2011 Predictions - Round 12, Belgium

It has been a long time since the last Grand Prix, but this coming weekend will see the Formula 1 teams and drivers arrive at the historic circuit of Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium.

The Formula 1 Results Predictor managed two correct predictions last time in Hungary. To see the results, click here.


For the Belgian Grand Prix, we are pleased to announce as this weekend's Guest Predictor, Chris from F1Cartoonz.

F1Cartoonz, as the name suggests, make funny cartoons using Formula 1 drivers, people and events.

You can view all of F1Cartoonz cartoons on Twitpic.

Also, follow them on Twitter @F1Cartoonz

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Guest Predictions - Round 12, Belgium

1. Lewis Hamilton - McLaren
2. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari
3. Jenson Button - McLaren
4. Mark Webber - Red Bull
5. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull
6. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes
7. Felipe Massa - Ferrari
8. Vitaly Petrov - Renault
9. Adrian Sutil - Force India
10. Michael Schumacher - Mercedes
11. Paul di Resta - Force India
12. Nick Heidfeld - Renault
13. Jaime Alguersuari - Toro Rosso
14. Sebastien Buemi - Toro Rosso
15. Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber
16. Heikki Kovalainen - Team Lotus
17. Pastor Maldonado - Williams
18. Timo Glock - Virgin
19. Vitantonio Liuzzi - Hispania
20. Jarno Trulli - Team Lotus
21. Jerome D'Ambrosio - Virgin
22. Daniel Ricciardo - Hispania
23. Rubens Barrichello - Williams
24. Sergio Perez - Sauber

Chris has suggested that Red Bull may continue to struggle in Spa, with McLaren and Ferrari waiting to pounce on any mistakes made by the reigning Champions.

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F1RP Prediction - Round 12, Belgium

1. Mark Webber - Red Bull Racing
2. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull Racing
3. Lewis Hamilton - McLaren
4. Felipe Massa - Ferrari
5. Nick Heidfeld - Renault
6. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes
7. Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber
8. Jenson Button - McLaren
9. Vitaly Petrov - Renault
10. Michael Schumacher - Mercedes
11. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari
12. Sergio Perez - Sauber
13. Sebastien Buemi - Toro Rosso
14. Adrian Sutil - Force India
15. Jaime Alguersuari - Toro Rosso
16. Rubens Barrichello - Williams
17. Paul di Resta - Force India
18. Heikki Kovalainen - Team Lotus
19. Timo Glock - Virgin
20. Pastor Maldonado - Williams
21. Jarno Trulli - Team Lotus
22. Vitantonio Liuzzi - Hispania
23. Daniel Ricciardo - Hispania
24. Jerome D'Ambrosio - Virgin

Unlike Chris, the Formula 1 Results Predictor thinks the Red Bull team will return to winning ways! The F1RP is expecting strong performances from the Renault team and from Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi.
It is suggested that Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso may struggle though.

Funnily, both Chris and the F1RP agree on the predicted finishing results for both Mercedes drivers, Nico Rosberg (6th) and Michael Schumacher (10th).

Feel free to make your own suggestions by commenting below!

2011 Predictions - Round 9, Britain

This weekend will see the Formula 1 World Championship return to Silverstone. Home Grand Prix to three drivers, and the majority of the teams.

This is the first Grand Prix at the Northamptonshire circuit since the opening of the new paddock complex, and now with the introduction of much talked about rookie Daniel Ricciardo, it will be the first Grand Prix for several decades that two Australian drivers lined up on the grid together.

The European Grand Prix last time out was rather successful for the Formula 1 Results Predictor. We managed to make six correct predictions, and our guest predictor got the podium correct! Read about Valencia here.


This weekend, we are pleased to introduce as guest predictor, popular F1 blogger Gary Marshall.

Gary runs his own blog, Marshall GP, giving his views on all the goings on in the World of Formula 1.

Visit marshallgp.wordpress.com or folow Gary on Twitter @MarshallGP

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Guest Predictions - Round 9, Britain

1. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari
2. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull
3. Mark Webber - Red Bull
4. Lewis Hamilton - McLaren
5. Vitaly Petrov - Renault
6. Jenson Button - McLaren
7. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes
8. Sebastien Buemi - Toro Rosso
9. Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber
10. Rubens Barrichello - Williams
11. Paul di Resta - Force India
12. Adrian Sutil - Force India
13. Michael Schumacher - Mercedes
14. Sergio Perez - Sauber
15. Jaime Alguersuari - Toro Rosso
16. Heikki Kovalainen - Team Lotus
17. Vitantonio Liuzzi - Hispania
18. Jerome D'Ambrosio - Virgin
19. Daniel Ricciardo - Hispania
DNF Felipe Massa - Ferrari
DNF Nick Heidfeld - Renault
DNF Timo Glock - Virgin
DNF Pastor Maldonado - Williams
DNF Jarno Trulli - Team Lotus

Once again, our guest predictor has also tried to predict which drivers will fail to finish! This didn't work out too well at the last race, as all drivers were classified. Surely this can't happen in consecutive races?!

