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Before the testing began I was thinking Schumacher but I don’t think Mercedes have a championship winning car yet.
The safe money would be on Vettel.
Red Bull again look to have the best car but McLaren seem to be close and knowing their pace of development this may be the year they overtake Red Bull in terms of performance, in which case I’d say Hamilton.
Ferrari have battled with their car a bit but over the last few days in Barcelona looked to have made some big strides forward.
I’m hoping they can unlock a lot of potential in this new car and hopefully get it going quicker then the Red Bull.
I’d say it’s between Vettel, Hamilton and Alonso and possibly also Raikkonen, if the car proves to be as fast as it looked in initial testing.
I’m hoping Mercedes can make some big strides forward and possibly win some races. I have a feeling that Schumi will get his mojo back and finish ahead of Britney.Vettel reminds me of:
Senna in the way he’s able to put in a devastatingly qualifying lap when it matters most.
Prost in the way he’s able to make good use of his tires.
Button:
of course Prost – both calculating and have smooth, precise driving styles
Hamilton:
Senna – maybe because he makes so many comparisons himself but he has the same ruthlessness and is not afraid to bully the other drivers a bit.
Also great at qualifying.
There were times last year and the year before where I thought Hamilton definitely had the slower car than Vettel yet was really able to push him in qualifying.
Alonso:
Prost for much the same reason as Button.Here’s my choice
1. Ferrari F2012:
While most have described this car as being the ugliest they’ve seen in recent years I think it’s a real beaut.
It’s unconventional and it really stands out. I actually think the nose looks quite nice and the back end of the car is really nicely sculpted in my opinion. I like the way the bodywork seems to flow towards the diffusor.
I guess it’s ugliness is what makes it beautiful in a way.
2. Mercedes W03:
The little we’ve seen of it looks really good – low sleek sidepods. Somehow it just looks fast!
3. Force India VJM05:
FI have managed to make the stepped nose look good – it actually looks better than last years hideous design – I love the ‘hammerhead’ design of the nose and the narrow long sidepods.
Overall I think it’s a huge improvement looks wise and hopefully performance wise too over last years car.
4. Toro Rosso STR7 – another team that have managed to make the stepped nose look good with it’s ultra thin v-shaped design. The undercut sidepods make the car stand out from the rest
5. Williams FW34 – the front end doesn’t look that great but the back end is like no other car on the grid and looks amazing. The innovative looks betray the car’s lack of pace, at least judging from their pace in early testing and based on past experience.
6. McLaren MP4-27 – a lot of people’s favourite, largely due to the smooth flowing lines of the nose rather than a step.
The car looks a bit plain and bland to me however. The rear is neat and tight barring the ugly exhaust bump but the car lacks ‘personality’ IMHO.
7. Lotus E20 – The car they ran at Jerez looked a lot better and a lot sleeker than the launch car and the nose gives the car a lot of character. The livery lets it down – the stripes are too thick and would look better if they were gold instead of cream. Probably the worst livery of all the cars thus far
8. Red Bull RB8 – the nose on the RB8 looks really hideous to me. It reminds me of a duck bill or even a vultures beak. Newey said that they had achieved the task of making it look as good as possible under the regulations, I couldn’t disagree more! The slot is interesting however – I love innovative bits that keep us guessing. Of course the sidepods and back end of the car are really tight and sleek again and I really appreciate the beauty and efficiency of the packaging.
9. Caterham CT01 – The car looks nice and sleek with sidepods reminiscent of the Red Bull.
It seems a bit messier at the back though with gills that Red Bull didn’t have. They don’t seem to have found as elegant a solution to their cooling as Red Bull.
I like the green and yellow livery, the car is immediately identifiable as a Caterham.
10. Sauber C31 – Like last year there is nothing that really stands out or makes the car look special. The livery is terrible.I’m not expecting much from the HRT and the Marussia – last year and the year before they had the ugliest cars on the grid in my opinion.
I agree with TommyB about Kimi.
Even though he won his WDC with Ferrari, his performances in the McLaren are more memorable.
I’d also say Hakkinen in ’99.
The McLaren was still the better car and Hakkinen would probably not have won if Schumacher had not broken his leg.
I would say Schumi outperformed him in a slightly lesser car up until the point he broke his leg.He has already – twice!
At least in my F1 2012 game campaign – somehow he dominated the last 2 races ;)
In real life – it’s not impossible, he’s got on the podium so with the right car I’d say it’s possible.
Unfortunately for him the Caterham is unlikely to be the right car.
While it’s not impossible I’d say it’s highly unlikely.I’d like to see Vettel and Alonso as well as Vettel and Hamilton.
