2016 Predictions

Greenlantern101

Super Hero And All Round Good Guy
Contributor
Well its that time of year again, time for the annual CTA predictions for the coming year.

Here's mine.

  • Hamilton to be WDC again.
  • Rosberg to leave Mercedes at the end of the year.
  • Red Bull to finish lower than 4th in WCC.
  • Bottas to get his first win.
  • McLaren to finish mid table.
  • This will be Kimi's last season at Ferrari.
  • Jenson will retire at the end of the year.
  • Sky and Channel 4 will cancel their TV coverage and you will have to collect tokens from 888 casino to watch F1 in 2017.
  • Bernie will admit he is a vampire.
  • Eddie Jordan won't get a job on Sky or Channel 4. (pleeeeaaseee)
  • Pastor will loose his funding and be shown the door.
  • It will be wet at Silverstone
  • Max will have a second year slump.
  • Renault will beat Red Bull in the WCC
  • The tyre rules will be deemed too simple and made even more complex for 2017
  • The EU will rule in Sauber and Force India's favour.
  • It will become increasingly transparent that the 2017 rule changes will fix **** all.
  • A loony will invade the track. (Pastor doesn't count)
 
I love making predictions usually they end up terrible. As recently I got sucked in & had £5 on mclaren honda to win the 2015 constructors title at around 16 or 20/1 which went so badly by Brazil they were offering 20/1 on them making the chequered flag & also said Leicester would finish bottom & get relegated what were they doing appointing Ranieri after that Greece reign. There currently top of premier league

After a 4 way battle for the title between 2 merc drivers Vettel & Riccardo. Which gets Whittled down to Lewis & vettel head to head in abu dhabi

1 or both (likely nico) to leave Mercedes at the end of 2016 after another Belgium type incident, the intra team pressure boils over irreparably after the added pressure from vettel breathing Down there necks

Red Bull to win a race or 2 & finish 3rd

Manor to get a top 5 maybe even a podium. With new 2016 engine

McLaren to will improve but not til post summer break by which time alonso will quit or be fired with vandoorne the replacement

This will be Kimi's last season at Ferrari. But then I thought that in 2014 & 2015

Pastor will have make or break year. Will either impress or disappear but will tough Renault will have a hard yr coming 8th/9th

Haas f1 will take a bit to settle in but Grosjean will score at least 1pt this season

Max Verstappen will get a move to a "senior" team by the end of the year. As with kimi retirement red bull hand is forced

Money will finally become fairer system
 
  • Someone will get an unexpected result due to being cleverer with the new tyre rules in the flyaways.
  • The variation in tyre strategies will make way to a new hegemony by the end of the season.
  • The Azerbaijani government's decision to take the title "European Grand Prix" will convince no-one that Azerbaijan is in Europe, but a whole ton of people that it is, indeed, in Asia.
  • Williams will be shit in Monaco.
  • Williams will flatter to deceive.
  • Fernando Alonso will still not be as funny as Jenson Button on team radio, however hard he tries.
  • Haas will be competitive with Manor.
  • Ferrari number 5 will grow increasingly competitive with Mercedes.
  • Raikkonen will be finally put out to pasture at the end of the season.
  • Alonso will invite Ron Dennis to do one at the end of the season.
  • Nico Rosberg will be slightly slower than Hamilton at most races, and look and act like his big brother nicked all his Christmas presents.
  • If Hamilton is ever slower than Rosberg at a race, there will be increasingly bizarre complaints that Mercedes' strategy is unfair because Hamilton wasn't given special treatment.
  • Mercedes' strategy will be conspicuously fair, until Vettel gets within 20 points of them...
  • Maldonado will find himself out of a job by the end of the season.
  • Gutierrez will thrill the Mexican audience by getting the shite kicked out of him by Grosjean.
  • Palmer will be good, but not half as good as the British press seem to think...
  • ... Ricciardo too ...
  • ... Bottas too ...
  • Manor will actually start to outperform someone other than Haas.
  • The McLaren-Honda story shall just get funnier.
  • There will be lots of talk about the ultra-soft going off in one lap, then a Force India or Sauber will run the bloody things for 34 laps at Monaco, possibly with Kimi Raikkonen climbing all over said gearbox.
  • The Finn, Finn and half-Finn podium of Raikkonen, Bottas and Rosberg will finally come to fruition.
  • The pole-sitter will win in Barcelona.
  • The rain will return to Interlagos.
  • Force India will perform well at Spa despite going on about how shit they'll be.
  • Red Bull will not pull out of F1.
  • Ferrari will not pull out of F1.
  • Prost will no longer be alone on 4 WDCs, although he'll celebrate eDAMS' double with Buemi in Formula E.
 