Gary has suggested that a return to form may be on the cards for Fernando Alonso, but it is not expected to be too great a race for the British trio.

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F1RP Prediction - Round 9, Britain

1. Mark Webber - Red Bull
2. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull
3. Jenson Button - McLaren
4. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes
5. Lewis Hamilton - McLaren
6. Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber
7. Felipe Massa - Ferrari
8. Rubens Barrichello - Williams
9. Sergio Perez - Sauber
10. Nick Heidfeld - Renault
11. Vitaly Petrov - Renault
12. Michael Schumacher - Mercedes
13. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari
14. Jaime Alguersuari - Toro Rosso
15. Sebastien Buemi - Toro Rosso
16. Paul di Resta - Force India
17. Adrian Sutil - Force India
18. Pastor Maldonado - Williams
19. Jarno Trulli - Team Lotus
20. Heikki Kovalainen - Team Lotus
21. Timo Glock - Virgin
22. Vitantonio Liuzzi - Hispania
23. Daniel Ricciardo - Hispania
24. Jerome D'Ambrosio - Virgin

Interestingly, the Formula 1 Results Predictor has offered a very different idea of where Alonso may finish. Gary has suggested a race win, whilst the F1RP doesn't think the Spaniard will even score points!
The only matching prediction is second place for reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel.
Both sets of predictions also expect Rubens Barrichello and Kamui Kobayashi to score points on Sunday.

If you would like to attempt to predict the results for the Grand Prix, please use the comments section below!

2011 Predictions - Round 7, Canada

Two weeks since the controversial Monaco Grand Prix, the sole North American Grand Prix (for this season at least), will take place at le Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, in Montreal, Canada.

As always, the Monaco Grand Prix was difficult to predict, but the Formula One Results Predictor tried anyway. To see the results, click here.

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2011 Predictions - Round 7, Canada

1. Lewis Hamilton - McLaren
2. Jenson Button - McLaren
3. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull
4. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari
5. Mark Webber - Ferrari
6. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes
7. Nick Heidfeld - Renault
8. Sebastien Buemi - Toro Rosso
9. Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber
10. Michael Schumacher - Mercedes
11. Felipe Massa - Ferrari
12. Vitaly Petrov - Renault
13. Jaime Alguersuari - Toro Rosso
14. Adrian Sutil - Force India
15. Sergio Perez - Sauber
16. Paul di Resta - Force India
17. Rubens Barrichello - Williams
18. Vitantonio Liuzzi - Hispania
19. Pastor Maldonado - Williams
20. Jarno Trulli - Team Lotus
21. Heikki Kovalainen - Team Lotus
22. Timo Glock - Virgin
23. Narain Karthikeyan - Hispania
24. Jerome D'Ambrosio - Virgin

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The F1RP is predicting good news for McLaren fans, suggesting that Sebastian Vettel will finish outside of the top two places for the first time this season!
Another good performance is expected of both Sebastien Buemi and Kamui Kobayashi who both scored points in Monaco.
Interestingly, this is only the second time this season that Narain Karthikeyan has been predicted to finish above 24th.

Turkish Grand Prix - 08 May 2011

The Formula One circus ventured to Europe this weekend, for the first time this season.

As has become the norm this season, reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel started the race from Pole Position, as he has done in every race so far this year.
Vettel's team mate Mark Webber started second, with a strong qualifying performance from Mercedes' Nico Rosberg placing him in third.

Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi started at the back of the grid, due to a technical issue in qualifying causing the Japanese driver's car to stop on the track before he was able to set a lap time. However, as Mark Webber showed in the previous race, it is possible to make up several positions from back of the field with the correct tyre strategy.

As the race started, Nico Rosberg managed to jump Mark Webber from the line and move into second place. Lewis Hamilton tried to follow the German through, and spent the next series of corners alongside Webber. Hamilton ran wide, losing a few positions and fell back into the clutches of his team mate, Jenson Button.

Hamilton and Button spent several laps exchanging positions several times, assisted by the DRS (moveable rear wing). The McLaren team may not have been overly pleased, as it was this race in 2010 which saw the Red Bull drivers infamously collide whilst battling for the lead.
Eventually Hamilton managed to stay ahead of his team mate, and slowly started to build a small gap.