I believe that Alonso and Hamilton are probably 2 of the quickest drivers at the moment, who have proven their skills in cars which have not completely dominated the rest of the field.I think that Vettel is a very talented driver, however he has had the best cars so I’d like to see how he really stacks up against these two in equal machinery.
I’d also love to see Vettel and Schumacher together in the Red Bull.
I know it will never happen but I’d like to see Schumacher have a chance in a better car.
Then there can be no excuses that the car doesn’t suit him and the issue of whether he still has it or is indeed too old can finally be put to bed.
At the same time it would be interesting to see how he performs against the guy hailed as the ‘new Schumacher’ in equal machinery.Vettel and Rosberg in the same team would also be interesting.
It looks as though Rosberg may be a very underrated driver and it would be great to see how he compares to Vettel as his team mate at Red Bull.He’s obviously done very well against Schumi but that may be due more to Schumacher getting on in years and not being at his best than Rosberg being extremely talented.
Being able to beat Schumi in his prime would have been a very impressive feat but we just don’t know how much Schumi has lost due to his advanced age and being out of the sport for three years so I think pitting him against Vettel would be a better way to judge his skills.That black livery looks fantastic!!!!
The black looked particularly good on the MP4-24, having seen it on a picture floating around the internet.
The MP4-24 wasn’t exactly a pretty car and I think the black made it difficult to distinguish some of it’s ugly lines, therefore making it look more attractive than it did in chrome.Having said that, I like the chrome on the other cars it has been used on.
It’s very unique and makes it easy to distinguish the McLaren’s from the rest of the field, including the Mercedes.
Love it or hate it, it is very unique and is immediately associated with McLaren.
I don’t see why they would change it at this point.It’s not too similar to Mercedes livery, which is more of a silver colour and not as bright and seeing as though McLaren are still using Mercedes engines any similarity seems appropriate.
Even if McLaren were to change engine suppliers in future, the chrome still goes well with the Vodafone colours and would go well with any other future sponsors colours.It’s a lot more attractive than some of the other liveries on the grid, namely the haphazard livery of the Sauber and the garish livery of the Lotus Renault, which would look much better with thinner gold stripes as seen on the original livery, not the thick cream bands of today.
Lotus have really managed to butcher the original and very attractive JPS livery used on cars such as the 78.There seems to be little point in changing livery every few years and I think we can expect to see the chrome livery for many years to come.
I started watching F1 at a very young age in about 1989 and became a Senna supporter after the very first race I watched – even from one race he just seemed more exciting than any of the other drivers.
I hated Prost, he seemed to have a holier-than-thou attitude but was really manipulative behind the scenes, swapping cars with Mansell without him knowing and blocking Senna from joining Williams.
Then in public he would pretend to be a good sport and a gentleman.After Senna died I started supporting Schumacher and have done so ever since.
I still remember the first time I saw Schumi race, I knew right away that he would be the next best thing.I had the same feeling with Raikkonen, he amazed me at Sauber and I thought he would be the guy to take over the mantle from Schumi one day and be the one I support.
I have to say he let me down a lot, I don’t think he’s lived up to a tenth of his potential.
I’m glad he’s back though and he’ll be 2nd on my list.Although Vettel seems like a very likeable chap, I don’t know why I can’t bring myself to support him, I think it’s because I don’t like the team he races for and so I often find myself cheering on Alonso, Hamilton, Button or anyone who’s in a position to beat him.
It seems a bit strange because Hamilton seems like quite a prick and I don’t like his attitude, the way he talks like a schoolboy and how he seems to show no respect towards other drivers, (including Schumacher, who’s achieved far more than him) whereas I do like Vettel yet I often find myself cheering for Hamilton over Vettel.
I think it also has something to do with me ignoring everything personal about a driver and just focusing on their skill and at this point (and perhaps until Vettel has proved himself in a car that isn’t dominant) I feel that Hamilton is an incredible talent and more skilled than Vettel.
I seem to be the only one that doesn’t like it as much as F1 2010.
I battled a bit in qualifying, putting my Williams in 14th on the grid.
The race was much easier.
I had the AI difficulty set to itermediate and at the start blasted through the field to land up in 1st place before the end of the first lap.
Deciding this was too easy I went back, changed the AI setting to the second most difficult setting, only to find myself in 1st again before the end of the 1st lap.
Overtaking wasn’t difficult at all, I just cruised by at the most unlikeliest places of the circuit.
Whereas I had to use all my concentration and drive with precision to stay ahead in 2010, I now found myself drifting all over the track and still keeping my lead.
After 2 laps in the lead, the game starting stuttering.
I have a core i3 with 4gb’s RAM and a Nvidia GeForce GT320 1024MB Graphics card, which I thought would be fine for the medium graphics setting as my computer exceeds all the games requirements on the box, but it was not to be.
