I'm wondering how much of Aston Martin's speed is in the car or just Alonzo is overdriving the car.

WDC Predictions, anyone?



My prediction:

1 Charles Leclerc
2 Max Verstappen
3 George Russell
4 Lewis Hamilton
5 Carlos Sainz
6 Sergio Perez
7 Fernando Alonso
8 Valtteri Bottas
9 Lando Norris
10 Nico Hulkenberg
11 Esteban Ocon
12 Kevin Magnussen
13 Zhou Guanyu
14 Lance Stroll
15 Alex Albon
16 Oscar Piastri
17 Pierre Gasly
18 Nyck deVries
19 Yuki Tsunoda
20 Logan Sargeant

I'll play prediction with bias of course:

1. Max Verstappen
2. Sergio Perez
3. Carlos Sainz
4. Charles LeClerc
5. Valtteri Bottas
6. George Russell
7. Zhou Guanyu
8. Lewis Hamilton
9. Kevin Magnussen
10. Fernando Alonso
11. Pierre Gasly
12. Esteban Ocon
13. Lance Stroll
14. Nico Hulkenberg
15. Lance Stroll
16. Alex Albon
17. Oscar Piastri
18. Lando Norris
19. Yuki Tsunoda
20. Logan Sargeant

Interesting top 5, especially with Bottas above both Mercs.
I'm hopeful for that result, as a Bottas fan. Hoping Ferrari got the reliability under control & the works boys can pull some good results.

Read a comment that I can get behind, that Ham/Rus is a combination that will pull points off each other, where RBR & Ferrari have a more clear #1/#2 order.

If the Aston is how it looked in testing, I'd put Alonso a bit higher.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
Interesting top 5, especially with Bottas above both Mercs.
I'm hopeful for that result, as a Bottas fan. Hoping Ferrari got the reliability under control & the works boys can pull some good results.

Read a comment that I can get behind, that Ham/Rus is a combination that will pull points off each other, where RBR & Ferrari have a more clear #1/#2 order.

If the Aston is how it looked in testing, I'd put Alonso a bit higher.

I thought last season with Mercedes was evident that they are treating George differently than they treated Valtteri. I think they realize that Hamilton could retire at any moment. Speaking of Valtteri, I placed him that high because I am a fan. My favorite moment of his was when he won and screamed "F You!" He wasn't given a fair shot at Mercedes. I think AR is going to have a good car this year and he can make a run. I also think that he has less stress because Tiffany Cromwell calms him down. She designs his helmets and has done some really great art.

I definitely think AR Valtteri is a more relaxed driver. Kimi said similar on his switch to AR, that the racing was fun again after the pressure of racing for the Scuderia.

Hoping Alfa comes out of the gate strongly, like last year & can keep with it.

Just got an email from COTA:
IIRC, we paid around $700 for 3 day reserved grandstand seats in 2017/2018 at T9/T4 respectively.
Just shy of $1k for 3 day GA tickets, no thanks.

Wow, looks like the sold out grandstand seats are now $600-$800+. Premium grandstands $1K or more per seat. Glad I went the first two years, that's just stupid money.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
Wow, looks like the sold out grandstand seats are now $600-$800+. Premium grandstands $1K or more per seat. Glad I went the first two years, that's just stupid money.

Yeah, that's just insane.
We were about $1k all-in both years for 3-day race tickets, parking & air b-n-b/lodging.
Unless I score some free tickets, I won't be attending & will gladly watch the race from my pool.

AS much as don't like to say it, it does look to me like Verstappen as the winner. I'd love it not to be so, but . . .

LeClerc, Russell, Hamilton, Sainz, and Perez could all be second. And probably third through sixth, but I find it hard to put them in any order. That could come down to small differences in the cars, and maybe someone gets hot.

I'd love to see Alonso do well. Who doesn't like him? He can really drive, and if he has a car that is good, or even good some of the time, he could do well.

So hard to be sure based on the testing times, as years past have shown.
Rather than try to predict, other than the top three teams (Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes), there are a few things I'd like to see.

Alonso get a final crack at least at some podiums if not a win if the stars align at a race or two. What that really means is, is the Aston the real deal on performance and the team functioning at a high enough level in all areas.

Next, is Alpine sandbagging, or what was really going on with all the team optimism while the cars looks just slightly above shit.

Has Ferrari overcome their tendency to shoot themselves in the foot more regularly than be able to get it right. The drivers also need to raise their game a bit too when it comes to no mistakes.

I'd like to see Mercedes be at least as competitive as Ferrari because they have the strongest driver pairing and can compete with Red Bull if they are at least close.

WTF, McLaren? Is it really as bad as it looks?

Tickets to F1 are a prime expectation vs reality situation. My wife and I watch F1 and she wanted to go to Miami last year. First, the cost put us off, and then after watching some social media posts, you realize you have to pay really big money to get anywhere near the paddock and even then you are in a sea of people. So the odds of my wife leaving me for Charles LeClerc are still in my favor.

Yeah, COTA was great, once you got to your seats.
Benefit of a permanent facility, we had good vantage of a lot of the track from the seats we had.
The years we went were only about 70% sales, and it was a crowded mess then.
The last 2 years were sold out & I can't imagine navigating the facilities with that many people.

We really enjoyed the weekend[s] and would love to do it again, but the crowd flow needs some help there, and the costs have inflated to the point it's not worth it for me.

Still a bit hopeful to score some Vegas GP tickets, I'll go if it's free, but not paying that ridiculous cost for a first time, might be awful race.

We went to all 7 years at Indy. While the track wasn't great, the experience was.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
We went to all 7 years at Indy. While the track wasn't great, the experience was.

Us too. And while the track left something to be desired, IMS knew how to stage a race, great access, the city was genuinely welcoming, and the price was right. Speed Channel hosted great parties and on line boards got you to the right bars.

2023 Opening Title Sequence

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:

I'd love to see Alonso do well. Who doesn't like him?

Me, for one. The only drive I dislike more is Lewis Hamilton. As a driver, Alonso is absolutely one of, if not the, best. No doubt. But he’s an agent of chaos and just does whatever is in his best interest. He’s only a team player when he’s the number 1 driver and everything is done for him. He get whiney when things don’t go his way.

quote:

Originally posted by Dwill104:
he’s an agent of chaos and just does whatever is in his best interest. He’s only a team player when he’s the number 1 driver and everything is done for him. He get whiney when things don’t go his way.

I thought those were the minimum qualifications in all F1 drivers contracts

9.5 hours to the first FP1 of 2023!

Hell.
YEAH!!!