Ok, time to stick the finger in the air and predict the way the F1 wind blows for another season:

  • Every team on the grid will score points.
  • McLaren will get onto the podium once this season.
  • Button will retire at the end of the year
  • Alonso will talk about retirement but not actually go through with it.
  • Williams will announce a deal to run Honda engines in 2017
  • Sauber will finish last in the constructors championship
  • Rosberg will leave Mercedes at the end of the year and will join Williams
  • Raikonnen will leave Ferrari.
  • Vettel and Hamilton will be the only two drivers in the hunt for the championship
  • The Hamilton / Rosberg relationship will fall apart completely by the middle of the year
  • The new tyre rules will confuse everyone
  • Channel 4's coverage will divide opinion but be refreshingly different.
  • Martin Brundle will welcome people to F1 several times throughout the season as if he really believes that it's his job to do that. as in 'And if it's your first time watching, welcome'
  • Force India will be under different ownership before the end of the season and this will be their last year as FI. (Eddie Jordan will launch a pointless bid to buy the team back)
  • Little Max will have a difficult second year.
  • Jolyon Palmer will have a very difficult year.
  • Red Bull will only talk about Renault when their engine blows up, if they do well it will all be about the 'Tag' engine.
  • In wider motoring news, the new Top Gear with Chris Evans and that bloke from friends will be absolute dog toffee and the BBC will announce the show will be returning but with a 'fresh look' later in the year (i.e. without Chris Evans and that bloke from friends)
 
Some serious, some frivolous:
  • Vettel WDC
  • Mercedes WCC
  • Max Verstappen will win the Monaco GP (yes, seriously)
  • McLaren will snag one lucky podium in a rain affected race
  • Rio Haryanto will be replaced come the European season
  • Red Bull (probably with Ricciardo) will win one race, probably Hungary or Singapore
  • All the teams will score points
  • Massa, Alonso and Button will retire at the end of the season
  • Sauber will fold at the end of the season
  • Susie Wolff will run off with David Coulthard after working together on C4
  • Honda will buy the Sauber team to run their own car for 2017
  • Williams will win one race (Bottas)
  • I will bitch and moan about Singapore and Yas Marina being gimmicks and why can't they run the races in the day time...
  • There will be some bizarre suggestions for rules changes, such as ballast or short cuts, which will come to nothing
  • Ferrari will threaten to quit F1 (although that is a given at least once per season)
  • Jean Todt will be ousted from the FIA
  • David Croft will tell us a really dull race is fantastic and we don't understand F1
  • Martin Brundle will moon the camera on his British GP grid walk
  • Ted Kravitz's shoes will be a constant item from discussion by the Sky team and still none of us will give a shit
  • It will still piss with rain in Malaysia
  • Lewis and Nico will have a fist fight on the podium of at least one race
  • Toto Wolff will say that this was just "high jinks"
  • Niki Lauda will drop the F bomb at least twice on live TV and call Bernie a ****er
 
I like most of the above, however as a female I just can't agree with Susie Wolf ditching Toto for David Coulthard. In fact I can't see anyone ditching Toto for DC.
 
