My Past F1 Predictions

[rjbetty]

I didn´t do as much for 2004 and didn't play Grand Prix 2 as much. My 2004 expected season was just a continuation of 2003 really.

EXPECTED QUALIFYING AVERAGES
1.Barrichello
2.R.Schumacher (Williams) +0.02
3.Montoya (Williams) +0.08
4.M.Schumacher (Ferrari) +0.12
5.Raikkonen (McLaren) +0.25
6.Alonso (Renault) +0.42
7.Trulli (Renault) +0.45
8.Coulthard (McLaren) +0.45
9.Button (BAR) +0.60
10.da Matta (Toyota) +0.80
11.Panis (Toyota) +0.84
12.Webber (Jaguar) +0.90
13.Sato (BAR) +1.00
14.Fisichella (Sauber) +1.40
15.Massa (Sauber) +1.58
16.Heidfeld (Jordan) +1.60
17.Klien (Jaguar) +1.63
18.Pantano (Jordan) +2.24
19.Bruni (Minardi) +3.02
20.Baumgartner (Minardi) +4.58


FERRARI
Barrichello was about the best qualifier in 2003 but I didn't realise how much of it was down to low fuel. I thought Michael was losing it a little.

WILLIAMS
Can't remember why I had Ralf ahead. Perhaps anticipating a quick car, Ralf tended to step up whenever the car was good.

MCLAREN
Kimi was the favourite for the title, but then I heard McLaren were having problems. I wanted DC to bounce back from 2003.

RENAULT
Alonso to improve and more than match Trulli in qualifying, not just due to lower fuel this time.

BAR
To clearly be the 5th best team this time, even though they were tipped for even better, I had them some way off the top 4 teams. Sato I correctly predicted to average 0.4sec off Button.

SAUBER
I wasn't hopeful of much, knowing Fisi's misfortune. At least it would be an improvement over 2003, but that wasn't saying
much. Massa to be closer to Fisi in qualifying than the race.

JAGUAR
Expected Mark Webber to build on 2003 and Jaguar to close some of the deficit in races. Klien to be at least 0.7sec behind, something I managed to get right.

TOYOTA
I expected quite big things here following the end of 2003 with 2nd row grid slots! Both drivers, da Matta in particular to grab some fairly big results here and there for a strong 6th in the WCC.

JORDAN
Eddie Jordan said Jordan had made their biggest ever step in aerodynamic performance (where did I hear this before...?) but I believed this and thought how rotten Fisi's fortune is for Jordan to make a leap as soon as he leaves, just as Renault did, and Jordan the first time!!! They could even be ahead of Sauber, but I guessed most likely not. Verstappen was a dead cert for the 2nd seat and I was absolutely gutted he didn't get it.

MINARDI
It was said that Minardi were about 3sec off the pace before the season started. I was a huge fan of Gianmaria Bruni since 2000 in British F3 - I just really liked him for some reason and thought he would be a very strong and talented driver, annihilating Baumgartner. I had Heinz-Harald Frentzen in my GP2 line-up for a while, and loved his helmet against the black Minardi!






ALSO FOR 2003

ARROWS-COSWORTH
I forgot to mention Arrows. If they could have continued into 2003, I heard a fair bit about them trying to sign Irvine, so I had him in my Grand Prix 2 season, alongside Ricardo Mauricio placed by Red Bull, who I heard somewhere might/would get a drive. I couldn't understand why Mauricio as I didn't rate him and it seemed he was destroyed by Bernoldi in F3000.

Needless to say, the car would be very uncompetitive without development, probably no Cosworth engines either, though I included those.

[jens]

I wanted to say one more thing about 2003. The Australian GP. When I saw qualifying, some of my pre-season hopes had been "confirmed". Panis 5th on the grid in Toyota, the Saubers of Frentzen and Heidfeld a fabulous 4th and 6th. I don't remember exactly, but they were thereabouts.

I thought - the new rules, the shake-up, and the consistent Sauber team can go really well this year. Renault was underwhelming in quali as was Williams - also expected. Räikkönen looked set for 3rd fastest time behind the Ferraris before he had an off. The only thing was that the BAR was very fast in free practice and impressed a lot. I remember they had hired Geoff Willis the former Williams chief designer recently. I thought this had helped. But I thought the Honda engines were going to regularly blow up as per usual.

