With the recent release of the official F1 driver line-up for 2008, I think time is ripe for a pickem!

What is your pickem for the top 10?

Who will win the WDC this year?

(PS: Poll is limited to 20 choices, so I've removed the obvious non-contenders. i.e. Force India.)



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My top 10 pickem:
1. Kimi Raikkonen
2. Lewis Hamilton
3. Heikki Kovalainen
4. Felipe Massa
5. Fernando Alonso
6. Robert Kubica
7. Nick Heidfeld
8. Nico Rosberg
9. Nelson Piquet Jnr.
10. Sebastien Bourdais

Kimi's got the best chance, because McLaren are hamstrung by their voluntary development restriction from the fall-out of the "spygate" business. If McLaren do manage to keep up, Hamilton might have a chance. I don't expect Renault to catch up next year and I don't think BMW have quite got the team to win championships yet.

I also put a vote in for Coulthard. The RB3 looked good towards the end of last season, they've got Geoff Willis working alongside Newey on the new car so it should be a step forward, and if they can fix the reliability issues from last year they could jump a few teams. I picked Coulthard because Webber has the worst luck of any driver I've ever seen.

How is Nakajima able to keep his place in Formula 1 despite his abysmal season?

Quote from h3adbang3r :

How is Nakajima able to keep his place in Formula 1 despite his abysmal season?

He only ran one race. And: Toyota's money.

Quote from h3adbang3r :

How is Nakajima able to keep his place in Formula 1 despite his abysmal season?

You mean his one and only race, during which he set 5th fastest lap?

I reckon it will be Raikkonen again this year.

If Ferrari's car is good, Kimi and Massa will be winning outright. But I still believe Hamilton has the capability of winning a title. His car just better be good then. I don't think Heikki will do very good. To me, he will be like the Massa /w Schumi combo back then. But I'd be impressed if he was kicking some A!

Hamilton can't win it, he'll be carrying a weight penalty. James Allen can't stand to be more than three inches away from him.

I actually think Hekki could really beat Lewis on occasion, around 4/6 to Lewis favour.

Heikki has a chance, but not much chance. As per my pickem, I'd rate him within the top five, most probably third.

If you compare his performance against Fisi, and then compare Alonso's performance against Fisi, Heikki measures up very well. Alonso used to win around twice the points that Fisi had. In his debut year, Heikki won around one-and-half times the points than Fisi. Give him a few more seasons and he could definitely be WDC material.

I'm very interested in what Piquet Jnr can do. Both him and his father has been talking the talk. His father had a big mouth, but backed it up with loads of talent. Junior can talk the talk, but can he walk the walk as well as his father did?

I'd say it is going to be pretty close between the two Ferraris (I mean the red ones). Massa and Räikkönen both made some errors and had some bad luck this year which was a bit suprising as the Ferrari was supposed to be the car that doesn't break down with the best drivers.

As for other drivers, McLaren is the close second winning some races but after these two teams the gap is the same like it was last year. Renault maybe gets more regularily into the 5-8 places in quali but I don't expect them to finish any higher. Kovalainen vs. Haemitlon will be interesting to see, kinda like the Montboya vs. Räikkönen few years back. Whichever comes on top is serious wdc material. Needless to say that Kovalainen being the better one would be somewhat surprising looking that he didn't have much success on his first season. Still, Renault was underperforming and it is possible that Kovalainen could not show what he is really capable of. But he had many races and got some good results too so it is a bit wait and see on his part.

Two other cars I want to follow are Kuibicca and Rostbug. Both are good drivers but both have to wait to get their chance and they both know it.

Other than these, there are just drivers whose names you can't even spell correctly

I voted for Massa and Räikkönen since I think that they have the potentially best car and because I think they'll adapt better than others to the new restrictions on electronics.
I'd like Kubica to win though, but I don't think the car is ready yet. I hope I'm wrong

I have voted for LH because I know he will bring Britain another title back to the UK, we are really big in boxing and take our motorsport serious. I like the way everyone is saying kimi because he won it last year but, last year everyone was saying LH, make your mind up, some people I know are kimi fans but there are some who are just voting for who won the title last season.

Go Lewis!

Quote from sam93 :

I have voted for LH because I know he will bring Britain another title back to the UK, we are really big in boxing and take our motorsport serious. I like the way everyone is saying kimi because he won it last year but, last year everyone was saying LH, make your mind up, some people I know are kimi fans but there are some who are just voting for who won the title last season.

They´re voting for Kimi and not for Hamilton because most likely Ferrari will have a far better car this year than McLaren.

