A Three-Way Battle for the Top of the Midfield?

midfield battle 1.jpg
It’s far too early to make any predictions, with no driver turning a wheel in anger until tomorrow and, even then, it’s impossible to know what testing plans each team has. But it’s safe to assume 2017 will provide fans with a strong midfield battle.


Whilst we all wait to see if Red Bull and Ferrari can actually provide competition to Mercedes this season, the battle just behind them will probably be a little less predictable.

Force India won best of the rest last season, beating Williams to fourth in the constructors’ championship. Naturally, the team is hoping to move forward this season and is aiming to break into the top three. It’s perfectly possible the team will achieve that goal, but it’ll have to be careful to not follow in Williams’ footsteps and start moving backwards now.

After taking third in the championship back in 2014, Williams has been struggling to match the performances it managed at the start of the new engine era. The team should still be in the battle at the top of the midfield this season, but the inexperience of Lance Stroll and Felipe Massa’s lack of performance over recent years could be a disadvantage to it.

Power unit choice won’t really come into the equation in the battle between Force India and Williams, with both teams running a Mercedes engine. Both teams will also be running a promising young driver expected to be quick and a driver with a little more experience. The difference between the two teams will be who has interpreted the aero rules best and which team runs the smoothest. With strategy being a troubling point for Williams in the past, it looks like Force India might have the upper hand on that one.

The third team in the race for the top of the midfield will be Toro Rosso. Not running the Mercedes power unit will probably be a disadvantage with the German engine expected to have about 100 brake horse power more than the Renault, but the team is expecting their best year in Formula One to date.

The team has two experienced drivers, keeping the same line up as the majority of last season, something it hasn’t done in a long time. Toro Rosso has also claimed to be looking more long term, over the full course of the season, and has a list of planned in-season developments.

The power unit disadvantage probably won’t be as big a problem for Toro Rosso as it would be other teams. The team battled with a year-old Ferrari engine last season and still made it to seventh in the constructors’ championship and, in the words of Franz Tost, the Renault engine is “the most competitive engine we have had so far in the hybrid era”. If anybody can get the best out of the power unit, it’ll be Toro Rosso.

Each team has its strengths and its weaknesses and, unless someone has made a drastic mistake with their aero package, we should be in for a good battle at the top of the midfield.

Of course, it’s too early to say anything for sure, except that the Toro Rosso wins the award for the best livery of the season.

For more Formula One news and discussions head over to Race Department’s dedicated F1 forum.

Who do you think will be the top of the midfield? Will Toro Rosso be able to overcome the likely engine disadvantage and do you think Williams will be able to stay at the sharp end of the midfield? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
 
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Who do you think will be the top of the midfield? Will Toro Rosso be able to overcome the likely engine disadvantage and do you think Williams will be able to stay at the sharp end of the midfield? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Not only do I believe Toro Rosso will be quite a way ahead of these teams, I think they will be a real threat to Ferrari and Red Bull.

Williams I think will be near the back, while Force India will probably battle it out with McLaren
 
Not only do I believe Toro Rosso will be quite a way ahead of these teams, I think they will be a real threat to Ferrari and Red Bull.

Williams I think will be near the back, while Force India will probably battle it out with McLaren
I'm holding onto the hope that Williams won't fall too far down too fast.

McLaren... I remember when I made a prediction back in 2015, I said something along the lines of "McLaren can't be placed, they're just unknown". And I feel like that's the same this season.
 
Not only do I believe Toro Rosso will be quite a way ahead of these teams, I think they will be a real threat to Ferrari and Red Bull.

Williams I think will be near the back, while Force India will probably battle it out with McLaren

We should not rule out the Mercedes powered teams, I have such a feeling that those teams will have a relative bigger advantage than they had last year. Cars will be more on throttle, more rolling resistance, higher down force levels and thus a better engine could make a bigger difference than last year. Engines will be more important than ever, lets hope the other engine manufacturers did their homework and closed in on Mercedes.

I'm not to sure if STR will be able to challenge the top3 teams but they surely will not be far away. Strong midfield team to the front end with a brilliant car again designed by James Key. I am still surprised that none of the top teams picked him up yet, probably a matter of time I guess.

Pretty excited, cant wait till Melbourne to see how the pecking order will turn out to be and if some top team did a boo boo.:x3::x3:
 

DND

Stay Safe, Healthy and be Kind - Stop Hate
I'm cautiously optimistic we may have a tighter battle throughout. But McLaren and Williams need to get out of the midfield. Again, being hopeful we get a good battle for constructors champion.
 
I just have a feeling that Honda have been playing down their expectations for 2017 and giving the impression that 2018 is the year to expect fighting at the front.
This is F1 remember.
With totally different cars from last season, just about anything can happen...Adrian Newey could be the big deciding factor for Red Bull, to have a head start over the rest.
 
Honda got trapped by this crazy token BS and couldn't revise their engine afterward.

F1 is supposed to be a War, not some game with "tokens". If Honda is allowed a free hand, they always end up with the most powerful, efficient engine or one very close to it. Even during the mid-2000's, it was rumored that their V10 was the most powerful of them all.
 
Honda got trapped by this crazy token BS and couldn't revise their engine afterward.

F1 is supposed to be a War, not some game with "tokens". If Honda is allowed a free hand, they always end up with the most powerful, efficient engine or one very close to it. Even during the mid-2000's, it was rumored that their V10 was the most powerful of them all.
Honda have a free hand now. I guess we'll see what they can do this season.
 

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