But of course race was a different story. Ferrari had a 4th and crash. Renault moved well up (5th and 7th). Toyota disappeared. BAR didn't score. Sauber went on to be pretty slow in dry weather races for most of the year. After Australian GP I thought - "ok, Ferrari is not going to have a smooth season this year and an easy run to titles." And this proved to be the case.

[jens]

2004

This was one of the first times I can remember I really did a proper prediction. In an Excel-table, imagining through all races. And I did it before winter tests, before any guidelines. Now I can't remember the exact rankings let alone exact points, but I remember some general form-lines. IIRC it saw Räikkönen winning the championship from M.Schumacher.

Let's remember the hype around McLaren. All through 2003 they were developing their new revolutionary car MP4/18, which indeed looked revolutionary. It was said it was the first car, which was properly built for the demands of Michelin tyres, while the previous car was just "adapted" for it. There was a lot of hype around and the looks helped as the car seemed like one from the future. I thought if they could compete for the title in 2003 even with the old "updated" car, what can they do with the new one.

Now, I didn't expect a dominant season, but a close fight for the title. In which McLaren/Räikkönen prevailed in the end. Ferrari/M.Schumacher were its usual solid self, but I felt 2003 indicated their era was coming to an end. Still good, but not enough to win in the end. With Bridgestone tyres still lagging behind.

Williams was a bit of a mystery. On one hand they had been very fast in 2003, then again they seemed to have peaked. I thought if they couldn't deliver titles even with what seemed to be the fastest car on many circuits and by far the best tyres and also the best engine, what else do they want? I started losing belief in their drivers. I also thought that as Montoya had already announced his switch to McLaren, he viewed them as a better long-term prospect. So while expected Williams to be fast, "something" was missing to make their challenge complete.

Then the big story, the Toyota. In my prediction they were the breakthrough team and da Matta the breakthrough driver. Let's remember real 2004. The breakthrough driver was Button with lots of podiums. But in my prediction it was da Matta, who got a few podiums and I don't remember if a win was among them too. Panis had a solid season, but was already old and past his prime and I thought would be outshone by the impressive Brazilian. Thought Toyota would now properly deliver on the promise with Gascoyne on board. It is also worth recalling that in late 2003 Toyota actually qualified 3rd in both USA (Panis) and Japan (da Matta) and even though they were probably a bit short on fuel while achieving this, it reinforced my view that the team was about to come really good.

Interestingly I didn't have high expectations on Renault and I was regularly underrating the Enstone-based team, a miscalculation I recognized only in late 2005 season! In 2003 there were rumours they had the worst engine and also lost chief designer Gascoyne. So it felt like 2003 was a bit of a "punching above their weight" season. So now predicted them to be 5th best team.

Then somewhere behind I think was BAR. Button with his usual solid driving, but without podiums to back it up. Sato getting only a few points. Sauber with Fisichella stronger than 2003, battling with BAR. Massa also getting points on board. Jaguar sometimes impressing in qualifyings, but overall in midfield with Webber. Perhaps relatively a bit worse off than 2003, behind BAR and Sauber. And then Jordan and Minardi at the back.

Overall...
In 2003 I had seen teams being very close. Top3 going for the title, Renault going well. Toyota, BAR, Jaguar all showing speed from time-to-time too. This made me think we had entered a new era. The era of close competition. With lots of big-budgeted factory teams. So I thought 2004 was going to be close again. Jaguar was "good", but because the competition was close I would have had them only 8th in the constructors. Had I predicted qualifying gaps (I didn't) I think they would have all been pretty close.

All in all... One of my "shittiest" predictions of all times. Yeah, but while compiling this, it all made so much sense. Maybe in alternative universe would have worked.

[jens]

FERRARI
Barrichello was about the best qualifier in 2003 but I didn't realise how much of it was down to low fuel. I thought Michael was losing it a little.

