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McLaren and Red Bull improving on their concepts vs Ferrari and Mercedes overhauling major parts of their car make it interesting. I'm expecting the Ferrari to be behind the McLaren and Red Bull on pace until the major updates at the European circuits, same goes for Mercedes if they're not held back by any suspension issues.
Top 4 in WCC:
1. McLaren
2. Ferrari
3. Red Bull
4. Mercedes
Top 4 in WDC: No specific order but the drivers are Norris, Verstappen, Leclerc and Hamilton.
I think we'll continue to see Red Bull sliding back in the competitive order. I expect them to be just in front of Mercedes in terms of car performance like +.25 compared to the 2nd fastest car on average. I think we will see Ferrari and McLaren as the two fastest cars, and very close to each other in terms of performance. I think Ferrari will have teething problems in the very beginning of their season due to their new front suspension setup and be a little bit behind in the beginning, but then catch up fairly quickly. I expect this Ferrari to finally strike a better balance of quali pace and race pace, albeit still with a slight race pace bias.
I expect Norris to be completely exposed by Leclerc and Hamilton, with Piastri being very close to Norris due to greater consistency but worse overall pace. Verstappen will beat both McLarens in a much worse car.
WCC:
1. Ferrari, about 710 pts
2. McLaren, about 600 pts
3. Red Bull, about 500 pts
4. Mercedes, about 450 pts.
5. Aston Martin, about 150 pts
WDC:
1. Leclerc
2. Hamilton
3. Verstappen
4. Norris
5. Piastri
6. Russell
7. Lawson/Antonelli
8. Lawson/Antonelli
9. Alonso
Average car pace:
McLaren +0.000
Ferrari +0.05
Red Bull +0.2
Mercedes +0.225
Aston +0.45
I think it will start off very competitive but by the end red bull/max will run away with it by dumping more resources into the 2025 car. They know the 2026 engine will suck, they don't/won't have newey for the new regs, and max will be gone before they're competitive again. It's 2013 part 2.
McLaren will still win races but be disappointing and finish a weak third or a strong fourth in the constructor's championship.
Leclerc will beat hamilton by 25 - 50 points and antonelli will be close enough to tank george's stock.
Sainz will end Albon's career.
Danica Patrick will befriend a reptilian and advocate galactic peace.
Mclaren will likely the favorite to win WCC again this year due to stability within the team.
Ferrari will be distracted with LH and making adjustment to suit his driving style and preference.
Merc will be burden by rookie mistakes
RBR will benefit from Liam to fight for WCC, while Max will once again be challenging the WDC
WDC = Lando, Oscar, Charles and Max
WCC = Mclaren, Ferrari and Redbull
Will be interesting to see who is the best rookie for 2025 season and among them there is likely to be future WDC.
I think it'll be an interesting year - has been a decnet amount of driver movement and fresh blood too.
McLaren - I think Lando will beat Oscar over the season by consistency but Oscar will win more races.
Ferrari - I am just fascinated to see how Lewis goes in this season. Charles likely to score higher and win races, but Lewis might grab one..he is a crafty devil!
Red Bull - If the car is at a level with the others then Max will win some races, Liam will do well to be top 6 and that would be decent
Mercedes - George under pressure but I think he will have less success than this year just gone. Kimi, I hope will be fast, but will crash a bit..
Aston Martin - The car needs to be better or Alonso will lose it. Stroll still anonymous and has peaked. Waste of a seat
Alpine - Jack Doohan needs to impress or he'll not make it to the 4th race. Pierre will dominate and there'll be occasional podium chances
Haas - Ocon must beat Bearman so this is interesting to see. If the car is decent then it should be a good inter team battle. Many crashes for Bearman
RB - Yuki needs to keep on improving and find a way out by giving Hadjar a through lesson. Isaac is going to crash his brains out.
Williams - Really interesting for both drivers - neither can afford to lose, or be seen to be beaten, by the other or it is game over. Hoping to see the drivers carrying the car higher up the grid.
Sauber/Audi - Another wasted year and unless Bortoletto can have parity with Nico in qually he will be a Stoffel Vandoorne rather than a Charles Leclerc
I think we'll continue to see Red Bull sliding back in the competitive order. I expect them to be just in front of Mercedes in terms of car performance like +.25 compared to the 2nd fastest car on average. I think we will see Ferrari and McLaren as the two fastest cars, and very close to each other in terms of performance. I think Ferrari will have teething problems in the very beginning of their season due to their new front suspension setup and be a little bit behind in the beginning, but then catch up fairly quickly. I expect this Ferrari to finally strike a better balance of quali pace and race pace, albeit still with a slight race pace bias.
I expect Norris to be completely exposed by Leclerc and Hamilton, with Piastri being very close to Norris due to greater consistency but worse overall pace. Verstappen will beat both McLarens in a much worse car.
WCC:
1. Ferrari, about 710 pts
2. McLaren, about 600 pts
3. Red Bull, about 500 pts
4. Mercedes, about 450 pts.
5. Aston Martin, about 150 pts
WDC:
1. Leclerc
2. Hamilton
3. Verstappen
4. Norris
5. Piastri
6. Russell
7. Lawson/Antonelli
8. Lawson/Antonelli
9. Alonso
Average car pace:
McLaren +0.000
Ferrari +0.05
Red Bull +0.2
Mercedes +0.225
Aston +0.45
I am really interested to see how the rookies live up to the challenge. Even before the season starts, Doohan seems to be on the backfoot due to dislike from Briatore.
