viewtopic.php?f=1&t=27758
nevill3 wrote: ↑04 Dec 2018, 20:04My personal speculation would be that McLaren will jump back to the top of the field to replace RedBull in third spot. They obviously have been developing next years car almost as long as Williams have.
Red Bull may slip down the pecking order due to "learning how to maximize" the potential of the new Honda engine. The gearing and mapping will take a little time to extract 100% performance as well as optimizing the packaging of the new engine and its cooling (this is where McLaren failed this year) and Honda will once again be under increased pressure to help deliver results for a front running team after a year of experimenting.
Racing Point, or whatever they end up being called, may well struggle too. Reports of increased spending within the team by hiring new experts to fill holes does not always result in increased performance straight away as the new staff have to learn how to interact with the established members and can often cause unintended eddies in the smooth flowing processes they find themselves in. Just look at what happened to Williams this year after Paddy's influence began to assert itself and they abandoned the "low drag concept they had run for years" .
Renault are the dark horses this year, steady progress just like Mercedes had when they first returned, building the foundations for dominance slowly. Maybe another 12 months before they burst to the front though but they have the drivers capable of delivering strong results should they manage to design a winning car. Their story is mirroring the Mercedes story even down to poaching a driver from a top team and everybody asking the question why?
Mercedes and Ferrari will once again be setting the pace at the front, even if they get things slightly wrong at the start they both can out-develop almost everybody else to ensure they stay at the front.
Torro Rosso will benefit from greater input from the mothership regarding suspension, gearbox and engine so should be quicker once the Honda engine is capable of matching the others in both performance and reliability.
Sauber has fewer money troubles next year and are capable delivering an outstanding chassis so look to improve too.
Haas is learning all the time but I think they have peaked for now and may well struggle to match last years results.
Williams will surprise everyone at first, they have been designing and developing their new chassis for ages. The Stroll and Martini money would have paid for next years car but development throughout the year may be curtailed once the season gets underway due to reduced funding.
Overall, winter testing can not come soon enough I anticipate many predictions just like mine to wide of the mark and next year will surprise us all.
Shame it didn't happen.
