Mercedes still on top? The 2018 Formula 1 grid prediction
Every winter, each team wants to make a big step in the performance of the car. But until they hit the track for the first time they don't know if they moved up the grid. And we don't know either, but can make a guess with the knowledge that we have. We know that still the basic rules apply, more money means more development capacity, and potentially more improvements. Taken these in consideration, we make a prediction for the first test and order at the start of the season.
Some reasons for this order.
At the front the only doubt is with the Red Bull and Ferrari, the first response on the new car is very impressive by insiders. They concluded that they have made a huge step because of a well designed car around the Halo. But Ferrari has proven to deliver an engine that can match the Mercedes, an the Red Bull is still a customer of Renault, which makes it less likely that they can match the front runners.
The biggest movers up the grid are expected to be Renault and McLaren. With the manufacturer Renault stepping up, and McLaren moving toward the more reliable and powerful engine of Renault they should bring a big improvement. McLaren builds great cars, but where hold back by the engine.
The biggest drop we expect from the Force India team and Toro Rosso. With the Mclaren and Renault team stepping up, they push the Force India team down, they outperformed their budget last year but we can't expect that they can keep this up.
Toro Rosso made a conscious decision to switch to the Honda engine, a smart move for the future, but for this year we expect that they still will have trouble with the engine performance an reliability.
Sauber is a question mark, because a new sponsor doesn't mean that they will move up. The team has not been able to invest heavily and already was behind on teams like Haas. For them to catch up, it will taken more years.
- Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport
- Scuderia Ferrari
- Aston Martin Red Bull Racing
- Renault Sport Formula One Team
- McLaren Formula 1 Team
- Sahara Force India F1 Team
- Williams Martini Racing
- Haas F1 Team
- Scuderia Toro Rosso
- Sauber F1 Team
Some reasons for this order.
At the front the only doubt is with the Red Bull and Ferrari, the first response on the new car is very impressive by insiders. They concluded that they have made a huge step because of a well designed car around the Halo. But Ferrari has proven to deliver an engine that can match the Mercedes, an the Red Bull is still a customer of Renault, which makes it less likely that they can match the front runners.
The biggest movers up the grid are expected to be Renault and McLaren. With the manufacturer Renault stepping up, and McLaren moving toward the more reliable and powerful engine of Renault they should bring a big improvement. McLaren builds great cars, but where hold back by the engine.
The biggest drop we expect from the Force India team and Toro Rosso. With the Mclaren and Renault team stepping up, they push the Force India team down, they outperformed their budget last year but we can't expect that they can keep this up.
Toro Rosso made a conscious decision to switch to the Honda engine, a smart move for the future, but for this year we expect that they still will have trouble with the engine performance an reliability.
Sauber is a question mark, because a new sponsor doesn't mean that they will move up. The team has not been able to invest heavily and already was behind on teams like Haas. For them to catch up, it will taken more years.