In a few days, testing begins in F1. Vote who you think will be fastest. Remember that last year it was Mclaren, Renault and Sauber so not all teams show their hand straight away.
At the front of the grid I'm not too sure. Its hard to tell with teams like Red Bull sandbagging, etc. I'd imagine that Team Lotus are slightly closer to the likes of Force India, and from what I've read Williams are focussing more on the next big rule change for 2013, so I'm not expecting them to be challenging at the top.
Other - Team Lotus, HRT and Virgin will wipe the floor with the other teams, and so will do in the 2011 championship Seriously, no one has a clue how fast these things go yet, so lets stop speculating and wait for testing to finish
Firstly Fred, thanks for making a thread that moves away from the recent discussions. Now it seems like the F1 forum is actually an F1 forum. It might seem strange, but I would say that Ferrari or Mercedes will dominate the first test. This is because I think McLaren will be using a modified MP4-25 (which will have a single diffuser, therefore significantly less downforce). I reckon Red Bull will be sandbagging, while both Ferrari and Mercedes have a point to prove (they both need to show from the start that their cars are competitive). To be honest, we can't really read much into the first test - or the second test for that matter, as most teams will not put their "major innovations" on the car so early. I think it's only when we get to the final test will we see the true capabilities of each car.
"This is because I think McLaren will be using a modified MP4-25" They ARE using a modified MP4-25 for the first round.
If I have to vote one, it will have to be Mercedes. Another reason being they (out of the top 4 teams) have spent the most time developing the car.
But guessing in F1 is the worst thing to do. I sure hope Virgin don't guess what numbers to but in their car generating computers, else we'd probably get a nuclear rocket rather than an F1 car. If anything, take a guess after FP1 in Bahrain