2016 Pecking Order Speculation and Fantasy Thread

[Leendert82]

At this point it's incredibly hard to order Force India, Williams, Toro Rosso and Red Bull. Hopefully the 2nd test will give further clues, although i wouldn't mind if they all turn up with equal speed at Melbourne

If they are really that close together it would make for an awesome show.
I would think that the McLaran, Haas, Renault, Sauber and maybe even Manor are also going to be close battles, and I expect that by the second half of the year McLaran will move into the FI,TR,Wil,RB group.

[Alonsofor2017]

Merslcedes
+0.4
Ferrari
+0.7
Force india
Williams
+1.3
Toro Rossi
Red bull
McLaren
+2
RenAult
Haas
+2.8
Sauber
Manor

At start of season I bet it's this, I expect red bull and McLaren to move up most during the season

[GPR-A duplicate2]

What some others think about...

MERCEDES PACE AND RELIABILITY DISTURBS RIVALS

“Ferrari’s deficit (to Mercedes) is not small,” an insider told Auto Motor und Sport. “It has increased.”

Asked if that was a significant moment, Finn Bottas nodded, “It’s quite tricky for anyone to challenge them (Mercedes) at the beginning of the season.”

McLaren-Honda’s Fernando Alonso went one step further and told radio Cadena Cope,”They [Mercedes] would have to do something catastrophic to not win the world championship.”

“Vettel should be third, but I would not rule out Williams, Red Bull, Force India and hopefully us,” Alonso added.

According to Bild newspaper, some insiders suspect that Mercedes has pulled ahead of the field thanks to its latest engine, which may have cracked the 1000 horse power barrier.

Team chairman Niki Lauda denies it: “At our level, there are no huge horse power jumps like that. Ferrari and Red Bull have more room for improvement than us.”

Red Bull’s Helmut Marko adds: “Over the whole distance it would not be 1000hp, but perhaps on a fast qualifying lap.”

[PlatinumZealot]

Bottas has something to say about that.

"No one is close to Mercedes F1 team says Williams's Valtteri Bottas"

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/123038

[FrukostScones]

Bottas has something to say about that.

"No one is close to Mercedes F1 team says Williams's Valtteri Bottas"

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/123038

maybe not Williams...

be sure Ferrari and Red Bull will disturb Hamiltons dreams. *cough* errh

[Sevach]

Pat Symonds take.
Mercedes
+0,4 Ferrari
+0,2 Williams/Red Bull

[ME4ME]

Nelson said the times being delivered were encouraging but it was hard to know where Williams stacked up against Ferrari.

"There is no doubt that Mercedes are extremely strong and Ferrari are less so," he said. "We would like to think we are slugging it out with Ferrari.

"We have got some more bits to bring to the car and I am sure they have as well. So operationally we have to be as efficient as we can be and I won't say hopefully they will trip up, but we will do the best job we can.

"It is close – but the Mercedes are gone. We would like to be second up if we could."

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/willi ... na-677191/

[FrukostScones]

1.Mercedes
2. Ferrari
3. Red Bull
4. Force India
5. Toro Rosso
6. Williams
7. Sauber
8. Haas
9. Renault
10. McLaren
11. Manor

1.Mercedes
2. Ferrari
3. Red Bull
4. Toro Rosso
5. Force India
6. Williams
7. Sauber
8. Renault
9. Haas
10. McLaren
11. Manor


Williams Findia TR and Red Bull will be a really tight group.

I doubt Williams will be the strongest of the group.

[seezung]

1. mercedes
2. ferrari
3. toro rosso (first 6 gps)
4. williams
5. redbull
6. force india
7. mclaren
8.renault
9.sauber
10. haas
11. manor

[giantfan10]

Bottas has something to say about that.

"No one is close to Mercedes F1 team says Williams's Valtteri Bottas"

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/123038

March 3rd:"It was a pretty okay day," Raikkonen said. "In many ways we could have done faster lap times if we wanted to or slightly more running, but I think it was one of the best days that we managed to do.
Wiiliams may want to rethink that 2 tenths they are claiming

Bottas made those comments on March first when Rosberg was 1.5 seconds quicker than the next fastest car on the soft compound... Raikkonen has gone faster on the soft tire than Rosberg
then back to reality for Bottas: "I do hope we can fight with Ferrari and Red Bull. It's going to be a competitive season. I just really hope we can be up there fighting for the places we want."
" It's so difficult at this time to say anything in fine detail as to where we are."

