Who will finish the season in front of his team mate?

[konami]

OK, so when comparing team mates, who do you think is better than his partner?

The ones in RED are those which I think will be better off than their team mate at the end of the season

McLaren Mercedes
Fernando Alonso Lewis Hamilton

Renault
Giancarlo Fisichella Heikki Kovalainen

Ferrari
Felipe Massa Kimi Raikkonen

Honda
Jenson Button Rubens Barrichello

BMW
Nick Heidfeld Robert Kubica

Toyota
Ralf Schumacher Jarno Trulli

Red Bull Renault
David Coulthard Mark Webber

Williams Toyota
Nico Rosberg Alex Wurz

STR Ferrari
Still to announce thier drivers

Spyker Ferrari
Christijan Albers Adrian Sutil

Super Aguri Honda
Takuma Sato Anthony Davidson

and u???:cool: :cool:

[F1 Today]

McLaren Mercedes
Fernando Alonso Lewis Hamilton

Renault
Giancarlo Fisichella Heikki Kovalainen

Ferrari
Felipe Massa Kimi Raikkonen

Honda
Jenson Button Rubens Barrichello

BMW
Nick Heidfeld Robert Kubica

Toyota
Ralf Schumacher Jarno Trulli

Red Bull Renault
David Coulthard Mark Webber

Williams Toyota
Nico Rosberg Alex Wurz

STR Ferrari
Still to announce thier drivers

Spyker Ferrari
Christijan Albers Adrian Sutil

Super Aguri Honda
Takuma Sato Anthony Davidson

[Radar]

McLaren~Alonso
Renault~Fisichella
Ferrari~Kimi
Honda~Button
BMW~Kubica
Toyota~Ralf
Redbull Renault~Webber
Williams~Rosberg

The rest~Who cares

[konami]

BMW~Kubica


The rest~Who cares

lol do u think Kubica can beat heidfeild?? lol who cares:D

[JoStream]

lol do u think Kubica can beat heidfeild?? lol who cares:D

I actually see Kubica beating Heidfeld. If anything, Heidfeld has more to prove than Kubica :mad:

McLaren~Alonso
Renault~Kovalainen
Ferrari~Raikkonen
Honda~Button
BMW~Kubica
Toyota~Ralf
Red Bull~Webber
Williams~Rosberg
Spyker~Albers
Super Aguri~Davidson

I actually see Kovalainen beating Fisichella in 2007. It's not going to be easy, but since he has a lot of experience with the car it's quite possible :cool:

[Radar]

I've gone for Kubica over Hiedfield because he is an up and coming driver who is hungry for success.:) Heidfield seems happy enough to just be part of the F1 races.

I was a bit harsh on the minor teams and I will select drivers for them at a later date as I don't know much about some of them.:o

It's good to see people having different opinions on these forums.:)

[konami]

I was thinking yesturday that Kimi is a quick driver, but he doesn't seem very focused on F1. His party antics have made headline news and unlike all the other drivers, he did not watch Michael Schumacher's presentation with Pele at Interlagos.

Now this could be because he was fed up at McLaren, with all their faliures, so maybe moving to Ferrari will make him focus more, what do you think?

[will]

lol do u think Kubica can beat heidfeild?? lol who cares:D Yes, why not. Robert has been great in the races he took part in. If it wasn't for disqualification, he could have earned 2 points on his debut race. He has shown us that he is also great in wet conditions.

He is a future champion for sure

[konami]

I sure hope Kovalainen can beat all the other youngsters. Hamilton is just so hyped at the moment that Im not sure what he can really do. Rosberg was hyped as well and he disappointed me (except 1st race).

If the BMW is better than last year, maybe Kubia will beat heidfeild but i don't think. If he beats Heidfeld consistantly, Vettel may replace Heidfeld in 2008.

But taking into account the cars, Kovalainen is favorite. The McLaren will do fine, but it will not be championship material (certainly in the hands of Hamilton). Renault showed, and proved that they can win both constructor & driver championship. Now they have to prove they can do it without Alonso. He knows the car, the team and Renault know how to build a fast & reliable car.

[Carlis]

Ok.. so this is how I see it:

McLaren: Alonso.