I predict that Lewis Hamilton will be involved in some sort of controversial incident that will divide fans of the sport on whether it was his fault or not. This will result in a long circular argument on CTA with some posters encamped on each side where tempers rise and the words 'haters' and 'fan boy' will be used.

Oh and @mephistophles will be appointed president of the FIA.
 
My predictions for 2016:

McLaren - will continue to be mostly sub-optimal, with the occasional bout of moderately bouyant as they scrape into the top 5 in a couple of wet races. After a not-so-feverish bout of "will he, won't he?" retirement talk about JB, Alonso will announce he's off back to Renault mid-season, and Stoffel Vandoorne will partner JB in 2017, just as the Honda finally comes good...

Williams - after another brilliantly unspectacular series of not-quite-good results, paddock mum Claire Williams will not be cross, merely disappointed.

Haas - RoGro will score a podium, Gutierrez won't even scrape a point.

Renault - Jolyon Palmer will be the new Paul di Resta (anyone remember him?), KMag will get a podium early on & then be anonymous for the remainder of the year.

Manor - Wehrlein will trouble the scorers on more than one occasion this year. Haryanto will be the new Maldonado (but not as fast, or amusing).

Sauber - will leave us wondering if they ever turned up, once again.

STR - will become Scuderia Alfa Romeo at some point, whereupon I will transfer my allegiance from McLaren.

Red Bull - yeah, no - whatever.

Ferrari - Raikkonen will win either win a race or two and retire, or he'll trundle about in the lower top-10 all year and retire. Either way, he'll retire. Vettel will unleash the digit a couple of times too.

Mercedes - I really couldn't give a bucket full of dried monkey turds what they do, frankly. They are grimly unamusing, and therefore beneath comment.

:goodday:
 
Ok my actual predicitions for 2016

- Lewis Hamitlon to become world champion but Vettel to be runner up and within a respectable distance
- Nico Rosberg to try and be funny in press conferences but look increasingly mentally unstable
- There will be constant talk of Alonso, Massa and Button retiring but none of them will
- Button will be the surprise announcement to replace Kimi at Ferrari
- Alonso will moan a lot but stay at Mclaren
- Massa will sign an extension at Williams
- Kimi will leave Ferrari and look set to retire but suddenly announce a return after a big money offer from Haas
- Kvyat will beat Ricciardo in the Championships standings but won't get as big headline results and will be kicked out of Red Bull
- Sainz will beat Verstappen in the Championships standings but won't get as big headline results and will stay at Torro Rosso
- Verstappen will sign for Red Bull by around the time of the British Grand Prix
- Grosjean will score a podium in one race of the year most likely Spa
- Hulkenberg will finish 4th on multiple occasions but not get a podium
- Perez will get at least one podium
- Werhalain won't be all that good but Toto and some of the media will big him up anyways
- Force India will become Force Mexico by 2017
- Sauber will not make some of the later fly away races
- KMag will start the season thrashing his team-mate but by the time we get to Hungary Palmer will have pegged him
- Neither Renualt driver will drive for the team in 2017
 
Will have a go at this.

  • Lewis Hamilton to be WDC champion
  • Mercedes will win the constructors championship but the will not win the race in Hungary though.
  • Sebastian Vettel will be the best of the rest but will still finish over 100 points behind Hamilton.
  • Nico Rosberg will win in Monaco, Austria and Brazil.
  • Kimi Raikkonnen will be a massive disappointment again this season but he will still race for Ferrari in 2017.
  • Bottas and Massa at Williams will be evenly matched through the season and Williams will still only be 3rd best team on the grid.
  • Red Bull will have a terrible 1st half of the season, then they will say they will quit the sport if the don't get a decent engine for 2017.
  • Carlos Sainz jnr will prove that he is every bit as good as Max Verstappen as he will have better reliability this season from the Torro Rosso.
  • At some point in the season Fernando Alonso will say on team radio that the Honda engine is a GP 3 engine.
  • Jenson Button will say that he is as motivated as ever at Mclaren in March, but come November he will announce his retirement.
  • Renault will struggle with Palmer and Magnusson
  • Sauber will be so short of money come mid season that one of the drivers is replaced by a pay driver from Venezuela.
  • Checo Perez will be finish above Nico Hulkenburg again which will start to make people think that Hulkenburg may have missed his chance to be at a top team.
  • Pascal Wehrlein will do a solid job in the Manor but they will still be at the back of the grid.
  • Rio Haryanto will be considered a worse driver than Alex Yoong ever was.
  • Haas will have there best result in Canada, but they won't score any points though.
 
