can remember, to someone who doesn’t really know that much, and rarely watches it. Her order was this:

1. Red Bull
2. Ferrari
3. McLaren
4. Mercedes
5. Lotus
6. Force India
7. Sauber
8. Toro Rosso
9. Williams
10. Caterham
11. Marussia

Part of her reasoning was that Red Bull had won the last few years, so will probably win again. If nothing else, it will be interesting to compare later on.

So, who’s quickest? :D

I think it’ll be more like this, though I think McLaren are hard to guess for, what with their setup issues. It’ll also be interesting to see how close Merc are to the front runners!

1. RedBull
2. McLaren
3. Ferrari
4. Mercedes
5. Lotus
6. Williams
7. Sauber
8. Toro Rosso
9. Force India
10. Marussia
11. Caterham

1.- Mercedes
2.- Ferrari
3.- RBR
4.- McLaren
5.- Lotus
6.- Williams
7.- Sauber
8.- Force India
9.- Toro Rosso
10.- Caterham
11.- Marussia

By the end of the season… Williams will move up to number 5… I wonder who will fall off the top 5…

I love the fact that I have nearly no idea at all. How about a Finnish front row in Melbourne?

I can’t really tell, but for entertainment purposes when we look back on this thread after Melbourne, I’ll make an ill-fated guess, cause I’m really terrible at predictions.

1. Red Bull
2. Lotus
3. Ferrari
4. McLaren
5. Mercedes
6. Williams
7. Sauber
8. Force India
9. Toro Rosso
10. Marussia
11. Caterham

I’m however throwing in another prediction for the first part of the season: Lotus and Williams will suffer from DNFs, McLaren will sometimes miss the mark completely due to set-up difficulties and either Pic or Van der Garde will fail to qualify for one of the overseas races, but allowed to race.

I love the fact that no one seems to have any idea about where things lie at the moment, it is setting Melbourne up beautifully!

I have loved how fickle people have been through testing, Gary Anderson of the BBC in particular. For example, when the W04 was launched he was less than complementary about it but fast forward a few weeks and he is praising the car’s drivability and even suggetsed that Mercedes had what it took to challenge for the title (see his quote in the inset in this article http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21641411).

You have got to love pre-season testing!

EDIT: found the articles I wanted to refer to.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21660055

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21417831

1. Red Bull
2. Ferrari
3. Lotus
4. McLaren
5. Mercedes
6. Sauber
7. Williams
8. Force India
9. Toro Rosso
10. Caterham
11. Marussia
I don’t think there will be clear divisions between the teams, to me it feels like actually driving ability and a pinch of luck will be the difference for each driver in Melbourne.

1.Mclaren-Button,Perez
2.Redbull-Vettel,Webber
3.Lotus-Raikkonen,Grosjean-Very close
4.Merc-Hamilton,Rosberg
5.Ferrari-Alonso,Massa
6.Williams-Bottas,Maldonado-Very close
7.Sauber-Hulkenberg,Gutierrez
8.Torro Rosso-Vergne,Riccardo
9.Force India-Sutil,Di Resta
10.Maurussia-Banchi,Chilton
11.Caterham-Pic,van der garde
Random guesses but will be fun to revisit