WILLIAMS
Can't remember why I had Ralf ahead. Perhaps anticipating a quick car, Ralf tended to step up whenever the car was good.

MCLAREN
Kimi was the favourite for the title, but then I heard McLaren were having problems. I wanted DC to bounce back from 2003.

RENAULT
Alonso to improve and more than match Trulli in qualifying, not just due to lower fuel this time.

Regarding drivers. Before every season I thought Barrichello would get beaten by Schumi, because - well - he is #2 and needless to say, inferior driver too.

Before 2002 I expected Montoya to beat Ralf. Before 2003 I thought it could be close. Before 2004 I had Montoya clearly as favourite.

In McLaren I was waiting each year, when will Kimi beat DC. In 2003 it happened, by a bigger margin than perhaps anticipated. Though I knew DC can be "fortunate" with reliability (more reliable car in both 2001 and 2002 than his team-mates) and with top8 point system it could suit him.

Needless to say, I rated Trulli highly, but considered him horrendously unlucky. Suffering from lots of reliability issues all through 2000-2002 and got outpointed by team-mates even if I had considered Trulli to perform better on average. So in predicting points and results I always sort of counted on Jarno losing a good chunk of points due to misfortune and hence team-mate getting more points. For me it was a pretty frustrating experience.

I remember Japanese GP of 2003. Jarno was fast all weekend, yet it was raining, when it was his attempt for the qualifying lap. So he started from the back and yet made his way up to 5th in the race. This sort of summed up Trulli's career at the time. I thought he can never catch a break.

Fortunately it changed in 2004. Finally Trulli had a reliable car, got consistent points and even won a race. That season was a huge relief to me.

[rjbetty]

Webber will never win a World Championship and unless he's given the best car in the field, probably will never win a race either.

- 25th March 2006.

Webber never did win a World Championship.
Webber never did win a race until given the best car in the field; even then Vettel had already racked up 3 (actually 2 lol) victories.

This was a bit harsh maybe? Did you watch the 2006 Monaco GP? Also, have a further look at Nurburgring 2005 (the one where Kimi retired on the last lap), where Webber qualified 3rd on a very heavy fuel load; fuel-corrected he would have started on pole ahead of the McLarens and Renaults. He was very well set up for the race. Given that Heidfeld finished a not far off 2nd place, it seems it was truly the one that got away for Mark (he was eliminated in a turn 1 collision with Montoya, which he accepted blame for).

[jens]

One more thing about Renault. When they locked out the front-row in Malaysia 2003 and even more so when Alonso finished second in the Spanish GP, I was adamant that it is only the matter of time before this team wins the championship. It indeed happened in 2005-2006.

However, my perennial doubts about this team started from late 2003, when Gascoyne left and there were rumours Renault's budget isn't quite a match to other factory teams.

[jens]

So what about 2005? Before winter tests, about January, I remember myself doing an Excel prediction. Once again it was far off. In both 2004 and 2005 F1 pecking order changed so much that this was the period, which was pretty challenging to get even remotely correct.

But the balance of powers and my reasonings at the time were the following:

In general: once again I expected the field to be close with perhaps up to 4-5 teams winning races . Of course 2004 saw Ferrari dominating, but I maintained my belief that F1 was still close-competition era with lots of factories. Especially as the end of 2004 saw Ferrari's advantage slashed somewhat and with McLaren and Williams gaining form we had 5 teams, who could compete for podiums. I thought it could get pretty exciting indeed between those 5 teams in 2005, and who knows, what others can do.

IIRC the Excel prediction saw Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari winning the championship with Räikkönen close behind him in second. Then Button again in third in the BAR and then behind him a very close competition between Barrichello, Montoya, Renaults, Williamses and also Sato and Toyotas were pretty close and it is almost impossible for me to now remember the exact order of them all. All collecting around 25-60 points in the WDC standings, while the champion was close to 100. Or at least what I vaguely remember.

Ferrari to win again, but with a relatively small advantage. I thought 2005 would be another 2003 with competition closing up again and Schumi marginally beating Räikkönen. I thought late 2004 indicated Ferrari's advantage was going to be eaten up. But I never thought the tyres were going to be so bad that Ferrari would be midfield in 2005!

