So another season is about to dawn :)

Will Schumacher do it again?

Will Newey give Mclaren back that 0.5secs advantage?

Will Raki out qualify Coulthard frequently?

Will the Renault engine be on the pace? Will Button?

Will there be a fag paper in it between Williams, Ferrari and Mclaren? or will 2 teams leave one behind?

Will Jordan be best of the rest? (sorry Richard!;))

Will Toyota have a BAR-like debut?

Who will be your surprise of the season?

I'd say that Mclaren had an off season by their standards last year, so I can't see that happening again. If Coulthard doesn't do it this year he won't get a better chance. Smart money would be on Schumacher again. Saying that I'd put a bet on Montoya or Raikkonen - apologies for any carp spelling :)

So c'mon those in the know, whats your predictions and why? :)

Justin

My predictions for the season end...

1) Ferrari
2) Mclaren
3) Williams
4) Sauber
5) Renault
6) Jordan :(
7) BAR
8) Arrows
9) Jaguar
10) Toyota
11) Minardi

but having said that I think it'll be very close for 5th-8th.

Schumacher to win the driver's championship (again) followed by Coulthard, Raikkonen and Montoya (though not necessarily in that order!). Fisichella to do quite nicely too, hopefully better than Barrichello and Ralf but that depends on the Honda's reliability. Also when Honda finally give us an engine with decent power (read half-way through the season) then we'll be much nearer the top guys, but it'll be too late by then.

Surprise of the season will be Mark Webber who will score at least one point for Minardi. :)

But I have been known to be wrong before :)

Richard

[Edited by Bitten Hero - 2/25/2002 1:32:13 PM]

coultard will never be world champion,not a hope in hell !

Schuey again.
He's even given the rest a chance my starting in last years car.
Williams to beat Mclaren and Minardi to score a championship point.

Sadly I think that Richard is right - I sure don't want to have a Muka Schumuka white wash again but I think it's going to be one!

I'm sad that you don't rate your chances better Rich. I'd love to see EJ pull a rabbit out of the hat, but based on the testing that's what it's going to take - magic!

I expect Williams to have a slow start to the season until they get that car handling properly. Sauber will start well and slide. Ferrari will have teething troubles with the new car and slump mid season only to pull it back later. McLaren (Dennis) will fall in love with Raki and neglect David losing them the championship. Minardi will get better and better. The rest will rise and fall accordingly. Oh and Jaguar (who must be the Subaru drivers favourite thanks to Richards) will do another poor job.

Lets just hope no one else dies...

I think Montoya will give Schumacher a run for his money this year, hopefully ;) Ralph looks like his lost a sh1tload of weight to, maybe hes properly focused now, dam Germans :)

My money is on Montoya, but it will be tight with Schumacher. I'm hoping that Toyota will do well for no other reason than I liked McNish when he drove GT cars.

Also I'm sure Jordan will do really well this season as they have a great new bloke twiddling knobs on their engine managment systems. Isn't that right Ricahrd? ;) :D

Mark

It will probably be boring and tedious once again !!!!:(

Yes Mark :) Except I'm on a different bit at the moment, but if the software on the steering wheel (and believe me, there's lots of it) then that might be my fault :eek: :)

matrix: thanks for the informative and useful addition to this thread :rolleyes:

Can we guess now the seasons' started ;)

Schumacher for champ by a mile.

Teams:

Ferrari
Williams
McLaren
Sauber
Jordan
Renault (because it will be quick but fragile)
Arrows (wouldn't be surprised if they're higher - depends if they cuddle HHF enough to make him feel happy)
Minardi
Jaguar (Ford will announce a pull-out this year - they can't afford to be in the game and losing to Arrows with the same motor)
Toyota
BAR (because Jacques will get fed up again and the team is in chaos as usual)
Prost (or TWR, or whatever it will be called once they get the cars back from the pawn shop and ring them)

Drivers - Shuey will disappear again, JPM will stuff Ralphie (mainly psychologically), Coulthard will blame Ron Dennis for not giving team orders early enough, Jenson will look poor compared to Trulli, Irvine won't care so long as he has loads of birds and dosh, but will move back to a proper team next season, McNish will probably be beaten by Salo but will be there or thereabouts due to his mechanical sympathy from the endurance racers.

