Friday, October 28, 2016

Formula 1 in 2016 Pt. 1

Red-Bull Tag Heuer- The great F1 has seen a number of remarkable events this year. Firstly, Max Verstappen, did something his father Jos never did, win a F1 race, to his credit and to the credit of Red-Bull Tag Heuer, who I suspect may just want to use the 2016 race spec engine for 2017 and they may end up winning three or four races or the whole show considering that Niki Lauda at Mercedes needs to calm Lewis and Nico for 2017 and get them back to being friends, we need no repeats of Prost/Senna, which then does bring us to Mercedes. So watch out for Red Bull, they have not forgotten 2013, and they will not be lax in the off season. Definitely rate them a winner this year.

Mercedes who despite what some people think, has dazzled me with their drive for Number 3 Constructors Championship and now, three in a row for Drivers Championship, something only accomplished by Schumacher and Ferrari and McLaren and Senna/Prost. Honestly we have two of the best drivers in Formula 1 in the same team and making outstanding drives every single race just about. There is a definite feeling in the air, and I can tell this feeling is there, the usual suspects are complaining that Mercedes is winning everything and there is no competition in Formula 1. Despite that feeling, do not think Mercedes is going to rest on their laurels, you can definitely be sure that Toto Wolff and his drivers and Niki Lauda are getting the new car ready right now.

Ferrari has this most unique habit of managing to get two number one drivers on a team and then having a difficult time with them in the first couple seasons. In this case, the working relationship between Kimi and Seb Vettel is possibly the best in F1, so that is a definite plus for Ferrari, the real problem is the car, competitive to say the least, and definitely contender to be best of the rest, but this year, there is a huge problem with the fact they might come third against a resurgent Red Bull. The season started with a potential fight for first with Mercedes. The weight on Ferrari's shoulders was large, and self imposed. 2017 has to be a better year or expect heads to roll at Maranello, definite loser this season, upside? Imola may come back as a track in 2017 or 2018 which would be a good psychological boost as there would be two races in Italy and that always energizes the tifosi. 

Haas, the home team for the first time in my life time, what an astonishing performance on their part, the season isn't over, but we may see at least 30 points from them. Definite wins in the future of Haas and we may see some cooperation with Ford to bring back a new turbo engine from them. Ferrari engines have worked well, outside chance of podiums next year and 2018 might even bring us wins. It could be a stunner to do wins next year as well, a winner this year, and if Haas is impressed with his team, he will probably make a bigger investment. I also have an outside hope that he may pick up an American driver of a decent caliber who has expressed interest in Formula 1 racing in the past, I will not name that driver here, but I will say he has championships under his belt already and while he had retired, is certainly a candidate to go back to racing. 

Force India and Williams- I pair these two as they are the primary Mercedes engine customers and are excellent teams, will I call them winners, not necessarily, Williams has had a weaker season this year, but you have to give all four drivers credit for being very consistent on the points. They share three podiums between all 4 and all have finished in the points at least 10 times, there is no internal conflict in the teams either, two excellent teams who if they had a little extra power in their engines, would have more podiums and give Ferrari and Red Bull and even Mercedes themselves a little trouble. So they are unchanged and are not losers in any respect. 2017 will be interesting among these two teams. 

No comments:

Post a Comment