Then McLaren. They had improved in the second half of 2004, so I thought this was the sign that they got out of troubles and the legendary team was once again prepared to go for titles. Räikkönen had won a single race in both 2003 and 2004 and I thought now he could finally become „multiple winner“ per season. Montoya to be more inconsistent and lose out, though get a win or two too. In the end McLaren wasn't far off from my thoughts, though their raw speed was even better than I thought – should have won most races bar reliability.

BAR I thought had established themselves as a strong team in 2004 though I pondered whether the Button debacle had destabilized them. When Button was announced at Williams and in late 2004 it was pondered whether BAR's line-up is going to be Sato-Davidson, I was fearful this could seriously hinder the potential of the strong team. However, I still thought they were once again good enough to get podiums, but struggle to win races. And I thought Sato would do well... score closer to Button's tally, because in 2004 Sato's engine blew up quite often, which I thought would be rectified.

Williams was a questionmark team to me. I thought Webber-Heidfeld was a good line-up and both drivers deserved their break. But after 2004 I didn't think the team had the spark to win titles any more. I thought at best they could perhaps win an odd race or two here or there. In the end they weren't too far off the expectation, especially in the first half of the season with Heidfeld collecting two second places.

Renault. I thought late 2004 indicated the team doesn't quite have the depth to challenge all season. As we remember, they dropped back to 3rd and let BAR past them in WCC. Renault arguably had a bit less budget than other manufacturers too. So I thought – they are again gonna be good early in the season, get podiums, maybe a win, but later fade.

Toyota – after the miserable 2004 I became much more cautious about them and realized they are not going to get to the top that quickly. I was unsure what to expect, but thought they should at least have the ability to beat the privateer Sauber and the new Red Bull team. Trulli-R.Schumacher was also a new improved line-up and it seemed the team was about to enter a new era of gradual improvement. I thought they could challenge the other 5 factory teams and Trulli with his good qualifying can get top 6 grid slots, but in strategy games and tight competition the team could lose a bit ground in points accumulation. In the end their 2005 was stronger than I thought, especially the first half.

Sauber – expected 2005 to be slightly worse after the departure of Fisichella and the arrival of Villeneuve, who I didn't understand, why he was hired, because I saw him as pretty hopeless late in 2004 in Renault and thought Massa would show him up. Otherwise Sauber to be its usual solid self, getting odd points here and there. In the end not far off.

Red Bull – it looked like the team was in a mess after Ford pulled the plug on the underperforming Jaguar. At one point I was unsure if Red Bull could even drop back to race with Jordan and Minardi, then I realized they should still be good enough to be better than that and perhaps compete with Sauber and get a few points on board. In the end they surprised a lot, especially early on.

Jordan and Minardi at the back again, this was the surest prediction of all!

[steveaki13]

I remember being quite excited as the 2004 season arrived. It came after IMO a great season in 2003 and after a couple of years of Ferrari dominance in 2001 & 2002, I firmly thought 2004 would be another close season. Honestly though, despite how wrong I was about that I still enjoyed the season more than say 2002.

Ferrari - I had the naivety to believe that Ferrari were on the wane after 2003 and the close finish we had that season. However they would obviously prove me wrong. The first race in Australia made my heart sink immediately. As they pulled out 5 odd seconds in the first couple of laps. There is not alot more I can say really about Ferrari in 2004. They were awesome and who could have predicted it was the last hurrah of that era. Come the end of season it appeared they would continue to dominate F1.

BAR - The biggest shock of the season for me. I was excited about the end of 2003, but never predicted the fantastic season they would have. The car was super to look at and Jenson (who I have always liked) was predicted for big things, which looked slightly off key as they only finished a normal BAR 6th in Australia. However in Malaysia Jenson finally got the long awaited Podium. Then again in Bahrain.
I dont know if anyone agree's but Imola was Jenson's best race of the season IMO. He qualified on Pole Position for the first time after that stunning 3rd sector. Then remember Schumi almost going off the road at Variante Alta. Then he led the first stint as he and Michael left the field for chips. Jenson drove brilliantly that weekend and could never have beaten Michael but did the best he could. I always felt Imola was better than Monaco because with no Ferrari in Monaco and appearing to climb all over Trulli late on, he must have been faster as so should have won. Anyway come the end of the season BAR and Renault had really shaken up F1 for the better.