Average of one overtake per race, as per usual - get rid of the sodding wings and make the tyres narrower for God's sake!!

Chris

Here's thoughts from the other side of the pond...

It's going to be a long year if you don't have a prancing horse on your nose...Schumi and Ferrari are clear favorites, but I think JPM and Williams will stick it to them just enough to be a royal pain in the derriere. McLaren is going to be a somewhat distant third, as Coulthard doesn't have the fire, and they are still adjusting to the new tires.

Peter Sauber will once again prove his insight with Felipe Massa. Nick Heidfeld will once again get passed over at year end for a move to another team.

Toyota will surprise many folks by finishing solidly mid-pack, ahead of Jaguar and Renault. And speaking of Renault, if he's not competitive by mid-season, Jenson will be out of the car, to be replaced by Jacques Villeneuve.

And this whole mess with the Prost team? Look for someone to try to put together an "American" F1 team, which will then fall flat, once again helping to kill any chance of F1 gaining proper respect in the States.

Oh, and as for Jordan? Well, all I can say is that I hope their steering wheels perform as planned! :D

Just sat in the pissing rain in Melbourne watching the qualifying,looks like it will be the usual procession this year.The ozzies are going mad about Webber being in it,wait till he finishes last (if at all!) then they will be in the huff again just like after the world cup qualifying,rugby,cricket...etc
Colin.

Thanks Mike! :)

Webber will embarrass people this weekend - if he finishes, it could be very interesting! Yoong will be his usual hopeless self, doing a 'Forti Ford' (those yellow road cones some years back) and being a mobile roadblock :(

At least with Prost coming back, Stoddart looks like achieving his target of beating at least one team in the championship :).

Fingers crossed for just under 10 hours' time... If it rains, watch Sato come through the pack :) until his engine dies 2/3rd the way through the race :(.

Cheers
Richard

That was the wildest accident i have ever seen,i was sitting in the stand on the inside of the first bend waiting for the F1's to appear and the first car i saw was Ralfs,about 10ft in the air! total carnage it was great! The rest of the race was pretty good too, the Toyotas looked great all weekend and i think Minardi will spring a couple more surprises this year.
Colin.

Weekend to forget for us, but most of my predictions came true! Webber scoring two points for Minardi has already made my season :D.

Cheers
Richard

Nice to see Schumacher walking all over the field in lasts year car ;) he just showed his pure class with the overtaking manoeuvre of Montoya :)

I think the race should of been restarted from the beginning with half the field being wiped out :confused:

Scott

And just think, when everyone gets almost caught up to the F2001 car, the F2002 car will be on line, a car that is a second per lap faster than the F2001, at Mugello, right out of the box.

Stuff will happen...cars will break, qualifying weirdnesses will take place, just enough to keep Schumacher from just walking away with the title, unless the fight for no. 2 becomes such a row that Schumacher's victories will give him an insurmountable lead because so many drivers (Ralf, JPM, Kimi, DC, Rubens) take points from each other that Schumi is left unscathed.

What in the hell is going on with DC?

Kevin

One point to note - it's not really last year's car. It's based on it, but they were doing parallel development with it for some weeks before the season, so it has lots of 2002 bits on it, and the engine's been uprated too. It's actually quite a bit different under the skin to the car that finished in Suzuka at the end of the season.

But the F2002 will be faster still :eek::eek:

DC had technical problems otherwise he would have had a reasonable stab at Schumacher - and qualifying was unrepresentative of the real pace of the field because of the rain etc.

Roll on the next one! :)

Richard