[Anonymous]

I really cant see Alonso back at McLaren with Ron back in charge!! Too much water under the bridge!

[Iestyn Davies]

True, but Dennis will be pragmatic, and if Honda want a lead driver (read: WDC driver), then his choices are limited to: Raikkonen, Alonso, Button, Hamilton, Vettel. I think the first three are more likely than the last two as well.. But for all three of them retirement is not too far away. If McLaren won’t sign Hulkenberg still then the way is clear for them to run two junior drivers.

PS. I like some of the GPM2 inspired options!

[Theo Parkinson]

Mercedes AMG Petronas
1. Hamilton
6. Rosberg

Infiniti Red Bull Racing – Renault
5. Vettel
3. Ricciardo

Scuderia Ferrari
14. Alonso
7. Raikkonen

McLaren Honda
20. Magnussen
22. Button

Sahara Force India – Mercedes
27. Hulkenberg
11. Perez

PDVSA Lotus – Renault
8. Grosjean
13. Maldonado

Williams – Mercedes
19. Massa
77. Bottas

Sauber – Ferrari
99. Sutil
17. Bianchi

Scuderia Toro Rosso – Renault
26. Kvyat
??. Da Costa

A load of money.

[ForzaAlanRabbit]

Mercedes
Hamilton: Sees Merc as his best bet for a title challenge and stays on at the team.
Rosberg: After a strong 2014 he stays on at Mercedes in the hope of another strong season.

Ferrari
Raikkonen: Likely to be his last season.
Hulkenberg: Promoted to a full-blown top seat after a very strong 2014.

Red Bull Racing Infiniti – Renault
Vettel: However badly 2014 goes, I don’t see him going anywhere else.
Ricciardo: Hoping to do better after a year of “settling in”.

Mclaren – Honda
Alonso: Ron succedeeds in tempting a front-running driver to the team, hoping for a title success.
Magnussen: A decent first year sees him stay for another season.

Telmex Sahara Force India – Mercedes
Perez: On a multi-year contract. Has improved his form to seal the deal
Gutierrez: Bringing in the Mexican sponsorship.

PDVSA Lotus-Enstone – Renault
Grosjean: Has a few podiums since 2013 as well as two wins.Stays on in hope. He is starting to get a little restless though.
Maldonado: ££££££££££££££££££££££££ from PDVSA. Then more ££££££££

Williams – Mercedes
Massa: Stays at the team for his last years in F1.
Bottas: A great 2014 keeps him at Williams.

Sauber – Ferrari
Bianchi: Moved up by Ferrari
Sutil: A surprisingly good 2014 as well as sponsorship from Medion keeps him for his last season.-

Marussia – Ferrari
Vandoorne: Mclaren support.
Nasr: A huge chunk of cash had Chilton gone.

Toro Rosso – Renault
Kvyat: A second chance to shine
Da Costa: His long-awaited F1 debut has finally come to pass.

Caterham – Renault
Kabayashi: Kept for financial reasons.
Frijns: He finally gets a chance.

Haas GP – Ferrari
Rossi: Makes sense in an American team.
???

[Iestyn Davies]

Well, we now have the chance of Simona de Silvestro becoming the first female F1 racing driver for a good twenty years. She’ll find it tough to beat Sutil, Gutierrez and Van der Garde to a Sauber F1 seat, but there is also a possible new team in Haas. But, if you could find sponsorship anywhere, you’d have to think Switzerland could be a good starting place..

[Deej92]

