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Mercedes: Hamilton over Bottas. I think this will be closer than last year but not enough to make it interesting.
Red Bull: Verstappen over Perez. I think Perez is overrated and Verstappen is incredibly fast. So I don't think Perez will be anywhere close to Max.
Ferrari: Leclerc over Sainz. Sainz went from being average to seemingly the best midfield driver simply because the McLaren was better than expected. I still think he's an average midfield driver. Leclerc is very fast and will comfortably beat Sainz
Aston Martin: Vettel over Stroll. Vettel is still a very good driver and Stroll is still a below average driver. So Vettel should comfortably win this one. Stroll is very good in wet conditions so it might be close battle if we have a few wet races.
McLaren: Ricciardo over Norris. Same as Sainz I think Norris was being flattered by his car. He's not a bad driver but should lose to a very good driver like Ricciardo. I expect this to be somewhat close but never in any doubt.
Alpine: Alonso over Ocon. Ocon is pretty good but not great, so I expect Alonso to do Alonso things and destroy Ocon. This battle is difficult to predict because Alonso is old and has been out of the sport for some time but he's always been quick to adapt.
Alpha Tauri: Gasly over Tsunoda. This one should be fairly close. Gasly seems to do very well in the Alpha Tauri but Tsunoda is immensely talented. I think Tsunoda will match Gasly towards the end of the season but Gasly to win overall.
Alfa Romeo: Räikkönen over Giovinazzi. This will probably be the closest team mate battle. Gio to win the quali battle but I think Kimi will win overall with a few good races.
Haas: Schumacher over Mazepin. I don't think either of them will score any points on merit. Schumacher is probably the better driver but his first season in a new series has never been great. I expect this one to be fairly close with Schumacher having the advantage.
Williams: Russell over Latifi. Russell is much faster in qualifying and a bit faster in the race. This one seems to be pretty straightforward. I think Russell has to improve his race performance a bit to ensure he gets the Merc seat next season.
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On March 12 2021 07:57 Highways wrote:
Fantasy still happening?
We're all just making predictions for how the team battles will go.
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Looks like everyone (4  ) agrees on most results , looks like McLaren and Aston Martin are the most "contested" results , I was surprised 3/4 went with Ocon , i wouldve thought i had "hot take" on that result , felt like media/youtube are going with Alonso to murder Ocon , also I feel Lando feels the pressure this year , Ric is a star in F1 and unlike Carlos i dont think they will be friends , Sure Ric will be friendly as he is with most , but there will be tension there , much more then Lando ever had in his career , Lando wants to be a Charles or a Max , who are although young , considered #1 in their teams.
1 week to go for DTS , going to try and do 1 show a night until race week!!!!
BTW , crossing fingers for Ferrari ,looks like their top speed in day 1 testing was already faster then their best qualy speed.
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51638 Posts
RIP - no doubt he was the voice of F1
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Northern Ireland27148 Posts
Ah there goes a big part of my childhood, RIP Murray 
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On March 12 2021 21:39 bluzi wrote: I was surprised 3/4 went with Ocon , i wouldve thought i had "hot take" on that result , felt like media/youtube are going with Alonso to murder Ocon
My reasoning for thinking that Alonso would not outperform Ocon is that Alonso hasn't been in F1 in several years, and hasn't been in a competitive car in F1 for even longer. At the same time, even Schumacher had trouble getting up to speed again after a few years of a break from F1 so I wouldn't be shocked if Alonso was the same. Alonso's also starting to get up there in age for an F1 driver. Any media person talking about Alonso's performance level right now in absolutes is full of shit. There's no way to know. History suggests it might not be as easy of a return as some folks think.
Also, as has been mentioned here a bunch, take a lot of F1 media and YouTube opinion stuff with a gigantic grain of salt. Most of the opinion pieces seem more geared to trying to create hype than actually give honest opinions. It's too bad that it's like this but I guess it is what it is. Some of it is honestly as bad as TMZ or the Daily Mail.
Sad to hear about Murray. He was a legend.
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I think Alonso will comfortably beat Ocon over a season. Yeah he hasn't been in F1 for a few years, but he's been driving prototypes and the Toyotas are pretty damn close to closed cockpit F1 cars. Schumacher was out of F1 for a bit, but IIRC he didn't race anywhere near as much as Alonso in the interim.