Ok my actual predicitions for 2016

- Kvyat will beat Ricciardo in the Championships standings but won't get as big headline results and will be kicked out of Red Bull
- Sainz will beat Verstappen in the Championships standings but won't get as big headline results and will stay at Torro Rosso
- Verstappen will sign for Red Bull by around the time of the British Grand Prix

that what i think is possible as well as i put back in december because Max Verstappen will get a move to a senior team by the end of the year even if i think a 3rd yr would be better for his development although it wouldnt surprise me to shocks all again as we said whats this 16yr old doing in f1 car & 12 months later he was 1 of the best drivers on the grid but as usally ive gone off on a tangent, because with this expected to be kimis final season red bulls hand will be forced because if they cant offer verstappen a senior drive then their will be teams queuing around the block to like mercedes, ferrari & possibly williams
 
Mostly all frivolous
  • Haas will win in America.
  • Ron Dennis will replace BE.
  • BE will go to Channel 4 as a pundit.
  • Hamilton will go to Ferrari at the end of the season.
  • Vettel will become WDC.
  • Alonso will quit mid season.
  • Red Bull will be at the back of the field by the end of the season.
  • Massa will quit at the end of the season (who).
  • Renault and Sauber will be in a battle to stay ahead of Red Bull
  • Ricciardo will replace Hamilton at McLaren at the end of the season.
  • Vettel will finish one point ahead of Rosberg. Rosberg will blame Hamilton.
 
1 or both (likely nico) to leave Mercedes at the end of 2016 after another Belgium type incident, the intra team pressure boils over irreparably after the added pressure from vettel breathing Down there necks

Red Bull to win a race or 2 & finish 3rd

Haas f1 will take a bit to settle in but Grosjean will score at least 1pt this season

Max Verstappen will get a move to a "senior" team by the end of the year.

Doing well with some of my predictions although in 3of the 4 they happened alot earlier than I expected
 