Mercedes AMG Petronas
1. Hamilton
6. Rosberg

Scuderia Ferrari
14. Alonso
7. Raikkonen

PlayStation McLaren Honda
20. Magnussen
27. Hulkenberg

Infiniti Red Bull Racing – Renault
5. Vettel
3. Ricciardo

Sahara Force India – Mercedes
11. Perez
77. Bottas

Lotus – Renault
8. Grosjean
13. Maldonado

Williams Martini Racing – Mercedes
19. Massa
40. Nasr

Sauber – Ferrari
21. Gutierrez
17. Bianchi

Scuderia Cepsa Toro Rosso – Renault
26. Kvyat
Sainz

Caterham – Renault
9. Ericsson
Frijns

Super Aguri – Honda
Vandoorne
de Vries

Notes:
– Button retires. McLaren fail to lure Alonso back partly due to Dennis’ increased involvement, so they instead opt for Hulkenberg as Button’s replacement.
– Bottas moves to Force India to replace Hulkenberg.
– Williams promote reserve driver Nasr after an impressive GP2 campaign to make it an all Brazilian, all Felipe line-up.
– Bianchi moves up to Sauber who brings a Ferrari engine subsidy. Sutil is given the boot as, although he beat Gutierrez, he doesn’t bring the same level of sponsorship.
– Vergne is dumped after being beaten by Kvyat and his form continued to stagnate. Sainz is given the drive partly due to Cepsa’s money.
– Caterham promote reserve driver Frijns after the experienced Kobayashi fails to beat Ericsson convincingly.
– Marussia fold after another poor season, but Honda take over to run their ‘B’ team. The Super Aguri name returns to F1 after their recent involvement in Formula E, and McLaren protégés Vandoorne and de Vries are placed in the cars.

[Anonymous]

I imagine 2 possible “universes”
1. Button gets the championship with McLaren this year. Magnussen ends up as “another big promise” (another Diresta?) so Kevin is fired by Ron. Jenson decides to retire with his second belt. Alonso goes to McLaren in 2015 after he is beaten by Kimi (just a couple of points, but that’s so much to take for Fer) and seeing the champion’s car is available in McLaren, he grabs it, with Dennis or not. Hulkenberg takes the mighty number 27 where it belongs, to Ferrari, where he gets the championship in 2015. The Red Bulls are nowhere near the podium this year, in a McLaren2013-like campaign. Mercedes gets more victories but it’s Rosberg who gets the most of them, and so Nico gets the “first driver” treatment. Hamilton can’t stand it and returns to McLaren, where (oh surprise) it’s Fernando again.

2. Kimi gets the championship, Alonso can’t stand it and leaves to McLaren. Button goes to Williams. Massa fails again and retires. Valteri’s seat goes to Susie Wolff, who has a Chilton-esque campaign. Valteri takes Gutierrez’s seat. Gutierrez dissapears from F1. Hulkenberg takes Fernando’s seat and gets the championship in 2015.

[Theo Parkinson]

Vandoorne to Force India, Perez to Sauber, Bianchi to Sauber, Sutil to Caterham, Frijns to Caterham.

[WarfieldF1]

Grosjean to follow Bouiller to McLaren, Buttons seat.

[ForzaAlanRabbit]

@warfieldf1
Grosjean to Mclaren? It’s a possibility but I doubt that it would actually happen…

[Anonymous]

I just don’t want to write a list of 20 names… I just imagine 2 possible “universes”
1. Button gets the championship with McLaren this year. Magnussen ends up as “another big promise” (another Diresta?) so Kevin is fired by Ron. Jenson decides to retire with his second belt. Alonso goes to McLaren in 2015 after he is beaten by Kimi (just a couple of points, but that’s so much to take for Fer) and seeing the champion’s car is available in McLaren, he grabs it, with Dennis or not. Hulkenberg takes the mighty number 27 where it belongs, to Ferrari, where he gets the championship in 2015. The Red Bulls are nowhere near the podium this year, in a McLaren2013-like campaign. Mercedes gets more victories but it’s Rosberg who gets the most of them, and so Nico gets the “first driver” treatment. Hamilton can’t stand it and returns to McLaren, where (oh surprise) it’s Fernando again.

2. Kimi gets the championship, Alonso can’t stand it and leaves to McLaren. Button goes to Williams. Massa sucks again and retires. Valteri’s seat goes to Susie Wolff, who has a Chilton-esque campaign. Valteri takes Gutierrez’s seat. Gutierrez dissapears from F1. Hulkenberg takes Fernando’s seat and gets the championship in 2015.

[ForzaAlanRabbit]

Mercedes – Neither Rosberg or Hamilon see the point in leaving the 2014 champions, so they stay on in the hope that their team are quick again.

Force India – They keep their 2014 line-up, though Hulk was offered a seat ferrari, Force India were quick in 2014 and got 4th in the championship.

Mclaren – Keep their 2014 line-up.

Ferrari – Kimi leaves (again) and Ferrari have no idea who to sign, so they take a leap of faith and sign Bianchi. Fernando threatenes to leave but never does.

Red Bull – Ricciardo stays alongside Vettel for aother year, hopefully better than 2014.

Williams – Massa and Bottas stay put

Lotus – Keep their 2014 line-up, despite Maldonado getting a race ban in 2014 and Grosjean complaining about the lack of pace.

Sauber – £££££ from Medion keeps Sutil where he is. Van der Garde gets the other seat with £££££ from McGregor.

