THE 2006 DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP GAMBLE | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pos | Driver | Total | MBi | TD | DS | DR | JN | AB | PE | TR | RB | BT | MBe | MG | DW | ML | MBo | DC | CS | RS | TO | TK | SS | BG |
1 | Alonso | 89 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | ||
2 | Raikkonen | 74 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | ||
3 | M.Schumacher | 65 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | ||
4 | Button | 27 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
= | Montoya | 27 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | ||||||||
6 | Barrichello | 20 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||||||
7 | Fisichella | 16 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | |||||||||||||||
8 | R.Schumacher | 5 | 1 | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||
9 | Webber | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||
10 | Trulli | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
= | Rosberg | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
12 | Coulthard | 1 | 1 |
THE 2006 CONSTRUCTORS' CHAMPIONSHIP GAMBLE | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pos | Team | Total | MBi | TD | DS | DR | JN | AB | PE | TR | RB | BT | MBe | MG | DW | ML | MBo | DC | CS | RS | TO | TK | SS | BG |
1 | Renault | 97 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
2 | McLaren | 85 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | |
3 | Ferrari | 61 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
4 | Honda | 55 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |
5 | Toyota | 17 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
6 | Williams | 11 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | |||||||||||||||
7 | Red Bull Racing | 3 | 2 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
8 | BMW | 1 | 1 |
This year, what with the arrival of 2.4-litre V8s and the return of tyre-changing, predicting F1 winners is harder than ever before. So the only thing I'm utterly sure of is that what I'm about to write will be wrong. Anyway, here goes.
Fernando Alonso will win the drivers' championship again because (a) the Renault R26 has shown itself to be both fast and reliable in winter testing, and (b) you have to go all the way back to 1998, the year in which Mika Hakkinen won his first title, to find the last season in which a reigning world champion (Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 victor) failed to achieve multiple titles. These days, F1 success breeds F1 success like never before.
Kimi Raikkonen will be second for the same reasons as he was second last year (freakish natural pace in a very quick car, tempered by less than adequate engine reliability), while Honda and Jenson Button (who will shade Rubens Barrichello by a small but steady margin all year) will be consistently best of the rest.