Half time review:
  • Someone will get an unexpected result due to being cleverer with the new tyre rules in the flyaways. Grosjean in Australia.
  • The variation in tyre strategies will make way to a new hegemony by the end of the season. Yep.
  • The Azerbaijani government's decision to take the title "European Grand Prix" will convince no-one that Azerbaijan is in Europe, but a whole ton of people that it is, indeed, in Asia. Not sure Europe was mentioned.
  • Williams will be shit in Monaco. Yep.
  • Williams will flatter to deceive. Not a peep from them, really.
  • Fernando Alonso will still not be as funny as Jenson Button on team radio, however hard he tries. Probably still true.
  • Haas will be competitive with Manor. Miles better.
  • Ferrari number 5 will grow increasingly competitive with Mercedes. Nah.
  • Raikkonen will be finally put out to pasture at the end of the season. Nah.
  • Alonso will invite Ron Dennis to do one at the end of the season. Nah.
  • Nico Rosberg will be slightly slower than Hamilton at most races, and look and act like his big brother nicked all his Christmas presents. Yeah, think this one still applies.
  • If Hamilton is ever slower than Rosberg at a race, there will be increasingly bizarre complaints that Mercedes' strategy is unfair because Hamilton wasn't given special treatment. There may have been whispers but it was his starts most blamed.
  • Mercedes' strategy will be conspicuously fair, until Vettel gets within 20 points of them... Ha ha, yeah. Even when they're taking the paint off the other.
  • Maldonado will find himself out of a job by the end of the season. Not in play. Miss him...
  • Gutierrez will thrill the Mexican audience by getting the shite kicked out of him by Grosjean. Only on points, surprisingly competitive in performance.
  • Palmer will be good, but not half as good as the British press seem to think... Useless.
  • ... Ricciardo too ... Probably not as good as reputation, but he's awesome!
  • ... Bottas too ... Kicked Massa out of town unheralded.
  • Manor will actually start to outperform someone other than Haas. Sauber? Sometimes.
  • The McLaren-Honda story shall just get funnier. No, they look like a professional racing team.
  • There will be lots of talk about the ultra-soft going off in one lap, then a Force India or Sauber will run the bloody things for 34 laps at Monaco, possibly with Kimi Raikkonen climbing all over said gearbox. Don't think so, please correct me.
  • The Finn, Finn and half-Finn podium of Raikkonen, Bottas and Rosberg will finally come to fruition. Watch this space!
  • The pole-sitter will win in Barcelona. Crash!
  • The rain will return to Interlagos.
  • Force India will perform well at Spa despite going on about how shit they'll be.
  • Red Bull will not pull out of F1.
  • Ferrari will not pull out of F1.
  • Prost will no longer be alone on 4 WDCs, although he'll celebrate eDAMS' double with Buemi in Formula E. Well, Moosey just about survived being punted into the wall. Looking good for #LH44. I forgot Seb V though!
 
So let's review how well I did this year:

  • Every team on the grid will score points.
  • Off to a flying start. Yes they did.
  • McLaren will get onto the podium once this season.
  • No they didn't
  • Button will retire at the end of the year
  • Spot on. He did.
  • Alonso will talk about retirement but not actually go through with it.
  • There was a bit of talk but nothing concrete. An ish.
  • Williams will announce a deal to run Honda engines in 2017
  • Nope but with big Ron out of the way, there's time yet.
  • Sauber will finish last in the constructors championship
  • Nope but it was oh so close
  • Rosberg will leave Mercedes at the end of the year and will join Williams
  • Never in a million years.
  • Raikonnen will leave Ferrari.
  • Wrong
  • Vettel and Hamilton will be the only two drivers in the hunt for the championship
  • Vettel had a poor season
  • The Hamilton / Rosberg relationship will fall apart completely by the middle of the year
  • Ish. I think its pretty much dead now.
  • The new tyre rules will confuse everyone
  • Ish.
  • Channel 4's coverage will divide opinion but be refreshingly different.
  • Under the circumstances the C4 team did ok.
  • Martin Brundle will welcome people to F1 several times throughout the season as if he really believes that it's his job to do that. as in 'And if it's your first time watching, welcome'
  • As always.
  • Force India will be under different ownership before the end of the season and this will be their last year as FI. (Eddie Jordan will launch a pointless bid to buy the team back)
  • Great season for the team and VM is still at the helm.
  • Little Max will have a difficult second year.
  • Some on track issues but a great season.
  • Jolyon Palmer will have a very difficult year.
  • A crap car didn't help but he did very little. As boring as his dad. Sorry.
  • Red Bull will only talk about Renault when their engine blows up, if they do well it will all be about the 'Tag' engine.
  • Red Bull were strangely quiet about engines all season.
  • In wider motoring news, the new Top Gear with Chris Evans and that bloke from friends will be absolute dog toffee and the BBC will announce the show will be returning but with a 'fresh look' later in the year (i.e. without Chris Evans and that bloke from friends)
  • Correct on every count apart from the bit about the bloke from friends.
Well, if there is on thing I should have predicted is that virtually all my predictions would be wrong.
 