Renault- Renault improved again in 2004 and along with BAR freshened up 2004. Beating Macca and Williams. I saw Renault as being better than BAR for 2004 to be honest but despite Sato not scoring anything like the points of JB. BAR still won the battle. Alonso was great and consistent and despite being the better driver he missed out on the one race win. Trulli may have only won one GP in his career but what a race to win. He drove amongst the best I have ever seen him in Monaco. So fast and so committed. Although a couple of his 2004 drives from the back of the grid to 5th and 4th were quite good too. I also have fond memories of Jacques being rubbish for Renault in his 3 race stint.

Williams -The old Walrus was a ridiculous thing to look at, but I was actually pleased to see it. I always wanted cars to appear different as I felt it added to the spectacle. Williams I seem to remember I predicted having a decent season and maybe being closest to Ferrari if not beating them. Way off really I guess but it was more that I didnt see BAR & Renault being so strong. Ralf Schumacher I felt really fell away from his form in 2004 before his crash in Indy. Remember in 2001-2003 he had won races and was at certain times of each season the fastest driver. 2004 I feel now looking back on it was a perfect for runner of some pretty rubbish years at Toyota where Trulli outclassed him most of the time. Montoya won the Brazilian GP brilliantly. To be honest thinking back now I cannot really remember much about his 2004.

Toyota - Panis and Da Matta again didnt exactly fill me with excitement that they would be moving on up. I always looked for signs that Toyota were improving as I originally had felt sure that they would be a force in F1 at some point given budget and heritage. I can't honestly recall masses about their 2004. I mostly remember Zonta racing in Belgium and running 4th before a retirement close to the end.

Sauber- I remember liking the Sauber teams 2004 line up. I always liked Fisi (not as much as rj ) and I felt he was wasting his 2003 in the Jordan team as sad as it is to say it. I always felt Sauber would have a better season than in 2003. Massa I remembered from his reckless 2002 form and guessed a year with Ferrari may well have been good for him and settled him down a bit and so it proved. I remember Fisichella and Massa having some great drives for major points paying positions. 4th for Fisi in Canada, 5th for Felipe in Monaco and 4th and 5th in the crazy Belgian GP.

Jaguar - I remember being excited about Jaguar for 2004. 2003 had seen a shift from backmarker in 2002 to a competative midfield team in 2003. Webber staying on was great and I guessed he might make a podium somewhere. I also though Klien would be exciting. I guessed he would be a bit erratic being so young, but fast. It turned out he wasn't all that fast, but I remember the 2004 Bahrain GP. He was constantly hassled Raikkonen early on and made several attempts to pass. All of which didnt quite come off, but it was good to see a driver having a go. All in all 2004 disappointed from a Jaguar point of view. They only scored 10 points. Webber had a few amazing qualifying displays. Like the front row in Malaysia. However it was all a bit of a let down.

Jordan -It was the first season I really remember not expecting anything from Jordan. Since 1998-2000 I was constantly expecting or hoping that Jordan would be able to get back further up the grid. Even in 2003 I had hoped the would improve on 2002. By 2004 I was resigned to Jordan battling Minardi. As it turned out they were in a real no mans land. Minardi were so slow in 2004 Jordan often lapped them while being lapped by the rest. Heidfeld I was a fan of and Pantano I knew nothing about. I was pleased to see Heidfeld give it a go and in Monaco he raced well to stay on track and score a couple of points. The crazy disqualification fest that was Canada allowed a 7th and 8th, but sadly it was becoming obvious Jordan were collapsing.

Minardi -I felt 2003 was one of Minardi's better cars and best seasons without scoring points. They led a session and often battle in midfield in the early season. 2004 seemed like the team were totally unprepared. The car was slow and often was lapped 4 or 5 times as opposed to 2003, where 1 or 2 times was common. I didnt rate the drivers much either. Bruni was average and Baumgartner was a hard trier, but really not up to it. Despite his point in the US Gp I rate 2003 a much better season than 2004.