Bored by the ease of overtaking 13 cars in less time than it takes to complete a lap of Albert Park, I haven’t played since.
I don’t really like any of the BBC presenters to be honest.
I’m sick of Coulthard insisting on calling Vettel ‘Vetell’, being corrected every time and then repeating the process and also of their constant whining about Schumacher, week after week, which just shows them up to be jealous.
My vote goes to Karthikeyan and D’Ambrosio.
Karthikeyan isn’t really around anymore so I guess it falls on Jerome.
D’Ambrosio is always way off Glock’s pace and I think together with Karthikeyan he is the only driver to be outqualified by his teammate in every race this year.
He has done absolutely nothing to impress or prove he has any talent.
There are many other drivers far more deserving of a race seat.
Liuzzi isn’t all that great and I think Trulli is just really battling with the Lotus.
Trulli used to have such pace in qualifying.
I remember how well he was performing against Alonso in 2004 – back then I rated him highly and thought he would go far …… but it was not to be.
Although he’s far from the worst, Webbers driving has failed to impress me this year.
We saw a very different Webber in ‘109 – he came close to winning the championship and was right up there with Seb in terms of his speed.
I don’t know whats happened to him this year but the way he’s being outperformed by Seb is unacceptable.
To be utterly humiliated at every single qualifying session and race by your team-mate is not what you expect from a driver at that level.
It’s like he has no fire in him.
The RB7 is clearly the best car and if only one car was competing with Webber in it, Red Bull wouldn’t even be winning the championship.
Massa is another one that’s not performing to expectations either.
When your team mate gives you beating after beating it’s time to ask some questions of yourself.
I think that Alonso is driving phenomenally and wringing more out of that car than most drivers could.
I think he is making the 150 seem a lot better than it really is, just as he did last year with the F10.
It’s really difficult to determine what level Massa’s driving is on in comparison to the rest of the field with a teammate like Alonso, who is able to extract so much more from a mediocre car.
I suppose we’ll only really know for sure when Ferrari have replaced Massa, which seems to be the most logical thing to do given the gap between him and Alonso.
Massa fared pretty well against Raikkonen, so the guy obviously was quick but after his accident he appears to have lost confidence and speed.
It will be interesting to see if the rumours of Button moving to Ferrari in 2013 bear fruit.
I think that this will be a good move on Ferrari’s part and that Button will provide a greater challenge to Alonso.
Although I think Alonso will retain the upper hand, I predict we’ll see Button beating Alonso quite frequently which will suggest that Massa’s form was indeed not top level post 2009.
Despite all of this I feel that Massa’s form is not nearly as worrying as Mark Webbers of late.
I predict both Massa and Webber being dropped by their respective teams at the end of 2012.
I think that the Ferrari seat will go to either Button or Perez and I’m hoping the Red Bull seat goes to Rosberg, who I believe is on the same level as the big guns, he just needs a good enough car to prove it.
Vettel has really earned my respect this year.
I’ve always been a Schumacher fan but seeing as though the Merc isn’t up to scratch yet, I’m enjoying watching the new generation fight it out at the front.
Initially I wondered if Seb was only winning because he had the best car but this year he really has driven impeccably.
I’ve never really understood the argument of him not being able to overtake – it always seemed like a load of rubbish to me.
Yes he messed up a few times and noone seems to be able to forget Turkey last year but there were numerous incidents where he charged through the traffic very impressively after being released from the pits, which was conveniently ignores.
He’s shown such maturity in his driving and he really deserves to be leading the WDC this year.
He’s been blindingly fast in qualifying and has managed to deliver the perfect fast lap when it matters.
The way he does this reminds me of Senna and Schumacher when they would somehow just pull a special lap from out of nowhere right at the last minute.
In the races he’s been fast yet sensible, his strategies have been good and he’s looked after his tires well.
He’s made very few mistakes, the only really notable one I can think of is when Button was chasing him in Canada.
He’s shown incredible consistency and has finished every single race, in no less than fourth place too.
His opponents have stumbled trying to keep up with him.
Lewis in comparison has made so many mistakes in the races.
I don’t want to start a who’s better between Vettel and Hamilton argument – I think that Hamilton is really one of the best there is at the moment but in a slower car he’s obviously had to push much harder and take a more agressive stance and this has sometimes led to mistakes.
Seb on the other hand has remained calm and hasn’t allowed himself to be pressured into making mistakes.
As I said I don’t want to start a Vettel vs Hamilton war, I think together with Alonso they are this generations greats but the way Vettel has driven this year has made me see him as a great driver in a great car instead of a good driver in a great car and I think his driving warrants him leading the championship.
