F1 2007 season predictions

[magracer]

We all have been craving for some racing, and have been surviving on pre season testing results, interviews, launch photos (of cars with earth photos on them!), nasty liveries, much speculation on who's fast and who's not (usually people pointing others rather than talking about themselves) and controversial opinions about costumer cars. This season is particularly hard because of new tires, new engines, and new teams for many a front runner.

So, gather all your info, get your cristal ball and tell how the WDC and WCC are going to go in 2007. But don't limit yourself to that, please tell us how particular drivers and teams are going to go, how internal battles are going to go (Massa vs Raikkonen and Alonso vs Kovalainen are my favourites). Predictions on casual misshaps are also welcome... Hell, throw some snooker predictions in if you want!

As last year, this thread will be open until friday before the season starts, then it will be closed only to be revisited when it's all over.

As many of us learnt last year (and Jack Bauer metioned on a recent thread), pre season testing means little in terms of the championships, so I went the intelligent way: let the bookies calculate the odds. So googled and got this:

WDC:
1. Kimi Raikkonen
2. Alonso
3. Massa or Button, depending who you ask.
4. Fisichela, Lewis Hamilton, depending who you ask.
5. Kovalainen

WCC:
1. Ferrari
2. McLaren
3. Renault

My actual predictions will come later as the season comes. ATM I just wish Kovalainen does good and Massa beats Kimi.

[jorismo]

My bet is also on Ferrari... I don't see the Renaults finish that high anymore, since Alonso left them. With only Fisco and Kovalainen (rookie) left, I predict that they will be the biggest disappointment of the year.

Ferrari on the other hand, has got a strong team: two experienced drivers, an experienced team and a secret weapon: Michael Schumacher. Somehow I have a strong believing that he still has a high rank and a big word inside the team.

And for Alonso: I reckon they he will have a tough year because I think McLaren will still suffer reliability problems.

My top 3:
1. Raikonnen
2. Massa
3. Alonso

Teams:
1. Ferrari
2. McLaren
3. Toyota

[Coventrysucks]

Ferrari - Without the dastardly scheming Hun in the side, Ferrari's ability to win via cheating evaporated. Raikkonen's half-hearted efforts; such as introducing a moose to the track midway through qualifying at Monza are applauded by the team, but ultimately lead to nothing. What with Filipe Massa's exclusion from F1 after someone incorrectly filled in the official driver submission sheet as "Phillippe", an embarrassing season that Ferrari will hope to forget.

McLaren - With all eyes focussed on obvious choice Alonso, it was a surprise when new kid Hamilton won the WDC 5 mins after the start of the Australian GP, such was his blistering speed. "He made some surprising comebacks in GP2 last year", fumed a delighted Ron Dennis, "but this takes the piss."

McLaren failed to capitalise on this early success after Alonso's eyebrows grew so much during the Canadian GP, that his head became permanently lodged inside his helmet. Restricted to a diet of energy drinks pumped in through a straw, Alonso soon withered, became exceptionally depressed and left F1 to pursue a career in armed robbery - a career cut short by the fact that, whilst obscuring his face, his helmet still had his name printed on the outside. Reliability issues clouded the remainder of the season, literally; the smoke from exploding Mercedes-branded components causing the team to be banned under the Kyoto convention.

Honda - The "green" theme that started with suggestions of unplugging a television set, rather than leaving it on standby became increasingly bizarre as the team transformed into the "greenpeace" of the F1 circuit.

They angered the other teams by swarming round their cars in small inflatable boats, protesting the environmental damage being done, whilst the green "paintwork" on their cars was actually found, on closer inspection, to be leaves. Drivers Button and Barrichello were heavily reprimanded by the FIA, who instructed the pair to "get a job, you damned hippies", and docked them each 100 points after the start of the French GP was delayed by the Honda drivers chaining themselves to a tree that they had planted on the start line in the small hours of the preceding morning.

Red Bull Racing - Fell out of favour with the FIA, by demanding the sport be made more "extreme" with the inclusion of ramps that would enable the drivers to perform airborne jumps and corkscrews. Coulthard's season suffered a set back when a small group of Americans at Indianapolis confused the grizzly Scot for the mythical "yeti", and started chasing him through the circuit's facilities with nets and tranquilliser guns.

Webber's début with the team was delayed as the antipodean failed to grow the prerequisite amount of stubble before the opening round, much to the disappointment of his fans, but after the initial set-back, Webber went on to win all 60 remaining races by a wide margin of at least 14.549m³.

Torro Rosso - Whilst sister team Red Bull were day-dreaming of a more extreme feel in F1, Torro Rosso were knuckling down to make those dreams reality. This was done by having one of the drivers strapped to a reinforced wake board which was then towed by the car of the other driver - the team mates alternating positions for each race. Of course, with the results of the drivers literally tied to each other, frequent reliability issues hampered the team, as did the endless stream of scrapes and bruising suffered by the drivers.

Williams - A difficult season for the Oxfordshire based team, when a logistical mishap meant that the team ended up with a consignment of 1.8-litre engines intended for Lotus, Lotus failed to spot the mistake, merely thinking the highly-tuned V8s were for yet another special edition Elise, and refused to return them. Nico Rosberg was visibly excited by the new engines, claiming it was "just like driving my mum's Corolla", whilst newly acquired Wurz managed to boost his lap times by getting out and pushing the car.