So those are my thoughts on 2004. A season I quite enjoyed despite absolute domination by Schumacher and Ferrari.

[journeyman racer]

This was a bit harsh maybe? Did you watch the 2006 Monaco GP? Also, have a further look at Nurburgring 2005 (the one where Kimi retired on the last lap), where Webber qualified 3rd on a very heavy fuel load; fuel-corrected he would have started on pole ahead of the McLarens and Renaults. He was very well set up for the race. Given that Heidfeld finished a not far off 2nd place, it seems it was truly the one that got away for Mark (he was eliminated in a turn 1 collision with Montoya, which he accepted blame for).

If you like Webber, then fine. However Rollo was accurate noticing his mediocrity from reasonably early on. Don't make excuses for Mark.

[rjbetty]

This was a big one, and probably my last real year where I was REALLY interested in wondering and expecting how the form might turn out. I wasn't really fussed on 2004, but revived my interest a little as there were so many driver changes to make things interesting.

At first, I didn't have a clue about the implications of the one tyre rule, and when it dawned on me, I was very excited, because I hadn't yet seen anything like this. It was a whole new variable, which can cause unpredictability, it would test a new driver facet, and be something that can be prone to human errors by drivers. Unlike Pirelli 2013, I really liked that thedrivers could push, but they also had to be intelligent and couldn't just mindlessly abuse the tyres. It was another thing to factor in.


2005 more than any other season on my Grand Prix 2 seasons had so many drivers in the cars at different times according to information available at the time. I will go into detail below.


2004 was the very height of my tendency to base my predictions far too much on the previous season (2003), so I resolved to learn from this...


FERRARI
...Yet I still had Ferrari in front, and at the time, like almost everyone else, did not really conceive of anyone other than M.Schumacher winning the title. I didn't really believe it when in testing it was said Renault and McLaren were the best with the 2004 Ferrari some way behind! At the time, this seemed as hard to believe as the prospect of Ricciardo outperforming Vettel before the 2014 season kicked off. Ominously, it was looking very possible Ferrari would adapt to the one tyre rule far better than anyone else and be even more dominant once the 2005 car was fully up to speed... As for Barrichello, I always hoped as with every year, but now I'd pretty much given up on him beating Michael over a season. I wasn't expecting a classic from him tbh for some reason - a slightly less impressive one this time. Some of this was because I was expecting competition to be VERY close behind Michael...


BAR
After their stellar 2004, big things were predicted for BAR, now to be known as B.A.R. (huh?) Jenson was thought to challenge for the title. I didn't have him quite that good, but for a long time had him as the closest (least distant) challenger to Michael. Because of all that palaver over the Williams contract in summer 2004, I had at various times Davidson, Sato, Coulthard, Hakkinen(!) and even Trulli, and even Helio Castroneves at one point driving for the team, though the latter was wishful thinking according to rumours, as I was a huge fan of Helio's.

I had Jenson being more win or bust than other drivers winning multiple races but the car being more unreliable than in 2004. As for Sato, he had been sort of impressive in 2004 I guess, but I did have big expectations for him in 2005, including winning a race! I had him being much closer to Jenson.


RENAULT
For a short while, I was depressed at the thought of Renault plateauing and falling to even only 5th or 6th overall. This was because while all the other teams had big plans and were in the limelight, Renault seemed strangely unheard of. I will never forget one of my best ever F1 moments in the summer of 2004 when one day going onto teletext (no internet back then, especially in the valleys) the sudden news that Fisichella had been signed by Renault for 2005! Finally, a top team after all these years! It was an amazing dream come true and good times.

However, they were very quiet over the winter, and didn't look t have major improvements and hopes like the other teams. Thankfully, this expectation was short lived and my final prediction had Alonso and Fisichella in an almighty tussle for high wdc placings behind Schumacher.

