Who will be 2021 World Champion?

[Kai-Star]

Bottom post of the previous page:

Gone for Max for hope more than anything. As long as there's some kind of ontrack fighting and not a cakewalk then I'll be happy.

[PTRACER]

Just a few days until FP1. Any changes?

[Everso Biggyballies]

Nah.... unfortunately.

[Michael Ferner]

I was going to vote Vettel just for the sake of change, but on seeing that no one picked Bottas, I'll take a chance on the jackpot. Surely he's most likely to win other than Hammy, given that MB are so superior, so a one on one chance for the outsider is better than 19 to 1 for the favourite. How much is on the line?

[MonteCristo]

How much is on the line?

At the end of the year, PT will make it snow Ferners in the top banner!

[StargazerGaul]

Just voted for Hamilton taking into account the simplest reason: Mercedes even on the backfoot has the best resources and know-how to surge to the front.

[P. Cornelius Scipio]

The sliver of hope is the guy who voted for Perez.

same for the vote that went for Bottas, my motto for the 2021 season is "never give up hope" but I'm not 100% convinced that things will change, Hamilton has to win one more WDC than Schumacher and Mercedes has to win every WDC/WCC in the power unit era. I guess that from 2022 onwards we might have a very long string of WDCs for Verstappen. Let's at least hope that there will be some battles for 2nd this season (Vettel beating Ferrari would be an interesting story as well)

[Antonov]

I think Verstappen can have a very good start to the season.
But I'm afraid that over the 23-race season, Hamilton will come out on top.

[Aty]

Vettel is giving himself a get-to-know-you period (he said at least first 4 or 5 races), so I gather he is out of any serious consideration for this year. Making Leclerc miserable would be just gravy for him, and also he has to school Stroll Jr., otherwise it's curtain for him. I think Verstappen is a front candidate for top spot before first start-lights go off, but it might take a few races before dust settle and we get some sense who is who (to state obvious).

[Ruslan]

The sliver of hope is the guy who voted for Perez.

same for the vote that went for Bottas, my motto for the 2021 season is "never give up hope" but I'm not 100% convinced that things will change, Hamilton has to win one more WDC than Schumacher and Mercedes has to win every WDC/WCC in the power unit era. I guess that from 2022 onwards we might have a very long string of WDCs for Verstappen. Let's at least hope that there will be some battles for 2nd this season (Vettel beating Ferrari would be an interesting story as well)

I ain't putting high odds on Vettel beating Ferrari this year. Aston Martin seemed to be lost in testing and I doubt they can regularly beat McLaren or Alpine (team formerly known as Renault).

I do get the sense that Ferrari will return back to their normal position on the gird (3rd among the big budget teams). If they don't, with the 2020 unrestricted budget period, then it will be harder in 2021 with the budget cap in place.

[MonteCristo]

Vettel is giving himself a get-to-know-you period (he said at least first 4 or 5 races), so I gather he is out of any serious consideration for this year. Making Leclerc miserable would be just gravy for him, and also he has to school Stroll Jr., otherwise it's curtain for him. I think Verstappen is a front candidate for top spot before first start-lights go off, but it might take a few races before dust settle and we get some sense who is who (to state obvious).

They looked in decent trouble in testing. Can't see them getting off to a cracking start.