Here were mine:

- Lewis Hamitlon to become world champion but Vettel to be runner up and within a respectable distance

WRONG!!!

- Nico Rosberg to try and be funny in press conferences but look increasingly mentally unstable

Not as much as last year.

- There will be constant talk of Alonso, Massa and Button retiring but none of them will

WRONG!

- Button will be the surprise announcement to replace Kimi at Ferrari

WRONG!

- Alonso will moan a lot but stay at Mclaren

CORRECT!

- Massa will sign an extension at Williams

WRONG!

- Kimi will leave Ferrari and look set to retire but suddenly announce a return after a big money offer from Haas

WRONG!

- Kvyat will beat Ricciardo in the Championships standings but won't get as big headline results and will be kicked out of Red Bull

FIRST PART WRONG. SECOND PART RIGHT.

- Sainz will beat Verstappen in the Championships standings but won't get as big headline results and will stay at Torro Rosso

WRONG!

- Verstappen will sign for Red Bull by around the time of the British Grand Prix

WRONG!

- Grosjean will score a podium in one race of the year most likely Spa

WRONG (BUT ONLY JUST)

- Hulkenberg will finish 4th on multiple occasions but not get a podium

NO PODIUM STILL, SO NOT SURE IF I WAS WRONG FULLY

- Perez will get at least one podium

HE DID RIGHT?

- Werhalain won't be all that good but Toto and some of the media will big him up anyways

WRONG!

- Force India will become Force Mexico by 2017

WRONG!

- Sauber will not make some of the later fly away races

WRONG!

- KMag will start the season thrashing his team-mate but by the time we get to Hungary Palmer will have pegged him

CORRECT! JUST ABOUT.

- Neither Renualt driver will drive for the team in 2017

WRONG!
 
Quick review of mine

  • Vettel WDC Nope - nowhere near
  • Mercedes WCC Yup
  • Max Verstappen will win the Monaco GP (yes, seriously) Well he won in Spain albeit after moving to RBR
  • McLaren will snag one lucky podium in a rain affected race Not even close
  • Rio Haryanto will be replaced come the European season Half way through the European season
  • Red Bull (probably with Ricciardo) will win one race, probably Hungary or Singapore They won 2 but neither of the ones I predicted
  • All the teams will score points Yup
  • Massa, Alonso and Button will retire at the end of the season 2 out of 3
  • Sauber will fold at the end of the season They got bought out otherwise I suspect this would be true
  • Susie Wolff will run off with David Coulthard after working together on C4 Hmm, isn't Susie up the duff? Let's see if the baby has a Scottish accent ;)
  • Honda will buy the Sauber team to run their own car for 2017 Nope
  • Williams will win one race (Bottas) Nope
  • I will bitch and moan about Singapore and Yas Marina being gimmicks and why can't they run the races in the day time... Not as much as normal
  • There will be some bizarre suggestions for rules changes, such as ballast or short cuts, which will come to nothing I'm sure there were some and we have some pretty big changes for next year
  • Ferrari will threaten to quit F1 (although that is a given at least once per season) They are planning to go to Formula E and reduce funding to the F1 team
  • Jean Todt will be ousted from the FIA Nope
  • David Croft will tell us a really dull race is fantastic and we don't understand F1 Oh yes
  • Martin Brundle will moon the camera on his British GP grid walk I didn't really expect this to happen but it would have been fun if it did
  • Ted Kravitz's shoes will be a constant item from discussion by the Sky team and still none of us will give a shit I didn't hear them mentioned once
  • It will still piss with rain in Malaysia Not a drop
  • Lewis and Nico will have a fist fight on the podium of at least one race It was pretty close on occasions but nothing physical
  • Toto Wolff will say that this was just "high jinks" He was very corporate in his defence of his drivers
  • Niki Lauda will drop the F bomb at least twice on live TV and call Bernie a ****er No, but Vettel did tell Charlie Whiting to **** off
 
Back
Top Bottom