planetf1.com

Right now the standings are:

1. Ferrari - 77
2. Renault - 57
3. Mercedes - 56


Mercedes engines: Mercedes, Force India, Williams

Ferrari engines: Ferrari, Haas, Sauber

Renault engines: Red Bull, McLaren, Renault

Nice thread, I like the split as well, each engine has a top team and then midfields.

I'll have to give this a think. On the one hand Renault has the most consistent group with one top 3 team and 2 solid mid-field teams while Mercedes and Ferrari each has one of the 2 teams who will fight all season to be 9th in the WCC at the end of the years.

On the other hand Renault might have reliability problems that negate the fact that they don't have any truly backmarker teams running their PU's.

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Never would I've thought that I would say Mercedes seems the most likely.

Mercedes - has 2 midfield teams that are probably the slowest overall with 1 of them having the most damning lineup.
Renault - has 2 midfield teams (Renault & McLaren) that that have got an impressive lineup but is the least reliable.
Ferrari - has 2 midfield teams, with 1 being good & the other weak.

Overall, I would give Renault the nod because in that group consists 6 drivers, all having the potential to score points regularly.

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Feel The Fourth

Much as it's highly unlikely this poll should include Honda as they are in there as a manufacturer

I feel shocked that you haven't included Honda in the poll

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It's hard to tell based on looking at the Mercedes and Ferrari teams as they look very closely matched, but looking at the pace of the various customer teams I am starting to doubt whether Mercedes have the best engine any more. Force India are behind Haas and Williams seem to have even dropped behind Sauber; all four teams are showing significant swings in form from last year which would be a bit of a coincidence if it was purely chassis related.

Good idea for a thread

And it's a tough one to call. Mercedes/Ferrari are probably going to end up fighting for the WCC with Red Bull comfortably third. McLaren and Renault, as a pair, are going to comfortably outscore Haas/Sauber and Williams/Force India. But the three Renault teams would be where I'd expect the most points lost through unreliability. So... honestly, I think we could see all three ending up pretty close.

I'll say Ferrari > Renault > Mercedes, with Merc in last simply because Williams look like they're only going to score through attrition and Force India appear to be in for a tough season as well.

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Pick 10 | 1st x2, 2nd x3, 3rd x7
2018: 11th | 2017: 6th | 2016: 8th | 2015: 2nd | 2014: 15th | 2013: 17th | 2012: 11th

In fairness it's a mathematical impossibility with only two cars :p

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It's tough to call this one. I think the first half of the season will go to Ferrari as both the main team and Haas are at the head of their respective packs. Mercedes are still right there at the front this season but Force India seems to be having a slight downturn compared to last year and Williams are genuine backmarkers this season. I think Mercedes are getting next to nothing from the customer teams in this little competition so I rule them out.

Over the course of the season, I can see Renault being the value bet. They have 3 teams that are all likely to score points in every race and I expect that Red Bull will take at least 2-3 wins before the year is over. I think Haas will do most of their damage early in the year. By the mid-point of the season, I expect them to have fallen behind both Mclaren and Renault. The only question is; how close to Ferrari and Mercedes will Red Bull be. If they can be up there with them all year and win several races, I like Renault. If not, I'll take Ferrari as they should finish close to Mercedes and ahead of Red Bull and Haas is their ace in the hole.

My official bet: Ferrari. K-Mag looks like he's got a few more 4ths and 5ths in his future this year. This is the moment he's been waiting for since 2013 and he's taking advantage of it; dominating the matchup with Grossjean and maximizing the car. I think Haas will have another nice haul in China and I think they will score enough to neutralize Renault and Mclaren to a large extent. mostly though, it seems Red Bull are still struggling with reliability and I expect Ferrari to capitalize on that and have an easy points gap over them.

As if something minor like this would stop anyone from voting!

Should be Renault. Red Bull can score close to Ferrari / Mercedes (on pure pace they should be able to outscore at least one of the two, honestly) while Renault and McLaren are both in the fight for best of the rest. The fastest Ferrari customer team is possibly faster than either, but the #2 Ferrari customer team doesn't seem to be able to fight with either on a regular basis.

As for Mercedes, at the current rate they have one top team and two teams that aren't even contenders for the points, let alone fighting Renault and McLaren. Mercedes is pretty much out of it unless Force India improves massively.

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PF1 PICK 10 COMPETITION (4 wins, 14 podiums): 2017: 19th| 2016: 3rd| 2015: 4th
PF1 TOP THREE TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP (No Limit Excedrin Racing): 2017: 2nd| 2015: 1st
AUTOSPORT GP PREDICTOR: 2017 United States Champion! (world #2)

If Ferrari engines score more points than Mercedes, I think it will probably be because of the contribution of the Haas team. I believe Haas-Sauber will score more points than Force India-Williams.