[PlatinumZealot]

Williams thinks it can beat Ferrari and be second to Mercedes in F1

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/123092

When asked for his read on where Williams stands in the pecking order, chief test engineer Rod Nelson said: "It's very close and every day's a little different.

"There's no doubt that Mercedes are extremely strong. Ferrari less so.

"We'd like to think we're slugging it out with Ferrari.

"We've got some more bits to bring to the car and I'm sure they have as well.

"Operationally we have to be as efficient as we can be.

"We'll do the best job we can. Merc's gone but we'd like to be second."

Nelson was pleased with the progress Williams has made in the last couple of days as it began stretching the limits of the car with qualifying simulations.

"The last couple of days in particular have been very good for us," he said.

"We spent most of last week looking at reliability stuff and doing our homework, and now we've started stretching the car a little bit more.

"We are still doing some longer runs looking at race pace and with a push towards qualifying - we're doing a one-hour quali session every day.

"We're not after headline times - we're doing the [qualifying simulation] session in the afternoon when it's generally slower because we want the best test conditions in the morning."

[StrikeForceF1]

I was looking at the pics of the Merc that were posted on this site and in all honesty I think that Merc are worried about Ferrari's pace...If you compare the 2 cars...the Merc is already showing signs of developement and the Ferrari still looks baseline ie the launch spec and from the times we seeing ...they(Ferrari) are up there with a relatively underdeveloped car.. I think Merc are pushing developements on this car to maintain and extend their lead.. to me it doesn't look Merc are comfortable with Ferrari's pace and I can see a huge developement window for Ferrari and that is just by comparing the cars. I actually think we just might have a championship fight on our hands.

[ME4ME]

I was looking at the pics of the Merc that were posted on this site and in all honesty I think that Merc are worried about Ferrari's pace...If you compare the 2 cars...the Merc is already showing signs of developement and the Ferrari still looks baseline ie the launch spec and from the times we seeing ...they(Ferrari) are up there with a relatively underdeveloped car.. I think Merc are pushing developements on this car to maintain and extend their lead.. to me it doesn't look Merc are comfortable with Ferrari's pace and I can see a huge developement window for Ferrari and that is just by comparing the cars. I actually think we just might have a championship fight on our hands.

I think it's Mercedes' strategy to push development for the 2016 and put them on track for the championship right from the start, so that they can end the development of this years car early and start working full force on the 2017 one (once the regulations are set in stone).

[StrikeForceF1]

I was looking at the pics of the Merc that were posted on this site and in all honesty I think that Merc are worried about Ferrari's pace...If you compare the 2 cars...the Merc is already showing signs of developement and the Ferrari still looks baseline ie the launch spec and from the times we seeing ...they(Ferrari) are up there with a relatively underdeveloped car.. I think Merc are pushing developements on this car to maintain and extend their lead.. to me it doesn't look Merc are comfortable with Ferrari's pace and I can see a huge developement window for Ferrari and that is just by comparing the cars. I actually think we just might have a championship fight on our hands.

I think it's Mercedes' strategy to push development for the 2016 and put them on track for the championship right from the start, so that they can end the development of this years car early and start working full force on the 2017 one (once the regulations are set in stone).

Yes could very well be the case... Obviously i have no idea and data on fuel loads, engine maps, tyre data, circuit air data and so on and so forth...and I think that like most teams Ferrari have started their brainstorming for the 2017 project...However and if your scenario is the one Merc is on and I was in the team I would still be keeping a very close eye on Ferrari...that car has a lot of room for developement and with the base spec..I think Ferrari look Handy...I could very well be wrong... but thats what speculation is for..lol

[PlatinumZealot]

Toto is under no illusions that Mercedes will be fastest this year so he put the team in a mental frame that they're second best chasing Ferrari. Seems crazy but it might explain why they are going so deep into developments so early. I was a bit surprised myself at all the aero details on the car already.