Marussia – Chilton stays on (£££££ from his daddy) alongside Razia, who just beat the unimpressive Rodolfo Gonzalez to the seat.

Caterham – Kobayshi (yet another mater of £££££) and Gutierrez takes Ericsson’s seat. Ericsson stays as a test driver alongside Frijns.

[Bradley Downton]

Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton – has Contract
Nico Rosberg – Has no reason to leave, team have no reason to let him go. Yet. Something may kick off that creates a rift between the two drivers and causes Nico to leave, but I highly doubt it.

Red Bull-Renault
Sebastian Vettel – has Contract
Daniel Ricciardo – has Contract

McLaren-Honda
Jenson Button – sticks around for a final season to help with the transition back to Honda power.
Kevin Magnussen – kept on after a solid rookie season.

Force India-Mercedes
Nico Hulkenberg – has Contract
Sergio Perez – Impresses against Hulkenberg when many expected him to crumble, kept for a second season.

Ferrari
Fernando Alonso – A dismal year leaves him wanting to move, but with no seats available at better teams Fernando sticks around for what many believe will be his final season.
Kimi Raikkonen – Also kept on for a second season, despite not performing fantastically.

Williams-Mercedes
Valtteri Bottas – has Contract
Felipe Massa – has Contract

Toro Rosso-Renault
Daniil Kvyat – Kept on for a second crack after a strong first season.
Carlos Sainz Jr. – Despite Vergne performing solidly again, he’s let go after a third full season with the team because that appears to be their policy. Sainz Jr replaces him after winning the FR3.5 title.

Lotus-Renault
Romain Grosjean – Sticks around after finding no better offers, despite a disappointing 2014 for the team.
Jean-Eric Vergne – Lotus realise Maldonado isn’t worth it and instead take Vergne, with increased backing from Total.

Sauber-Ferrari
Giedo van der Garde – A miserable 2014 leads the team to fire both Sutil and Gutierrez, who have also got less money than their replacements. van der Garde takes one seat after spending 2014 gathering more sponsors.
Sergey Sirotkin – Sirotkin takes the second seat with Russian money.

Marussia-Honda
Max Chilton – Marussia ditch Ferrari to follow McLaren to Honda power as a result of their technical tie-up getting stronger. Chilton is kept on board as a safe pair of hands.
Stoffel Vandoorne – Meanwhile Vandoorne replaces the out-going Bianchi as another result of the Marussia-McLaren link.

Caterham-Renault
Marcus Ericsson – His money buys him a second season, just.
Robin Frijns – Finally gets his chance after finding some sponsorship.

Haas-Mercedes
Alexander Rossi – Haas snap up the Mercedes deal vacated by McLaren and sign Rossi as expected with the American link.
Danica Patrick – Despite claims she wouldn’t move, Patrick is tempted over to F1 by her Nascar team as they believe running the first female driver for years will pull them more sponsorship, and it does.

Forza Rossa-Ferrari
Jules Bianchi – Forza Rossa enter as Ferrari B-Team and take the Ferrari engine vacated by Marussia. They also take Bianchi on board as a member of Ferrari’s young driver program.
Raffaele Maricello – In-keeping with the Ferrari B-Team theme, they sign Marciello.

[Nick]

Boring, realistic prediction:

Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton
Nico Rosberg

Red Bull Renault
Sebastian Vettel
Daniel Ricciardo

McLaren Honda
Jenson Button
Kevin Magnussen

Ferrari
Fernando Alonso
Kimi Raikkonen

Force India Mercedes
Nico Hulkenberg
Sergio Perez

Williams Mercedes
Valtteri Bottas
Felipe Nasr

Toro Rosso Renault
Daniil Kvyatt
Carlos Sainz Jr.

Lotus Renault
Romain Grosjean
Pastor Maldonado

Sauber Ferrari
Esteban Gutierrez
Jules Bianchi

Haas Ferrari
Adrian Sutil
Jean-Eric Vergne

Forza Rossa ends up being a pipe dream, Marussia enter negotiations with potential buyers far too late to make the 2015 season, as does Caterham. Haas hires experienced F1 guys ala Lotus in 2010.

[Lucas Wilson]

@bradley13

Most of that is pretty believeable and I can see all that happening. I just hope Haas don’t go all ‘Team USA’ and pick American drivers (1 US driver, Rossi, fine, but not two) and actually consider all the options.

[Author]

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