Yes, I don't like him and I will be dancing all night long if Hamilton beats him, but let's be honest here... Hamilton is a rookie and if we look at what has happened in the last few years (let's say... 10? 15?) with the "graduates" from GP2 (or F2 or F3000 or whatever the name at the time was) they all have failed to set the world on fire. An easy one for Fernando, I think... I expect him to have, by the end of the season, 3X more points than Hamilton.

Ferrari: Kimi.

In my opinion, the fastest out there, and probably the only guy that was a real match for Schumacher. Massa is in Ferrari probably because 1) noone available wanted the second Ferrari seat when Michael was still around and 2) his manager is Todt's son.

Honda: Button.

In my opinion, Button is not great... he even finished a lap behind Barrichello in Monaco; but Rubens is just not strong enough to deal with adversity. In 2006, when Rubens was starting to have the things going his way, when he was starting to have the upper hand on Button, Jenson got the victory and that was all for the Brazilian. If Button has a good race or two in the early-season, Barrichello will be done.

BMW: Heidfeld.

Kubica is great, and I really admire the guy. But let's face it: he is a Rookie. Yes, he has 5-6 races under his belt; and that's it... Of those race, the only one on which he didn't made any mistake (going off-track, a strange spin here or there) was at Monza, and he finished in the podium, in part due to Massa's aggresive style, in part because Alonso's engine said bye... Besides, he is already looking for excuses (I will have to change my driving style, those tyres are hard, etc, etc)

Renault: Kovalainen

Ok, this one is easy, and not because I think that Heikki is any good or something like that. Briatore is the manager of both Renault and Kovalainen, and is the one that has been announcing for the last few months that if Alonso was the "Anti-Schumacher" (funny how he was "anti-schumacher" but he only beat Michael when he had the tyres that gave him 6 seconds per lap, or when he had the illegal mass damper fitted in the front nose, or when Michael's engine said "boom"...) then Heikki would be the "Anti-Alonso". Renault is saying that "With Fisichella it will be hard" and "Kovalainen is great"... wondering who will get the #1-untouchable seat that is traditional on the teams that have the flamboyant italian as team manager... :rolleyes:


And for the rest... oh well, I am not very excited about who is going to finish 11, but for the record:

Toyota: Ralf
Spyker: Albers
Red Bull: Coulthard
Toro Rosso: No clue
Super Aguri: Sato
Williams: Rosberg

[JoStream]

Ok, this one is easy, and not because I think that Heikki is any good or something like that. Briatore is the manager of both Renault and Kovalainen, and is the one that has been announcing for the last few months that if Alonso was the "Anti-Schumacher" (funny how he was "anti-schumacher" but he only beat Michael when he had the tyres that gave him 6 seconds per lap, or when he had the illegal mass damper fitted in the front nose, or when Michael's engine said "boom"...) then Heikki would be the "Anti-Alonso". Renault is saying that "With Fisichella it will be hard" and "Kovalainen is great".

I know you don't like Alonso :) But this is the way I see, if Ferrari had a device that it could run without anyone noticing, I think they would. Ferrari is not a 'we love the spirit of the rules' kind of team. And that's a real sad thing to see in F1, because it's not just Ferrari.

I've said before this is about how powerful Ferrari is in the FIA control bubble. The FIA has taken very strange decisions in the past. My best example would be at Monza, where even Mosley said it was a wrong decision. Not saying that what Renault did was right, I'm just saying that Ferrari is not an innocent team and you can't tell for sure whether they were playing completely fair. :eek:

You're right about Kovalainen. It's a logical decision to promote him, but I don't see Briatore having made up his mind about numbering the Renault race seats. It's in his interest to let both of them go as fast as they can, and I think by mid-season we'll see that the Finn is quicker. :cool:

[Waris]

I think Alonso will beat Hamilton on experience, maybe Hamilton will beat him next year (if ever). Same goes for Fisichella and Kovalainen. The battle between Kimi and Massa will be a close one, but I think Kimi has got the edge in terms of raw talent. I hope Barrichello will beat Button, but I expect it to be the other way around. Heidfeld will probably beat Kubica. The battles between Rosberg and Wurz, Jarno and Ralf, and Webber and Coulthard will be close ones, I can't really predict who will come out on top. Albers will beat Sutil no doubt. Sato will probably beat Davidson, though chances are that Davidson will beat him, or that they will be fairly level. The Minardi (STR) drivers are unknown as of yet, so I won't make any predictions about them.

