Yes that, for the record I do not actually think that Rossi and Hamilton will swap roles for anything else than a test event. But we can hope right?
I can see the headline...."Hamilton looses out on seventh world championship to Bottas after breaking leg during motorbike test....Bottas immediately retires"
Kinda thinking if that happened to Hamilton, who would replace him? My money would be on Hulkenberg. I could also see them going back to the well and pulling Russell from Williams.
Lets see how wrong I was... Spot on ...not quite. ...also not quite, but LeClerc did have some questionable strategy decisions once he started outperforming Vettel. ...i think these all came to pass. Unlikely, but there's still time. Wrong driver... Gasly got the mid-season ****-canning.
Bottas is signed for 2020, unless Lewis retires or Valterri has a disaster next year they'll keep extending a year at a time for the sake of harmony.
My turn! 2019 predictions: Spoiler: 2019 Predictions Williams v STR for the wooden spoon. Williams to come last again, but Russell and Kubica to make a good battle of it, reaching Q2 about half the time. Oh dear... Renault and/or Mclaren and/or Force India to finish ahead of Red Bull. Nope. Red Bull Honda to get extremely acrimonious. Couldn't be more wrong if I tried. Merc'n'Lewis champions again. Yup. Leclerc second. Nope, but he did beat Seb so... half a point? Bottas third but replaced by Occon at the season's end. Nope. Occon to be driving the Force India from the summer break onwards. Stroll is still there, having beaten Checo 3 times in 21 attempts. Russell to Force India at season's end, replacing 'Stroll'. Nope, poor George. Perez to lap Stroll at least once in the first three GPs. It happened at Bahrain. Vettel and Arrivibene out of Ferrari. Arrivabene gone, Seb still there. On a related note, Ferrai took 3 fewer wins and scored less points this year. Not so easy being in charge Mr Binotto is it? Ricciardo beats both Red Bulls, gets some cheeky podiums. Sadly no. Hulkenberg finally gets a podium. Doubly sadly no. Verstappen or Raikkonen (again) into Ferrari. Triple sadly no. Here's hoping for Kimi or Hulk in a red car for 2020. Three out of thirteen predictions (two right and two half right), about as terrible as always.
Won't happen. Probably a marketing stunt, I'm sure they'll film a few adverts in the process and make a few pennies.
Not even gonna bother digging out my predictions - apart from the obvious one (Lewis for WDC, Merc for WCC), I don't think I was near the mark with any... Surprised by RBR and McLaren performing at the level they did, Renault were even more disappointing than Williams IMO - all that talent, the full works backing, not a single decent result to show for it. Seb having another error-strewn season; lowest win tally of any of the real contenders and still finished considerably behind his team mate after all the extra "help" he received early in the season.
Between the wheels and the aero 2021 F1 cars are basically going to be later model Group C cars with the wheel arches cut off. It could be brilliant. But it does make me laugh that four seasons after changing the rules to make THE FASTEST RACING CARS EVER they're going slow and trying to encourage overtaking again. Because clearly changing the rules will stop Mercedes this time!
Vettel eyes a move to Mclaren for 2021 shocker Somehow I think McLaren are pretty happy with their current driver line up, but stranger things have happened!
Max to Merc, Lewis to Ferrari, Seb to McLaren... Makes sense. Lewis will do what Fernando and Seb couldn't (win a championship in red overalls), Seb will follow in Fernando's footsteps of not winning.
Shocker? How can it be a shock that a driver wants to move to the best team? Stupid headline writers...