BMW - Without folk-singing Jaques Villeneuve to endlessly drop the car off the circuit, the team continued to improve, with Pole Kubica taking poll on no fewer than 50 times - a fantastic achievement, considering that there were only 7 races, and only 4 of those featured a poll position. Nick Heidfeld didn't cause a stir by actually becoming invisible part way through the season, to reflect his typical race-day performances.

Toyota - Enjoyed an unprecedented start to the season, with podiums at all four races of the first round. Unfortunately their ruse was rumbled rapidly by the realisation that Ralf Schumacher couldn't possibly be that good. Michael later confessed that he had hidden his brother in one of his Bavarian Schloss's many wine cellars, but was allowed to continue racing until Ralf was found. The team feared a repeat of the engine problems that plagued Williams when Trulli failed to perform as expected, before they realised that perhaps it was their expectations that were the problem, not the car.

Spyker - The mysterious Dutch outfit were strangely absent from the season's 605 races, after declaring that they would only race in the Dutch GP. When the FIA pointed out that there wasn't one, they were pelted by tulips, clogs and suspiciously tall people.

Super Aguri - In an attempt to deflect attention to their car's remarkable similarities to that of Honda's, the team took up a radically different methodology, shocking the F1 world by keeping a stock of seal pups in their garages, which they would periodically bring out and club in between pit-stops, and, much to the ire of its population, harpooning Wales for "scientific purposes".

Renault - Perennial French failures found the loss of Spanish driver Carlos Sainz easy to recover from, since he had not been driving for them. Their Scandinavian flat-pack replacement Kovalainen filled the hole that wasn't left by the highly successful WRC star, and impressed pundits by winning all 73 races, apart from those he didn't, by a statistically impressive but otherwise mediocre 498.25Nm/°. Fisichella received special dispensation to start the races 60mins before everyone else and, as a result, enjoyed a successful string of mid-pack finishes in all but 3 of the 2 races.

Summary - another exciting year for F1, with the mind numbing dullness punctuated by the time between races. Sporadic arguments that NASCAR featured "closer racing" were not foiled by the counter that they would be, because the races were inevitably restarted on the penultimate lap or something.

Political wrangles moved to reflect the changing views on environmental issues, with the FIA completely ruling out diesel as an alternative, drastically increasing the number "away" races, ramping up the number of flights used by teams to ferry their cars around, and introducing the cost cutting measure of restricting the materials that cars could be built from to gold and diamonds.

[ScionDriver]

This season should be interesting. I realize that testing doesn't always carry over for season success. I think that Renault is on pace to somewhat disappoint after losing their star driver and bringing in a rookie and a holdover driver who never seemed to perform as well as Alonso. I think that Raikkonen will finally break out and win with a car that should be a lot more reliable than the McLarens ever were. That said, McLaren might be a bit more competitive but I see no reason that they will finish in the top 5 because I havent seen any proof that their reliability has changed. I think that BMW could surprise. Here is how I think it'll end:

WDC:
1. Raikkonen
2. Massa
3. Alonso
4. Button
5. Kubia

WCC:
1. Ferrari
2. McLaren
3. Honda
4. BMW
5. Renault

[Zytek_Fan]

Here's mine:
WDC:
1. Raikkonen
2. Kubica
3. Alonso
4. Heidfeld
5. Massa

WCC:
1. BMW
2. Ferrari
3. McLaren
4. Honda
5. Renault

Before someone crticises my picks, keep in mind Massa was saying BMW would be a force to reckon with this year.

[Kitdy]

Teams:
1. Ferrari
2. McLaren
3. Toyota

Someone's gotta be the ass to criticize someone else's picks. I jsut don't see Toyota beating Renault even with an unproven driver and a useless driver, and beating BMW when they are said to be fast and have been on the up and up. Anyways.

Drivers:

1. Raikkonen
2. Alonso / Massa
3. Massa / Alonso
4. Heikki Kovalainen
5. Lewis Hamilton

Teams:

1. Ferrari
2. McLaren
3. Renault
4. BMW / Honda
5. Honda / BMW

Sorry to wuss out on some pics. What happens when we review these in October? The winner must receive something amazing.

[ringle]

DC:
Alonso
Massa
Raikkonen
Heidfeld

CC:
Ferrari
McLaren
BMW
Renault

And I'm rarely incorrect by the way...just review my past predictions!

[fpv_gtho]

Before someone crticises my picks, keep in mind Massa was saying BMW would be a force to reckon with this year.

He's also now said he feels Ferrari and McLaren are ahead of BMW.

[magracer]

Last chance to get your predictions in, this thread will be closed on friday.

I'm going with Massa for WDC, Kovalainen for runner up and Alonso for third after a miriad of realibility issues. WCC will be Ferrari, Renault, BMW.

Kovalainen will trash all other rookies, with only real challenge coming from Kubica. Kimi will continue to attract headlines for his off-track antics and Ferrari will not like it. Alonso will grow back his side burns by mid season when he realizes McLaren can't supply a worthy car.

Michael Shumacher will attend more than half the races and will be put in charge of the race operations team by years end.

[twinspark]

My predictions would be those posted by magracer in post #1. Button and Hamilton being somewhere in positions 6-10 with the BMW's and one of the RBR's or Williams's.

WDC:
1. Räikkönen
2. Alonso
3. Massa
4. Fisichella
5. Kovalainen

WCC:
1. Ferrari
2. McLaren
3. Renault

[magracer]

Can a moderator please close this thread... Thank you.