As in previous races, there was a great deal of overtaking, some moves cleaner than others. The two Lotus-Renault drivers exchanged fist-shakes after banging wheels through the complex series of corners at the end of the lap.
Vitaly Petrov had a coming together with Mercedes' Michael Schumacher earlier in the race, as Schumacher fought possibly too hard to retain his position. But the former Champion came off worst with a broken front wing.

This race featured well over 70 pit stops - a record in recent years. The pit stops also caused problems, several drivers suffering from wheel-nut issues, particulaly Lewis Hamilton who had a very long stop after the mechanics had to change to a new wheel-nut.

As the race entered it's final stages, Sebastian Vettel had a comfortable lead, and simply had to match the pit stops made by his closest rivals.
Fernando Alonso was running in second place, but Webber managed to pass him on the start/finish straight, seemingly more happy with his final set of tyres.
Alonso is unlikely to be too unhappy with this result, acheiving his and his teams first podium of the year.

Kobayashi had managed to make up several positions, eventually finishing just inside the points.

Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi ran strongly, sitting in fifth place on a three stop strategy, but eventually his older tyres became more apparent, and he began to fall back towards the mid-field.

These results mean that Vettel is now more than 25 points (one race) ahead of his closest rival. He is certainly the man to beat at the moment!

Provisional Race Results:

1. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull - Prediction 3rd
2. Mark Webber - Red Bull - Prediction 2nd
3. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari - Prediction 7th
4. Lewis Hamilton - McLaren - Prediction 4th
5. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes - Prediction 6th
6. Jenson Button - McLaren - Prediction 1st
7. Nick Heidfeld - Lotus-Renault - Prediction 9th
8. Vitaly Petrov - Lotus-Renault - Prediction 11th
9. Sebastien Buemi - Toro Rosso - Prediction 14th
10. Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber - Prediction 10th
11. Felipe Massa - Ferrari - Prediction 5th
12. Michael Schumacher - Mercedes - Prediction 8th
13. Adrian Sutil - Force India - Prediction 16th
14. Sergio Perez - Sauber - Prediction 15th
15. Rubens Barrichello - Williams - Prediction 12th
16. Jaime Alguersuari - Toro Rosso - Prediction 13th
17. Pastor Maldonado - Williams - Prediction 19th
18. Jarno Trulli - Team Lotus - Prediction 18th
19. Heikki Kovalainen - Team Lotus - Prediction 20th
20. Jerome D'Ambrosio - Virgin - Prediction 22nd
21. Narain Karthikeyan - Hispania - Prediction 24th
22. Vitantonio Liuzzi - Hispania - Prediction 23rd
DNF Paul di Resta - Force India - Prediction 17th
DNS Timo Glock - Virgin - Prediction 21st

That looks like the best ever result for the Formula One Results Predictor! Hopefully it can continue to improve as the season progresses.
Keep checking back to find out!

2011 Preview: The 'Bottom Half' Teams

Part two of our 2011 preview focuses on the bottom three of the established teams.

Admittedly all of these teams have only existed in their current guises for a few years, and have had much to learn in a short space of time, but all of them will be looking to improve and try and break into the top half of the table.

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The first team to consider is Scuderia Toro Rosso. Classified ninth in 2010, this Ferrari-powered team are regarded as the feeder team for current World Champions, Red Bull Racing (Toro Rosso is Italian for Red Bull). The team have had success in the past - they were very quick in their first season, as they were the only team allowed to run V10 engines as part of an agreement made between the FIA and the struggling Minardi team, who Toro Rosso replaced.
The cars were initially designed by master Red Bull designer Adrian Newey, but legislation introduced for the 2010 season has meant that the teams must be separated, and Newey no longer has direct input into the building of the car.
It is worth remembering, however, that Toro Rosso acheived their first Grand Prix victory before Red Bull did, courtesy of a faultless Sebastian Vettel drive in Monza, 2008.

The team's number one is the young Swiss driver, Sebastien Buemi. Buemi acheived the team's highest position in 2010, eighth place in the Canadian Grand Prix, although as the season progressed, his performances began to be matched by his less experienced team mate, Alguersuari.

2010 was Jaime Alguersuari's first full season, after replacing Sebastien Bourdais part-way through 2009. The keen DJ (who is due to release a single later in the year) did not have the greatest introduction to Formula One, suffering several accidents - although this is not overly surprising, as due to the restrictions on mid-season testing, Alguersuari entered his first race weekend with virtually no prior experience of the car.
He showed visible signs of improvement in 2010 as the season progressed.