Top 5 in WCC:
1: McLaren
2: Ferrari
3: Red Bull
4: Mercedes
5: Aston Martin
Top 10 in WDC:
1: Lando Norris
2: Lewis Hamilton
3: Max Verstappen
4: Charles Leclerc
5: Oscar Piastri
6: George Russell
7: Liam Lawson
8: Fernando Alonso
9: Carlos Sainz
10: Pierre Gasly
The question is if RB didn't go down the wrong route regarding upgrades, would they have finished top of the WCC? The car was the fastest at the start and then competitive in Brazil, Qatar and wasn't too bad in Abu Dhabi by the end of the year. This also by doing a core design fault which affected the balance as could be seen in Australia. Mclaren also had the flexi wings directive which made RB look worse than they were against them. Seemingly Mclaren were using the flexi front wing as well which the FIA has now said they are not going to go near.
So Red Bull can;
1. Change a fundamental design on the car which was causing bad balance from the start of the year
2. Implement what they learned throughout the year to improve performance
3. Use the front flexi wing to add balance
4. Have more wind tunnel time
5. Make Max more comfortable with the car
Will this bring them back to the front again? We shall see but their base concept in 2022, 2023 was the outright best and they seem to want to go back to that for next year or at least use some design concepts.
If the car tricks were helping Mclaren a lot to balance the car throughout the year, what do you think will happen next year when evolving the concept? Will they be able to get faster or find problems? I really think they could find themselves not improving that much.
Ferrari are going all out to win. They have a Mercedes designer who worked with Hamilton now on board for the design of the 2025 car. They could really nail it and win everything. If this happens, Hamiltons race pace and wet weather ability will trump Charles qualifying speed but Charles would rather crash out against a teammate than lose a chance at his 1st WDC and one with Ferrari at that. You may think that's foolish to say but yest ye forget his last lap vs Albon in F2 to seal the championship, his clash with Hamilton to win Monza 2019, his crash with Vettel in 2019 in Brazil and intentionally crashing into Lando's front wing during practice last year when he got angry with him. (All of which he got off penalty free...)
Mercedes have also shown promise towards the latter stage. With their extra wind tunnel time, I could see them being formidable, I think George has yet to show how good he is, with a front running car, this will show and Antonelli will be a great driver.
it is really all to play for, and a 24 race season is bloody long. Anything can happen.
So, What I want to happen;
WDC
VERSTAPPEN
LECLERC
HAMILTON
NORRIS
RUSSELL
PIASTRI
LAWSON
WCC
FERRARI
RED BULL
MCLAREN
MERCEDES
vs What I think will happen;
WDC
HAMILTON
LECLERC
VERSTAPPEN
NORRIS
PIASTRI
RUSSELL
LAWSON
1: Verstappen; probably with some controversial moves considering his dad told him to look at Schumachers driving style (and he took it too literally), but in the end most of all because he has driving skill.
2: Leclerc; Ferrari ended on a relative high, and although I historically do not like Ferrari because of their antics (and because Mika was my man, not Michael), they deserve a happy end once. Their happy end will be the WCC though. And: Leclerc will be fire to prove himself against the great Lewis of Stevenage.
3: Piastri; I think Norris is a great driver and certainly WDC material. But for some reason I expect coming year to be a bit of a slum.
4: Hamilton; will enjoy himself at Ferrari, and will be liberated from Merc negativity, but the days do start to count.
5: Norris; a bit of a slum, not a total disaster.
6: Russell; Mercedes will lag a bit, but George does well, and the stewards love the man.
7: Alonso; the car is still not great but ballpark Mercedes. The years don't start to count, because the man is a vampire. But even a vampire can only do so much. Still should retire because he is holding a seat that belongs to the next generation.
8: Lawson; Red Bull goes BRRRR and round and round we go. They should have picked Yuki who does like a loose backside.
9: Antonelli; medium car, new driver. Does well, but nothing above and beyond.
10: Gasly; Alpine makes an on-and-off car based on end of last year. Gasly can turn it on though.
11: Sainz; good driver, ok car, beats Albon
12: Hulkenberg; Sauber will step up to compete with williams, and Nico is a beast still. He will even get a podium!
13: Doohan; submedium car, new driver. Does well, but nothing above and beyond.
14: Ocon; The Haas car is not dreadful, but they lack a Nico that can bring them to top 10
15: Bearman; will be close there, though
16: Albon; very decent driver, but he was a bit on the down low last year, and will not be able to step up this year I'm afraid.
17: Stroll; still stroll.
18: Tsunoda; will overdrive because he's disappointed in the RB decision to promote Lawson, and the car's a dog.
19: Bortoleto; honestly I just don't have any idea what he can do/
20: Hadjar; new guy, bad car, no luck.
WCC:
Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes, Aston Martin (due to Alonso alone), Alpine, Williams, KICK!, Haas, VCARBorwhateverit'scalledthisyear.
Having Australia as the first race again should be interesting, as it's a pretty unique circuit. It's generally never been the best track for Red Bull, so if everything is as close as expected, I expect the opener to be a Ferrari/McLaren affair for the win (basically same as last year) - with Red Bull and Mercedes fighting for best of the rest.
After that, I think Red Bull (Max) will be able to fight at the front fairly consistently. Mercedes will have their moments like last year, but mainly be looking at 2026 from the get-go.
Don't see AM (or any other midfielder) causing a suprise and jumping into the front-pack. AM, like Mercedes, will likely immediately be focusing on the new regs.
Haas could be strong, they were unexpectedly so in 2024 and I think Ocon is a better driver than Hulkenberg or Magnussen - Bearman looks promising too. My bold predicition is that Ocon delivers Haas' first podium in 2025.