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Mercedes:.............. Hamilton >> Bottas
Red Bull:................ Verstappen >> Perez
Ferrari:................... Leclerc > Sainz, however Sainz will surprise everyone
Aston Martin:......... Stroll > Vettel. Seb is prone to mistakes and has shown lack of motivation
McLaren:............... Ricciardo > Norris, but this will be close
Alpine:.................... Alonso > Ocon. Alonso is just a magnificent driver, while Ocon did not impress me even with his podium last year
Alpha Tauri:............ Gasly >> Tsunoda. Gasly was born for AT, the car fits him like a glove
Alfa Romeo:........... Räikkönen = Giovinazzi
Haas:..................... Schumacher > Mazepin. Slow start for Schumi with a few impressive finishes by the end of the season
Williams:................ Russell >>> Latifi, this is as one-sided as it can be.
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Drive to Survive season 3 on Netflix from today
Looking forward to this one, feels like every race something happened that would have made a great episode.
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Watched a couple of episodes so far. Not a huge fan of the editing tbh for a lot of the onboards, but I did watch most of the races as well as highlights. Pretty average so far.
Finished DTS and my favorite shot from the series is Perez's overtake on Albon. Even in slow-mo, it's really, really close, closer than most people would ever be willing to drive in real life, and in real life that was done at like 150kph, through a corner.
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FP1/2 tomorrow morning(today? for euro boys).
Excited to finally get a hint as to how the 2021 season will pan out.
Testing was too short, and Merc probably had too many sandbags to get a true idea of their pace, but undoubtedly there will have been changes since testing.
I still think this will be Hamilton's season to lose, but I'm hopeful that at least from 3rd down in the constructors, it'll be a tight fight between 4-5 teams.
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France12980 Posts
Drive to survive season 3 was perfectly timed! I enjoyed the series, I only followed the results last year because watching it live is expensive / complicated (got into the sport with DTS season 1), but maybe this year I will try to watch live. Apparently you can watch on RTBF / Belgium channel with vpn.
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FP1 is not looking good at all for Renault/Alpine. Danny Ric may have made the right choice to jump ship
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FP1:
The gaps between Perez, Gasly and Tsunoda are spicy, but ofc, no real analysis can be made yet.
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Oh man.
This is going to be the best season in a long time if this keeps up. Every team is close, and the young guns are leading the way.
Looks like Vettel has truly fallen off and everyone apart from alfa and williams are in the midfield battle.
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After FP2, I'm aboard the Tsunoda hype train now. Choo choo!
24more hours to see what happens after the sandbags are off
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we are still 2 seconds out of the best time in testing (max went into the 1:28.96) , but it is really looking like a hyped season , so many good pairings to watch , and maybe after so many years we can see racing at the front!!!
I will be shocked if ANY of the following happens on qualy :
Sainz > Charles -- this will be the craziest one , BUT if it happens it means Vettel was SO beyond his peak , so i choose to believe Charles will win this first battle.
Yuki > Gasly -- I cannot see a world where this happens , a true rookie coming in and beating a clear young gun on the rise , that will be crazy crazy story.
Perez > Max -- yha.... not going to happen , maybe the entire season on qualifying.
Noris > Ric -- This will be a small surprise giving Daniel credentials , lets see if Lando can keep it up for the duration of the season.
Ocon > Alonso -- I think this saturday is a lock for Ocon , Alonso looked slow and inaccurate today , lets see if he can turn it around in time.
all in all its PURE HYPE for the weekend
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Obviously we'll have to see in qualifying and the race but Mercedes did not look like they were having a good time today. Their car looked like a handful and neither driver looked fast. It's not like last year where their car looked ridiculously stable and smooth to drive. Apparently these new regulations have had a much bigger impact on low rake cars, which includes Mercedes. Hamilton said in the interview after FP2 that they are still having huge rear stability problems and the wind is making it even worse. He also mentioned being unhappy with this year's tires.
The Aston, which is of course modelled partly after Mercedes, looks like it is having similar stability issues. Neither Vettel nor Stroll were going that well, though Otmar the team principal mentioned they were focusing on race running today.
Not sure what's going on with Alpine. It looks like the car might be a bit of a step back from last year. Toro Rosso looked great and Yuki's pace was quite good. McLaren looks like it is indeed up there though we'll have to see. It looked like a nicer car to drive than the Mercedes did from the bits of onboard footage I saw.
Perez over 0.65s off Verstappen in both sessions is interesting. I wonder if they're focusing on the race more than qualifying or something. If he isn't any closer to Verstappen than Albon was I'm gonna laugh.
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EPT
