2012 Predictions / Driver Line-up / News etc...

Kimi is not going to Williams after all...

 

A wise decision by all concerned.

 

We've been being to told for two years that "kimis coming back" Never believed a word of it.

 

Looks like Hulk and di Resta at Force India, Sutil at Williams.

 

That makes me sad a little.

 

It may be a good thing if he doesn't return.

I'm not sure how well Kimi would deal with a return in a bottom half of the grid car. It could wind up like the Mansell/McLaren debacle... I was looking forward to his return, but in the end it would have been much better all round if he'd not bothered.

 

He would be taking **** like Schumacher has been since 2010.

 

Possibly... But I think generally, there is less animosity towards Kimi than Schuey, so he may have also gotten a little sympathy.

Would be good to have him back for his sly one-liners though.

 

Good point mate, 70% of opinions on Schumacher are due to hostility. Sad though.

 

James Allen has an interesting theory that it is Sutil who will be vacating Force India.

 

I think it would be a bit of fun to predict the driver lineups for next season and see if anyone can guess right!

Heres mine:

RBR - Vettel & Webber
McLaren - Button & Hamilton
Ferrari - Alonso & Massa
Mercedes - Rosberg & Schumacher
Renault - Petrov & Senna
Force India - Di Resta & Hulkenberg
Williams - Sutil & Maldonado (dont want maldonado think due to money he'll stay)
Sauber - Kobayashi & Perez
Toro Rosso - Alguersuari & Ricciardo
Team Lotus - Kovalainen & Trulli
Virgin - Glock & Pic
HRT - De la Rosa & Liuzzi

(Italics mean drivers who are already confirmed)

 

Surprised with the top teams confirming their drivers already, I don't understand why Massa has been given another chance.
He is poor in Qualifying and has not shown anything special this year during the races on Sunday.
Webber is also slightly poor in qualifying, and has poor starts. Thus losing his positions during the race, normally 2nd to 4th or 5th.
Both don't deserve a race seat in winning teams.
In my opinion anyway.

 

Let's give credit where it's due- he outclassed Alonso in China and most of the time he's close to Alonso's pace in the first stint. The rest of the time he's useless, but let's give credit where it's due.

My current prediction would be:

RBR - Vettel & Webber
McLaren - Button & Hamilton
Ferrari - Alonso & Massa
Mercedes - Rosberg & Schumacher
Renault - Petrov & Grosjean
Force India - Di Resta & Hulkenberg
Williams - Sutil & Maldonado
Sauber - Kobayashi & Perez
Toro Rosso - Alguersuari & Ricciardo
Team Lotus - Kovalainen & Vergne (I know Trulli has a contract but I don't think Fernandes will honour it)
Virgin - Glock & Pic
HRT - De la Rosa & Liuzzi

 

Don't we already have a 2012 driver line ups thread?

 

this is different - the other one is just talk about what is actually happening but this is a prediction thread

 

Merged. Most of the original is speculation anyway so it seems pointless to have two.

 

It would be great to have Hulkenberg in the FI. They're moving up the grid, and he's a driver capable of helping them progress further.

 

Buemi to Caterham then, and Merhi to HRT. Heard it here first.

 

...should be Sutil and Hulkenburg.

Di Resta has had a decent rookie season, with a couple of standout moments - notably his drive in Singapore and qualifying at Silverstone. To be honest he doesn't deserve to be replaced but when faced with Hulkenburg and Sutil, I feel that Di Resta is the weakest driver.

He immediately made his mark by scoring points in his first two races- but it's easy to forget that he only scored in Australia thanks to Sauber's disqualification and he only scored in Malaysia because of Petrov's late brain fade moment. His results picked up as the season progressed but let's be clear, Force India were very competitive in the second half of the season as Renault went backwards and Sauber went to the back of the midfield.

He was impressive in qualifying in the first half of the season, 7-2 after nine races. After that though, Sutil was the better driver and I don't know who won the qualifying battle in the end, but I imagine it's very close between them. Di Resta's early qualifying performances were more down to Sutil struggling with the tyres than Di Resta doing a great job. By the second half of the season Sutil had overcome the tyre issues and regularly outperformed Di Resta in both qualifying and the races: http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=WFi8aPnMKyQ

Di Resta reasonably quick for a rookie and mostly consistent but his wheel-to-wheel ability is lacking - his defensive skills are questionable and I haven't seen any good overtakes from him. Even though it's his rookie year, he's looked just as good at the start as he has at the end -- I'm starting to think he might be a journeyman.

To me, Hulkenburg looks like the better driver, especially on Friday where he often beats the other FI driver in FP1. He showed a lot of potential when he was at Williams and after seeing Sutil's epic drive today, Sutil deserves to stay, though I suspect the decision has already been made and Sutil will have to step aside for Hulk.

 

The thing is that Di Resta is a rookie while sutil has the experience. When Di Resta improves next year he will be better than Sutil, but i think they should both stay. Hulkenberg is the most overrated driver of the last few years. Battered by Barrichello, by your Sutil/Di Rest logic that must make him awful.