2023 is upon us

2022 wasn't terrible, but the WDC was done and dusted way too early. Let's take it to (the) Max this year!

Hot takes:

• 1-2-3 VER-RUS-LEC
• 1-2-3 RB-Merc-Fer
• Nyck going to get more points than Yuki
• Checo won't win a single race
• Mclaren will fall out of the midfield and battle for 8-9th
• Ocon and Gasly will take each other out of the race twice

Let's hope for a tight title race and competition until the last lap!

McLaren look poor unfortunately, but their in-season development has always been at a far greater rate than the other midfield teams around them.

You can really see that they struggle without the wind-tunnel access that other teams have. As soon as they get cars on track it seems they're able to get a better grasp of how the ground effect works with their package and make changes.

Merc seem fairly confident that by the late Spring they will have made the correct adjustments to their car.

I don't see a scenario where Max isn't leading the Championship by a healthy margin going into the summer.

Aston Martin look like they could be well ahead of the midfield this year. It wouldn't surprise me if they won a race or two. Hopefully with Nando and not Stroll though.

Predictions:

• 1-2-3 VER-LEC-PER
• 1-2-3 RB-FER-MERC
• 4-5-6 AM-ALP-Alfa (6 could be McLaren but all depends how quick they get their **** figured out)
• Williams still at the back but by less of a margin. Albon scores points in multiple races
• Lando goes to RB at the end of the Season.
• Fernando wins at least one race. Gasly outscores Ocon.

I mentioned last year that I was keen to run a season long PEEHS for the F1 season. Have decided to give it a go.

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/4.../#post58044397

I think I will only run if we get 15+ entries. Otherwise it could be a little flat. Please encourage others to enter, given the small competitor field in F1 even guessing at all answers will yield a high correct guess rate.

Was hoping Mercedes would close the gap to some extend given their positive trendline (they were sometimes 2sec/lap slower at the start of last season).

It seems there isn't a lot of buzz/hope around them following testing. Shame because there's no way I'm trusting Ferrari to be competitive

M. Schu.

The new Drive to Survive delivers once again

They completely omitted the story of Max not letting Checo win in Mexico, while disobeying team orders.

Constructor Predictions

1. Red Bull
2. Ferrari
3. Aston Martin
4. Mercedes
5. Alpha Romeo
6. Alpine
7. Haas
8, McLaren
9. AlphaTauri
10. Williams

Red Bull runs away with it.

Knee had to be bent probably, Max boycotted the show already, production probably didn’t wanna go through that again.

My driver predictions:

1. Max
2. Checo
3. Leclerc
4. Lewis
5. George
6. Sainz

Team predictions

1. Red bull (by larger margin than last year)
2. Ferrari
3. Mercedes
4. Alpine (really close between 4 and 7)
5. Aston Martin
6. Mclaren
7. Alfa Romeo
8. Haas (not far off 4 to 7)
9. Alpha Tauri (not far off 4 to 7)
10. Williams (fighting with 8 and 9 at most races and sometimes with 6 and 7)

I think people are way too optimistic about Mercedes. There is chance they have barely improved over the end of last season while everyone else made big steps forward. RedBull will dominate the first half of the season but after that their development penalty will slow down progression giving Ferrari a bunch of wins at the end but not enough to catch up.

Drivers

1. VER
2. PER
3. LEC
4. SAI
5. ALO
5. RUS
7. HAM
8. GAS
9. OCO
10. STR

Teams
1. RedBull
2. Ferrari
3. Mercedes
4. Aston Martin
5. Alpine

Rest too close too call with no clear backmarkers over the entire season.

As for drive to survive the biggest omission by far was the close call with a recovery vehicle on track. Funniest bit was "Lets go porpoising" and Toto pretending he cared about drivers but not so much to be willing to sacrifice performance and getting called out on that by the other team principals. What I didn't understand was that Ric leaving and Spice Girl at home staged comments got more airtime than Seb retiring.

They omitted loads of stuff, as usual. It does kinda irk me how they promote fictional dramas between drivers in favour of actual on-track and off-track stories. I get they have to do it, but this season felt like the most try-hard version yet.

The thing that got me the most was them spending 30 mins as a tribute to Danny Ric leaving (but still staying in the sport) and maybe 1-2 lines about Seb retiring. Seb was such an influential figure in the first few seasons, and now he's gone and there was barely nothing about it.

Loved all the Alonso shithousery though, long may it continue.

Practice 2 was interesting.

Stroll was pushing the steering wheel to make right turns.

Alonso on top, Red Bull sandbagging, AlphaTauri down amongst the Williams, wtf.

Old man f1

I am all aboard the Alonso hype. Having him fight for wins with Verstappen even if only on specific circuits would be amazing.

Absolutely! Great to see Alonso up there. #teamBoomer

It looks like every team has their own Chi-Chi's franchise!

Nobody's crashed anything yet?

The first races I watched since I was a little kid was in the summer of the year Nico won. I really liked him, I was pulling for him. And then he quits saying he didn't like the person he had to be to win, and I thought, this guy is a legend.

Now he just annoys me.

I posted some research links in that thread.

I actually think he’s one of the better guys on Sky Sports f1 broadcast team. Wish he’d get more airtime, last year he barely got used, had to do with being unvaxxed I recall.

Did Mercedes basically give up to save tyres?

Things look good this year.

About the same order as last year, except Alonso is faster then the Mercs. Kinda surprised how slow Alpha Romeo is.