Is this going to be a boring season?

[truefan72]

Trulli (but also his team-mates) wasn't that bad. He was an adequate midfield driver comparable to the likes of Webber, Barrichello, and others, who were also in midfield on those days. Toyota didn't attract a top driver, but then again nobody among them would have liked to join the team back then anyway. But Toyota drivers were fine among other midfield drivers, who were there at the time.

As for Sauber. I doubt they are THAT good that they can fight against Williams, let alone Ferrari. There are some pretty clear class differences among teams. We should not overexaggerate.

For instance at the Australian GP Massa (4th in the Williams) finished almost a minute in front of Nasr (5th in the Sauber). And this is Massa we are talking about, who is not known for stunning race pace. It is easily possible at that race Nasr as a driver happened to have a good day and performed just as well as Massa.

lol @ the massa race pace comment.
But yeah fair points. but lest we forget the "Trulli train", my man trulli was not known for the best race pace either and they overpaid for an unmotivated Ralf Schumacher which meant they had no budget to attract someone else. I'll partially forgive them for that since ralf was pretty quick during his williams stint.

But i remember a more than decent car that should have won several gp's already.
Especially in 2009 where they along with brawn got a jump on the competition with the Double Diffuser and trulli putting the car on pole in Bahrain. Trulli and glock were below average at that time and the team suffered.

As to the 2015 sauber, it surprised me tbh, but i still think that alonso and jenson would have wrestled a lot more out of the car and just like ferrari proved in malaysia, you can benefit from situations to get a jump on your competition. I don't think ericson brings much to the table besides money. And nasr to me would have benefited from a year as a 3rd driver. His entire gp2 career was marked as a timid driver who needed to be coaxed to up the pace. He also had a less developed feel for tires and more than often left his push for the front too late. I watched a lot of gp2, with enough races to firmly make an informed opinion about his race craft. Heck if they had petrov and buemi or even diresta in that sauber, i still believe they would extract more race pace from that car, as well as providing constructive feedback to help improve the car.

So yeah, maybe australia was a bit of a mirage, but i just get the sense, 2 better drivers would vastly improve the performance. and pus the likes of ferrari and williams.

[Duncan]

I don't expect it to be a boring season at all. It seems right now to be much closer between Mercedes and Ferrari than I expected, and with continued development I'm fully expecting to see Vettel (and possibly Kimi) on the top step of the podium more than a few times as the season progresses.

The fight between Hamilton and Rosberg last season was certainly interesting, but I'd much rather have a strong inter-team fight, preferably with more than two competitive teams. It's been quite some time since we've seen the constructor's championship not be a foregone conclusion right out of the gate. I think Mercedes will still have it this season, but it will be closer than we've seen since before the Red Bull era.

[steveaki13]

I went to and then re watched on TV the First round of the World Endurance Championship at Silverstone at the weekend.

We had a really great race in the front of LMP1 and all classes through the race.

I mean #7 Audi and #18 Porsche had an epic battle around 2 hours. The Audi so good in the corners kept passing the Porsche around the outside and inside and then the Porsche was mighty on the straights.

It was the kind of battle F1 can only dream of these days. Hamilton v Rosberg last season a few times was great, but nothing like that.

It was great racing and much more pure and thrilling than most of F1 these days sadly.

[zako85]

^

That battle at Silverstone was probably better than any F1 wheel to wheel battle in the last 4-5 years. My stereotypical view of WEC battles was about races of attrition and complex strategies, where many overtakes happen in the pits due to clever strategy and wheel to wheel racing lasts at best a couple of laps. But the 6 hours of Silvestone was an epic battle.

[Whyzars]

It was great racing and much more pure...

How can you say that?


The WEC is violently burning ancient rainforests and drowning polar bears.

F1 is cuddling infant gorilla's and spraying potpourri from the exhaust.

F1 is much more pure...

[steveaki13]

How can you say that?


The WEC is violently burning ancient rainforests and drowning polar bears.

F1 is cuddling infant gorilla's and spraying potpourri from the exhaust.

F1 is much more pure...

[Mia 01]

Not for me. I´m looking forward to see Kimi and Seb hunting down thoose mers. Perhaps some wins is on the cards for Kimi?

[steveaki13]

Not for me. I´m looking forward to see Kimi and Seb hunting down thoose mers. Perhaps some wins is on the cards for Kimi?

I hope so. Really would like to see Kimi back to his old self