Both Buemi and Alguersuari must continue to improve during 2011, as the team have previously shown that they are not adverse to replacing drivers mid-season, with replacement Daniel Ricciardo having already proven in an earlier winter test that he is a very capable driver.
The 2011 car does look very competitive, with Lewis Hamilton commenting following one pre-season test "the Toro Rosso looks ridiculously fast".

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The second team to assess is the Sauber F1 Team. Finishing eight last season, this team, like Toro Rosso, are also powered by Ferrari engines.
The team was branded as BMW Sauber for the 2009 season, but because BMW withdrew from the sport very shortly before the commencement of the 2010 season, it was too late for the team to formerly change their name. Therefore they also ran in 2010 as BMW Sauber Ferrari, despite BMW having nothing to do with the team.

Sauber's first driver is the very exciting Kamui Kobayashi. The young Japanese driver made his first appearance in a Formula One car as a replacement for Toyota's injured Timo Glock for the final few races of the 2009 season. Kobayashi quickly gained lots of attention due to his very aggressive driving style and apparent lack of fear, as he overtook several much more experience drivers and refused to yield to anyone! Kobayashi will be the least experienced number one driver on the grid this season, so he will have to support his rookie team mate whilst still learning himself.

Sergio Perez is the team's new recruit. The Mexican driver is known to have brought sponsorship with him from his home Country, including famous tequila brand Jose Cuervo, but Perez will want to show that he has the talent to establish a long career in the sport.

Sauber have confirmed that their cars in Australia will feature a message of support for the Japanese people, following the Country's devastating events of recent weeks.

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Finally, Force India. Finishing seventh last season, eventually losing a hard-fought battle with the Williams team for sixth place, it is easy to forget that 2011 will be only the Mercedes-Benz engined team's fourth season in the sport.
The previous three seasons have seen mixed fortunes for the Silverstone-based team, with the highlight surely being Giancarlo Fisichella's magnificent pole position at Spa-Francorchamps in 2009.
The team will certainly be looking to improve and acheive a top six finish this season.

The team's number one driver, Adrian Sutil, has driven for the team in all of their seasons in Formula One. Rumours emerged during the 2010 season that the German driver was looking to move away from the team, but despite this he has been re-signed for 2011.
2010 also saw Sutil's relationship with team mate Vitantonio Liuzzi stretched, with the pair seemingly unable to see eye-to-eye on occassions, including near-misses and holding each other up on qualifying laps.
It will be interesting to see how Sutil copes with his new team mate, who has looked quick in pre-season testing.
Sutil, however, has admitted that the team seem to lack pace compared to some of their rivals, and may face a struggle at the beginning of the season.

Force India's second driver for the new season is another rookie, Scotland's Paul di Resta, who spent last season as a test driver for the team, but also participated in - and won - the DTM Championship.
Di Resta (cousin of star United States-based drivers Dario and Marino Franchitti) talks a good talk, and is happy to remind Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel that he has beaten them both in the past in lower formulas. Whether this ability will be shown in 2011 will remain to be seen, but Di Resta's initial aim will be try to match the pace of his experienced team mate.

Like Toro Rosso, Force India have a proven test driver in the form of Nico Hulkenberg, who qualified on pole in the 2010 Brazilian Grand Prix for Williams.

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It will be interesting to see whether any of these teams can break into the top six this season. Especially considering the three new teams behind them look to be slowly reeling in the rest of the field.

Final Jerez Times

As the final day of testing at Jerez came to an end, there was a surprising name at the top of the time sheets.

The Williams of Rubens Barrichello set the fastest time of the day, to the surprise of many in the paddock, as the team had only had limited runs, with Pastor Maldonado suffing an accident earlier in the week.

Second in the unofficial timing, was the Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi, with Alonso third and Sebastien Buemi recording the fourth fastest time of the day for Toro Rosso.

For more detail, see www.autosport.com

Heidfeld Stakes Claim To Lotus-Renault Seat

If Nick Heidfeld needed to proove he had the ability to replace the injured Robert Kubica for Lotus-Renault, then his performance today will certainly go someway towards that.

Heidfeld set the fastest lap in the third test at Jerez today, heading Fernando Alonso by just over a tenth of a second.

Unofficial timing puts Schumacher in third, Hamilton fourth, Kobayashi fifth and Vettel sixth, but Schumacher is already looking towards future updates to improve the Mercedes' pace and has expressed concerns that the team still need to get more testing laps under their belt.

Promisingly for Team Lotus, Heikki Kovalainen's best lap was only 0.7 seconds off Schumacher's pace, which suggests some major steps forward have been acheived by the team.

For more, see www.bbc.co.uk/sport