Are you ready for the 2020 season?

[Nitrodaze]

New car unveiling starts in a couple of days. I am kind of anxious and excited about this season for some reason. Maybe, because l think Ferrari may get their act together this time round. Or the prospect of seeing Leclerc and Verstapenn take the fight to Hamilton fills me with excitement. Whatever it is, l just can't wait to hear engine rumble and feel the buzz of racing activities of testing.

Who is your money on this year?

Constructors?

Driver?

[Zico]

Looking forward to it...

I reckon both Williams will qualify last again but ultimately refind their form with an innovative electro magnetic tow 'beam' that lets them save fuel by getting tows from the rest of the grid on the straights to allow constant full beans qualy engine mode to take the manufacturers title with ease, with Latifi and Russell fighting it out over the full season for the drivers title.

Best of the rest? Renault take the fight to Mercedes and Ferrari and take 2nd with their newfound season long engine advantage.

Newey designs a dog befitting of the Honda bark failing to reach Q2 in the first 2 Verstappen quits the team 3 races in to take Vettels seat who gets sacked for disobeying team orders to support Charles.
A desperate Alonso takes Max's seat but is soundly whipped by his younger team mate.. coming off 2nd best in a number of on and off the track clashes.

Torro Rosso improve enough throughout the season and make a late surge to split Ferrari and Mercedes for 4th manufacturers spot.

Maybe?

[airshifter]

I always look forward to the start of the season.

Until we have some testing, it's all a guess. And with the way Merc and others often sandbag, it's still somewhat a guess.

But reports suggest that Ferrari might be struggling with aero problems. Despite making great powerplant improvements, the car was still not as planted as the Mercedes for 2019. And I'm sure if anything Merc have moved forward, they aren't going to be any worse than last year.

Personally I think if the Honda power units keep making progress, the real challenge will be coming from Red Bull. They seem to have a much better handling package vs Ferrari, and they also seem to run things better as for team dynamics. As much as I would like to see Ferrari bring the challenge, I'm starting to think their management issues over the past years will continue to haunt them.

So for constructors, I'm thinking Merc and RB at the top, maybe not even in that order. Midfield I would expect Mclaren to continue the move up, and the influx of money might help Aston Martin as well.

As for drivers, he ones will the hardware will be on top. Within respective teams I can't see much changing. Lewis, Charles, and Max should stay on top of their teams. I think Ricciardo will beat the new addition of Ocon, but Ocon will probably get better results than the Hulk. The Williams is such crap that I don't think we can even expect to compare driver performance much.



But all the speculation will be ending soon. Launches coming soon, and testing is only three weeks away!

[zako85]

Stop flying in the skies because you will be setting yourself up for a huge disappointment come Aussie GP in March. Besides, Mercedes just inked a multi-year sponsorship contract with AMD, stealing one of Ferrari's more prominent sponsors, and everyone knows that AMD is faster than Intel which I guess Ferrari will have to use in its cars from now on. But the scariest thing will come when Mercedes combines its AMG with AMD, a true Threadripper setup for the win.

[Jag_Warrior]

So is Intel with anybody in F1 now? I lose track of who's dating who.

When Mercedes had Blackberry as a sponsor a couple of years back, and there was a promo with Toto trying to show how they had incorporated Blackberry devices into the team, all I could do was feel sorry for how much of a fail that presentation was - especially as Lewis was most often photographed with an iPhone. :D

I think I saw one picture of Nico with a Blackberry phone. But my guess was, someone walked up to him and said, "Nico, hold this for just a second so we can take your picture."

[Nitrodaze]

I think the dark horse this season is Renault. If they have found a fix to their reliability problems, they might have an engine well within the reach of the Mercedes engine. If this is true and they have sorted the chassis as well, Redbull might be entertaining some unwanted challenges this season from Renault, Mclaren and possibly Haas.

I think Mclaren would be taking a step forward this season too.