Holy Smokies! An F1 fan!!!!
Now Wally, you should know that I have been trying for years to spread the F1 gospel to the H/PC community. I'm glad to find someone of like mind. I've even got Chris keeping up with it and he doesn't even like sports per se.
Yes, I'm a huge F1 fan. I began watching in 1996 while I was in University in Oxford. I've pretty much been watching since. I have always been a big McLaren fan
(Mercedes owner, what can I say?
) with little loyalty to any other team. Mika Hakkinen was and still is my all time favorite driver from the modern era. All time, Gilles Villenueve is probably my favorite.
As for the 2005 season, I obviously think it has been great. I'm glad to see McLaren back on the bubble and if they could just get that Merc lump to play nice, they could have run away with the season. Renault is strong but it is clear that the MP4-20 is THE car this year. Monaco and two mid-pack to the front races from Kimi can testify to that.
I said last year that BAR was a fluke
(although I picked them as my dark horse team in 2004
) and that has proven true. Buttongate gutted them, plain and simple.
WilliamsF1 has just completely lost the plot. I would bet that even with the aero changes made to the FW26 they will be mid pack again this weekend at Hockenheim.
Toyota has Gascoyne doing their aero now... they will continue to improve just as Renault did when he was there and just as Jordan did when he was there. Give them another year and they will be regulars at the sharp end. Shocking Predition: They will win their first race before BAR does
(2006 I'm guessing
).
Ferrari, in my view, got two things wrong this year. 1 was the car. Clearly it doesn't have the front end grip they need. 2 was Bridgestone, completely out of their control. They will be back though. I still say they will win a race this year. I don't agree with the Michael retirement though. He is contracted until the end of next year and he will finish it out. He hates loosing so going out now would almost be an admission of defeat - not his style.
The Silly Season will be great for sure, that I do agree with you on. I don't know if Jensen really wants to go to WilliamsF1 at this point. Rubens is gone from Ferrari I would bet. Same for Mark Webber with WilliamsF1 - his bang-to-hype ration is proving to be a bit out of wack. Ralphy is going to be pushing it to stay on at Toyota, I agree. Juan still may not be out of the woods. The team is not really please with him but another win will solve that problem. Or maybe avoiding black flags and paying attention to red lights!
I think Jarno and Fisi are okay. Who know who will be driving at BAR. Sato may stay with Davidson but I dunno. That team is rapidly loosing the plot as well. RedBull is my dark horse team this year and with DC signed for next year, they will technically continue to improve. Sauber will probably get Quick Nick from WilliamsF1 given he's German.
As for the championship, as much as I hate to say it, Alonso has to have some DNFs at this point to loose it. Kimi could run the table but he needs help from Alonso. I just don't know if that'll happen. I'd love to see him win it obviously, especially given he was so close in 2003
But I just think that McLaren gave him too big of a lead.
Have you heard the V8s yet? They sound amazing... 21,000RPMs out of the Mercedes lump and nearly 22,000 out of the Honda. Sound like MotoGP bikes...