[2019] Who will be Formula 1 World Champion?

[PTRACER]

We've done this every year for 10 years, though I can't seem to find all the old threads, so here are the most recent two.
2018: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=15381
2017: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=14743

Only one other driver besides Hamilton and Vettel have won the championship this whole decade, so maybe listing other options is a little crazy...Well, I'll list some other names just in case!

[MonteCristo]

Screw it. Voted CLAP.

But it'll be Hamilton.

[erwin greven]

Hamilton. bit like the quote of Lineker about world cup football.

[Antonov]

Lewis Hamilton - along with Mercedes the most solid and reliable package.

[Michkov]

Charlie the Clerk for the hell of it. Ferrari seems fast if it isn't failing. Meaning they can slow down a bit and still be on par with the Mercs.

[XcraigX]

Ferrari will finally manage to break through with Vettel.

[PTRACER]

Gary Anderson's assessment of the teams after testing:

Code: Select all

Adjusted test times
Pos.	Team		Best time	Deficit	Percentage diff.
1.	Ferrari		1m16.221s		
2.	Mercedes	1m16.224s	+0.003s	0.00%
3.	Renault		1m16.843s	+0.622s	0.82%
4.	Toro Rosso	1m16.882s	+0.661s	0.87%
5.	Red Bull	1m16.909s	+0.688s	0.90%
6.	McLaren		1m16.913s	+0.692s	0.91%
7.	Haas		1m17.076s	+0.855s	1.12%
8.	Alfa Romeo	1m17.239s	+1.018s	1.34%
9.	Racing Point	1m17.556s	+1.335s	1.75%
10.	Williams	1m18.130s	+1.909s	2.50%

So, if we take this as accurate then Ferrari and Mercedes are dead equal and we'd have to rely on Vettel not messing up like he did so often in the past for him to be champion.

However, Karun Chandhok says:

This year it seems to be a different story as the Ferrari certainly looks like the car to beat. Out on track, the car seems very forgiving to drive and I don't think that either driver looked like they were close to the limit. Watching at Turn 9, it was mighty impressive on Sebastian Vettel's performance runs how he was changing up a gear when turning in to the corner while most others needed to have a lift through there!

[Everso Biggyballies]

Yeah but you have to take into account the Merc sandbags. Ferrari always go as fast as they can in testing...look at last year.
Mercedes were happy all week on hard tyres and just pounding round doing long runs and laps, with not a qualy sim in sight until the last day when suddenly on the only qualy sim they do they are within 3 thou.

Im with Gary Anderson.

[DoubleFart]

You're going with Gary Anderson, the man who says Red Bull are behind Toro Rosso, the man who said after week one that Mercedes were 0.5s off, who said that McLaren were a threat to the top three?

[John]

I doubt that Alfa Romeo fell off the pace/fell behind Haas and McLaren by that much during the winter.

Then again these stats rated Sauber/Alfa as the worst team of the lot last year, bar Williams, which didn't really turn out to be true in the end. Granted they really picked up the development pace during the season.

[Kai-Star]

It's year of the Max!

[Picci]

Toro Rosso are up there because Kvyat went for a glory run with low fuel on the last lap, didn't he. Autosport also said that Merc avoided doing a flying lap in the afternoon when the track conditions were ideal and Alfa looks slower there than it actually was. If Toro Rosso are genuinely better than RedBull then they might as well fire Newey and swap chassis...

[John]

I decided to go with Vet because A) I want something different, and B), with Arrivabene gone the in-team cancerous atmosphere seems to be gone with him. That might work out well for the team.

[Antonov]

Lewis Hamilton - along with Mercedes the most solid and reliable package.

[MonteCristo]

Stick a fork in the season, it's done.