America vs Malaysia vs Switzerland vs Spain vs Yorkshire

[teabagyokel]

Which of the new teams will win out in the end of the season?

Oh say can you see by the dawn's early light, USF1's website is up and running and it seems like they are a very professional outfit. Whilst they may have the best motorhome at Montreal, will running an F1 team from the USA end up a little bit... Michael Andretti?

Team Malaysia F1, or as some call it Lotus, seem to have two experienced Formula One qualifiers on board but don't seem to have a racer! They've had less time than the others to prepare. Will Colin Chapman spend another year turning in his grave, or will Lotus be the best of the newbies?

Are Sauber even considered new. Are they the continuation of the BMW team in all but name. Are they to BMW what Brawn were to Honda? Will they have the same results? And will Kamui Kobayashi continue his form from Abu Dhabi & Brazil?

Campos Meta Dallara Cosworth have signed a relative of one of F1's great champions, but Dallara were not successful constructors when with Scuderia Italia, and Bruno is inexperienced. Ecclestone doesn't expect Campos on the grid, never mind at the front...

And finally, Virgin have hired an experienced driver with an exciting youngster, as some of us had been urging all the new teams to do! But will Nick Wirth's latest stab at F1 be any better than his last? Will they be professional enough to defeat the other new teams? They have the most obvious sponsor, but will Wirth be heading back on the road to Verstappen and Schiattarella again?

 

[FB]

Putting them in order of how they will finish in the WCC

Sauber - simple as they have so much experience, BMW's money designed the chassis and they haven't got to use Cosworth engines. It wouldn't surprise me if Sauber managed to beat Force India and Torro Rosso (and maybe Williams) in the WCC.

The other teams will almost certainly make up the bottom 4 in the WCC and this is the order I think they will finish.

Lotus - although their drivers may not be the most exciting they will sort the car and do a good job.
Manor - Nick Wirth's company has made some good cars in the lower formulas and, compared to his last effort in F1, this should help. The driver line is pretty good, pairing experience with a young charger so shouldn't do too badly.
Campos - they will need an experienced driver to help sort the car but Dallara are competent race car makers. Not sure about Senna, he may just be trading on the family name and I think he will need an experienced team mate to sort the car.
USF1 - having two design centres seems like a pretty stupid idea to me as they will split their resources. No drivers as yet and if they insist on an all American line-up it is almost doomed to fail (hey guys, they have corners in both over direction here

 

[cider_and_toast]

I agree with FB that Sauber will continue to be a competative mid field runner next season. I can't see any reason why that would change.

As for the new teams it's a lot tougher to call however I have to agree with FB's assesment.

1) Sauber
2) Lotus
3) Virgin
4) Campos
5) USF1

I think if these teams can survive the next few years, the team with the most potential should be Virgin. I feel Lotus need to look again at moving the team lock stock and barrel to Malaysia where it will be a lot harder to attract the top tallent in F1.

 

[LifeW12]

One team will do a Mastercard Lola

 

[snowy]

As we are including Sauber they have to be favourites to carry this trophy home. So I will discount them!

My bet is that having "The Pitbull" in charge of the technical side of things is going to be a major asset in the short term. In the long term it may well turn out to be a dangerous and fractious relationship but in the meantime Mike Gascoyne is going to be the man to beat.

Lotus is the most likely best of the new breed of dog...