[Carlis]

I know you don't like Alonso :) But this is the way I see, if Ferrari had a device that it could run without anyone noticing, I think they would. Ferrari is not a 'we love the spirit of the rules' kind of team. And that's a real sad thing to see in F1, because it's not just Ferrari.

I've said before this is about how powerful Ferrari is in the FIA control bubble. The FIA has taken very strange decisions in the past. My best example would be at Monza, where even Mosley said it was a wrong decision. Not saying that what Renault did was right, I'm just saying that Ferrari is not an innocent team and you can't tell for sure whether they were playing completely fair. :eek:

You're right about Kovalainen. It's a logical decision to promote him, but I don't see Briatore having made up his mind about numbering the Renault race seats. It's in his interest to let both of them go as fast as they can, and I think by mid-season we'll see that the Finn is quicker. :cool:
Actually Jo, I think is more than that: I am not saying Ferrari was not doing anything strange... BUT I am sure that had Ferrari being caught in something fishy as the mass dampers, the media would have asked for their head in a silver plate and, even worst, they would have probably had it.

I read this in other forums (and actually I was able to find the article they were refering to there so I know it is true) After the USGP and the French GP, Autosport.com started a "campaing" mentioning that they had "exclusive evidence" of a mobile device in the front wing of the Ferrari that should be illegal, unless the italians were exploiding a loophole or were being extremelly technical about the wording in the regulations. The setup they did was a real interesting one, since it was "clear" from the articles that Ferrari had caught Renault (USGP and French GP) because of that "novel" device, that should have not been there on the very first place....

Coincidentially (?) enough, the next day the FIA banned the mass dampers; but it was not Ferrari who reacted against the decision. It was not Red Bull Racing, not Toro Rosso... it was Renault who protested, and all of a sudden it was a nonsensical decision from the FIA to ban a "perfectly legal" device (although Renault admitted it was not enterely attached to the sprung of the car, and that it had aerodynamical influence). We had Christian Horner, head of Red Bull Racing saying that Renault should consider themselves lucky that they got away with that for so long... we had Norbert Haugh remembering Flavio Briatore that they had the *key* element of their car banned because they were outside of the regulations; but the media insists in that it was a political decision triggered by Ferrari (although, it was first reported that McLaren was the responsible for giving the FIA the information that Renault were hiding).

Ferrari was running with a dubious rear wing the first half of the season because it flexed, BUT it flexed on that range that was not defined in the regulations... It passed ALL the static tests. When the FIA modified the rules, so they can re-define the rear wing, everybody was smiling because the FIA was stopping those "cheaters" of Ferrari... Ferrari used some "nice" covers on their wheels after Toyota introduced them with Michelin in 2005, Ferrari was immediately labelled as cheaters, although no-one was capable of pointing the finger to the article they were breaking.

Now, I am not saying that Ferrari has no power in F1. That would be non-sensical. Just from a comercial point of view, more than 50% of current F1 fans are Ferrari fans. But I disagree with your example at Monza... I don't think it shows Ferrari's power, but instead it shows how sad Max Mosley is: The race day, Sunday, he said that the Marshalls took the only decision they could have taken based on the telemetry presented by the teams (i.e. he was backing up the decision). He even criticized Alonso behavior by arguing that Alonso was in his out lap, and hence he should have pulled away for the cars on the flying lap. Once the season was over, and Aloso was crowned champion (again, after the strongest rival had to deal with reliability issues when the true order among the drivers was being shown on track, and despite of being using a proven illegal device in his two championship years), Mosley backtracked on his comments and said that the Monza decision was a real bad one. Personally, I don't care if it was right or wrong. Renault did a scene at Nurburgring, with Fisichella crying in front of Villeneuve because he was like 100 meters ahead of him on his flying lap and then at Monza, they were bitten by the monster they created.