At the time I rated Fisichella very highly for his, at times, amazing exploits in so-so/rubbish cars, with too much ignoring of all the anonymous performances, too easily putting it down to being inevitable to be up there every time in a poor car. I was too focused on only his good performanes. But he had just come off a VERY good 2004, whereas Alonso's 2004 was very high quality, but regarded to have missed the scintillating spark of 2003.

Therefore at the time, there was a large uncertainty as to how this battle would go. Not much mention was given to it either, for all the hype at the time was reserved for the arrival of Montoya at McLaren alongside Raikkonen. It was hugely fascinating to me, and because of their respective 2004 seasons, it seemed to me there was a very decent chance that Fisi could come out on top in this first season.

I never had any doubt that Alonso would go on to be better than Fisi, but I thought before 2005 he would still be getting really up to speed, as it takes a few seasons to do, so Fisi can capitalise for 2005 maybe. I never had any doubt that Alonso would definitely be ahead by 2006, so 2005 was Fisi's one chance! I was mature enough then to realise in 2004 that though I was aware that Flav would personally prefer Alonso, that Fisi would be treated totally equal, which is the professional thing to do. I had Fisi just 1 hundredth ahead of Alonso in qualifying and both equal in races.


WILLIAMS - BMW
One thing I was quietly delighted about was BMW Williams' fresh new line-up for 2005. I was so happy to see two midfield drivers getting their big break. I expected Williams to be about where they actually were at the start of 2005, and slightly better at times, able to challenge for podiums and wins on their good days but generally mixing in, but hanging onto the coat-tails of the 4 teams in front. I really rooted for these two guys, especially Heidfeld, who I was so happy to see in a Williams, and was so glad he got the driver ahead of Pizzonia, which took a long time to resolve! I had Webber and Button as team-mates early on, according to Jenson's contract issues.


MCLAREN-MERCEDES
The big one! McLaren were always expected to have a better year in 2005. McLaren were a very interesting one for me, as I had them being generally very quick, though down on power, but unreliable - a great mix for excitement. On their best days, they would be able to score 1-2s either in qualifying or the race, though not very often since Schumacher was still no.1. Reliability cost the drivers a lot of points in my GP2 seasons... I had Kimi slightly ahead of Montoya.


SAUBER - PETRONAS
Early on I had Gary Paffett with his red and white helmet in the Sauber alongside Felipe Massa, such a shoe-in was he for that drive. It was basically confirmed only to be cancelled in favour of the surprise signing of Jacques Villeneuve. I wasn't expecting great things from Jacques, having now finally lost my regard for any potential as an amazing driver from his Renault spell at the end of 2004. Still I was happy to see a big name for Sauber, and he would bring a good level of solid performance and lead the team in a less volatile environment than BAR, and rebuild his cred. Massa was coming on well, and was very eager to measure himself against Jacques.

However, my pre 2005 expectation was that all the points would be hogged between the top 6 teams/top 12 drivers all the time. This would leave precious little scraps available for the likes of Sauber and Red Bull, let alone Jordan and Minardi! I only expected about 9pts...


RED BULL
Another very interesting one. By now poor DC looked all washed up and out of it. He was even rejected for a Red Bull drive in favour of Klien and Liuzzi. Liuzzi was touted as a megastar in waiting at the time. But then Tony Purnell and David Pitchforth had a word in Mr Mateschitz's ear, suddenly causing him to exclaim that actually, having DC would be a great idea after all! So he was signed. Now some, like Eddie Irvine, predicted a disastrous season, especially as sadly, Purnell and Pitchforth, who had been very popular with the workforce and the fans for their down to earth approach, had been shown the door by the insufferable and gloating Dr.Marko, in favour of relatively unknown F3000 team boss Christian Horner, just 31. [Hang on! F*** ME!!! He was basically the same age I am now! And now he's getting on a bit, kinda, and I was just out of college at the time. I remember doing all this on Grand Prix 2 SO clearly, like it was very recent. I am genuinely scared at how all that time has gone so fast!]

So anyway, I predicted a decent season, engaged in a good scrap with Sauber, but because of the depth of competition up front, points being extremely hard to come by. To that end, I had Klien scraping a single 8th place by the skin of his teeth, with DC using all his wiles and skills to gather up 6.