Heikki Kovalainen, he is such a nice down to earth guy, and he really deserves it. I was going to take a big punt and go with Robert Kubica, because I think BMW will challenge for wins this year. I also think the top boys will trip over each other a bit.

Mclaren have a little bit, and I mean little advantage as they are the ones who have built the ECU's this year, I think it will be the same as last year, kimi trying to catch hamilton, we will soon see when lewis hamilton has the title in his hands at the end of this years season. The cars will change a lot though before the first race, I think Mclaren will be on the top of the game this year. I don't doubt ferrari but hamilton showed us what he could do in his first year, now he has the experience and will be even better. I have a feeling kimi might try to be cocky towards Mclaren as he has one the title, I don't think he will but I have a feeling he might do.

Quote from h3adbang3r :

How is Nakajima able to keep his place in Formula 1 despite his abysmal season?

Dont confuse Nakajima with Yamamoto

Quote from sam93 :

I think Mclaren will be on the top of the game this year.

I'd be very surprised if they are. The ECU might be an advantage, but their voluntary moratorium on development of three "key areas" of the car (although I haven't heard what these areas are) as penance for nicking Ferrari data should mean that Ferrari can find more speed.

Hamilton's quick, but he's not as quick as Kimi. Nobody is.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I'd be very surprised if they are. The ECU might be an advantage, but their voluntary moratorium on development of three "key areas" of the car (although I haven't heard what these areas are) as penance for nicking Ferrari data should mean that Ferrari can find more speed.

Hamilton's quick, but he's not as quick as Kimi. Nobody is.

We will just have to see, the spygate is over so no more pressure on Mclaren, you can't really say no one is quicker then kimi, who was mainly in front of kimi through out last season, hamilton, I believe you can do it, he was very good in formula 3, gp2 and karting, he wont fail at F1, I think he will have the title this year, Mclaren will build their car the best to their ability and I think hamilton will give the two ferrari drivers a run for their money.

Mclaren don't even have a penalty for the "spygate" well they do and that was to loss all of their constucters points, people have been saying they have a penalty on their cars but I haven't read anything about it on itv-f1.com

Quote from sam93 :

We will just have to see, the spygate is over so no more pressure on Mclaren, ... Mclaren don't even have a penalty for the "spygate" well they do and that was to loss all of their constucters points, people have been saying they have a penalty on their cars but I haven't read anything about it on itv-f1.com

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/spo ... /2007/12/14/smbake114.xml

Well I think that is wrong, they have already payed loads of money and had their constructors points now this, I think the FIA should let them go, but just allow them to check the parts they use to ferrari's 3 system's so they know they are not using ferrari information. I think this will make the sport unfair and people will start lossing intrest in F1. Will mclaren have this penalty right through the whole season or just a couple of races. Mclaren may have made some of the parts of their car better to make up for the 3 system's what they aren't allowed to use, so you never know what is going to happen, that story is from the paper, when the season starts it may be revieled that it is all untrue, but who knows, we will just have to wait and see what happens.

You seem to be suggesting that The Telegraph made up this story. How about doing some googling to see if you can find other reports of it?

The FIA were initially going to scrutinise the whole McLaren 2008 car to ensure that no Ferrari IP was involved in its development, and could have deemed it illegal and required McLaren to change parts of the car in order to be granted entry into the 2008 championship. This offer from McLaren was accepted by the FIA as an alternative solution.

Do you think it would have been fair to just exclude McLaren from the constructors championship in 2007, but then allow them to go ahead and use the Ferrari data the following year? I don't think you've given this much thought.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

You seem to be suggesting that The Telegraph made up this story. How about doing some googling to see if you can find other reports of it?

The FIA were initially going to scrutinise the whole McLaren 2008 car to ensure that no Ferrari IP was involved in its development, and could have deemed it illegal and required McLaren to change parts of the car in order to be granted entry into the 2008 championship. This offer from McLaren was accepted by the FIA as an alternative solution.

Do you think it would have been fair to just exclude McLaren from the constructors championship in 2007, but then allow them to go ahead and use the Ferrari data the following year? I don't think you've given this much thought.

I have, I don't even think they would of used their information, mclaren don't need ferrari data, well I wouldn't think they would of used it. I have thought it through, I didn't do a google search because I was doing more important things, if it is in the paper, journalists a lot of the time can make up stories, why do you think celebs are always sueing the press for making stories up about them.

Quote from h3adbang3r :

How is Nakajima able to keep his place in Formula 1 despite his abysmal season?

He's Japanese. Toyota want a Japanese driver in F1 for their national pride, and i admire that (even though he's not that good).

Dark Horse: Button. Watch out for him (If Honda's chassis is sorted!) Their engine is one of the best, just last year's chassis was crap.