Renault's my best guess. They've got the factory team, Red Bull, and McLaren all out there and scoring points, and Red Bull's pace shows promise to be in the mix for the win (although they have yet to achieve that). Ferrari has themselves and Haas, with a possible handful of points now and again from Sauber, and with Force India and Williams fallen as far as they have this year I'd put Mercedes at the back for this.

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Top Three: 9 wins, 25 podiums | 2016: 9th [6th] | 2017: 16th [6th] | 2018: 3rd [4th]
Pick 10: 1 win, 8 podiums | 2016: 22nd | 2017: 21st | 2018: 6th
Group Pick'em: 2 wins, 11 podiums | 2016: 14th | 2017: 10th | 2018: 10th

Nice thread concept, something I have been thinking about for a while. Merc customers have had no visible special Q mode, or party mode as it seems to be called now, since 2014. I don't see any difference now despite the FIA ruling about everyone having equality even in terms of software maps. (Especially not with HAM saying he only changed settings between Q1 & 2 and not for that mega lap in AUS and then merc saying a day or two later that yes, they changed settings for Q3).

Top 10 Q cars? Ferrari is winning despite them supporting what were considered weak teams, no? Except there's a plethora of Renault teams in the top 10 too, no? in, fact, the main thing missing from Q grids is merc powered cars (except the obvious).

I am going to say Renault, but not because of the engine/PU. Saunber will underperform as they sort themselves out and build with their new investment and RB, McL, Renault will score more no matter how good the Haas may be.

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Renault.

Their 3 will out develop the others, they've got better drivers and bigger budgets too. Reliability is really the only concern.

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Posted this in the Qualifying thread:

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/135369/renault-allows-teams-to-use-more-performance

Renault plans to make another step when the second round of power units come on stream, with a major MGU-K upgrade among the items in the pipeline.

"As far as hardware is concerned if we are sticking to our plan, it's for power unit number two, which is not coming for a while," he said. For the time being it's more energy related.

"We'll have some more stuff coming from the ICE, and also with the fuel a bit later, depending on the teams, as we're not using the same fuel [supplier]."

Of course, the others won't be standing still, but bodes well for Renault's chances

I think Renault with lower maximums but more mid table pickup's through the year. Erm, provided they do not upset/get upset by RBR as they did with STR last year.


And it was WILL score most not Who do you want to score most wasn't it

You could total the points for the other engines, divide by 3 to get an average points per manufacturer per team and use that as a rough guide for Honda inclusion.

After China

1. Renault - 108
2. Ferrari - 97
3. Mercedes - 86

Why not keep editing the first post with the progress through the season in one place? Would be interesting.

Make a graph to track it!

... I like graphs.

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PF1 PICK 10 COMPETITION (4 wins, 14 podiums): 2017: 19th| 2016: 3rd| 2015: 4th
PF1 TOP THREE TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP (No Limit Excedrin Racing): 2017: 2nd| 2015: 1st
AUTOSPORT GP PREDICTOR: 2017 United States Champion! (world #2)

1. Mercedes - 238

2. Renault - 230

3. Ferrari - 220


Close!

Here's one for you then

Ferrari: 312

Renault: 295

Mercedes: 283



Williams is not helping Mercedes here and the drivers are not the main problem. Interestingly even without Sauber, Ferrari would still be in the lead. This double retirement really hurt Mercedes too. So without this and without Bottas's luck, think they would be a fair way ahead at this stage.

Right now... this looks like a pretty good prediction (apart from the bit about unreliability). Whether that'll still be the case in 12 races' time I'm not so sure, so I thought I'd pat myself on the back now while I've still got the chance

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Pick 10 | 1st x2, 2nd x3, 3rd x7
2018: 11th | 2017: 6th | 2016: 8th | 2015: 2nd | 2014: 15th | 2013: 17th | 2012: 11th

Ferrari: 379
Mercedes: 373
Renault: 339


Renault have slipped back quite a bit. Ferrari only just ahead of Mercedes now heavily due to Vettel's mistake last race. But I still think Ferrari are easily going to be the team to beat. Sauber are looking reasonable and both drivers have finished in the points several times. Certainly looking better than Williams. And Hass look better than Force India. Grosjean just needs to stay clean. McLaren are not looking great for what we expect from them and Vandoorne isn't either. Red Bull reliability is really poor. We will find out but I feel like Renault are going to be last if reliability continues like it is.

Given the upheavals at Force India and the fact that Williams have only scored four points this whole season I am surprised that Mercedes is as close to Ferrari as they are. Haas is outperforming Force India and Sauber is outperforming Williams by a multiple of more than 4X.

Look forward to next year as Honda will have both Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso to push their totals. Right now Honda powered cars have 28 points with Toro Rosso.