OK, here we are, the right side of the winter solstice, and a few verses of Auld Lang Syne away from the start of hopefully another exciting year of racing.
As is almost mandatory at this time of year, I have come up with a few predictions for 2010, with a view of looking back on them in 12 months time and wondering what was going through my mind when I made them.
Gazing into my crystal ball, here are a few of my thoughts on the year ahead:
Formula 1
- McLaren will win the Formula 1 constructors’ championship.
- Lewis Hamilton will win the drivers’ championship, closely followed by Fernando Alonso.
- Mercedes Grand Prix will finish fourth in the constructors’ table. Behind the likes of McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull.
- Michael Schumacher will regularly blitz Nico Rosberg.
- Campos Meta will fail to make the grid in Bahrain…
- …which will be won by Sebastian Vettel.
- Of the new mob in Formula 1, Virgin Racing will be the most competitive.
- Toro Rosso will be put back on the market again, and be sold off before the end of the year.
- Barrichello and Trulli will call it a day.
Rally
- Kimi Raikkonen will finish on the fringes of the top 10 in the WRC and commit to another season of rallying.
- Mikko Hirvonen be crowned WRC champion.
- Kris Meeke will announce he is to drive in WRC for 2011.
- Prodrive will announce a BMW Mini WRC entry for 2011.
- Ken Block will head up the Monster-Ford WRC team and be competitive from the off. Finishing in the top five.
Other
- A1GP’s life support machine will finally be switched off – but nobody will notice.
- Valentino Rossi will once again win another MotoGP title – and switch from two-wheels, to sportscar racing.
- Carlos Sainz will win the Dakar Rally.
- The Le Mans 24 Hours will be won by Peugeot once again…
- …which will also feature David Coulthard and Sebastien Loeb, though not necessarily in the same team.
- Daniel Ricciardo will win the Formula 3.5 championship.
- Jules Bianchi will win the GP2 Series for ART GP on his first attempt.
- Jean-Eric Vergne will win the British F3 championship.
- The winner of the Formula 2 category will impress Williams and be offered a drive.
Of course I’m only expecting some, not all, of these to come to pass as essentially this is all guesswork, because motor racing is completely unpredictable. Which I guess is partly why we love it so much.
You, of course, will have your own opinions.
Very interesting choices. I hope you come back to these predictions at the end of the year to see how well your predictions turned out…
That’s the idea. Though depending on how well I have done, I may well choose to completely ignore them!