At the start of the year I wrote a post called The ones we will all be watching. In it I gave my opinion on how I thought the main team-mates would react with each other through the season. Now I’m going to attempt to see how I fared in my predictions.

Ferrari

In my initial post I said that the Alonso/Massa partnership would be one of the most exciting battles to watch, due to their prior race history, and Latino temperaments. I also implied that Massa would have the edge on Alonso, although I regard Alonso as a genius driver.

Only on one of those points was I correct. Alonso again proved his brilliance this year. He was the equivalent of 3-0 down at half time and then fought back to be 4-3 up going into injury time. Ultimately he lost on penalties. Apologies for the soccer (football) analogy but for me, its fits well here. I did also predict neither Ferrari driver would win the title. +1 for me.

The only time we witnessed any fireworks between the two was in Germany, and we all know what happened there. As for post Germany, Massa clearly gave up and underperformed enough to not have to help Alonso again. Vettel should thank Massa just a tiny bit for allowing him to win the title.

Pre-Germany, Alonso largely had the better of Massa, but early season Massa was continually out-racing Alonso. Australia, Malaysia, and China I would chalk up to Massa victories, but still not by much. Alonso integrated into the Ferrari team well before I predicted. - 1 for me.

I don’t really need to state the obvious that Alonso whooped the stuffing out of Massa this year, but I truly think Massa plodded around waiting for Pirellis next year.

McLaren

Initially here, I admitted Button's speed through gritted teeth, but did add a disclaimer that there were doubts over his skill. Personally I don’t think Button did anything in 2010 to discredit that negativity surrounding him. Sure he won two races, but seriously they came from brain power, not his outright speed. It was clear that Hamilton was the winner in this battle. In my eyes, it was Hamilton that threw this championship in the bin. He lost the championship by only 16 points. He lost at least 24 from Monza and Singapore. His qualifying speed was incredible, and even now, I cannot see him losing the championship next year - providing McLaren build at least the second best car.

Despite my prediction, they did actually get along well as friends as well as team mates. What I mean by that, is you could see in the brilliant "viral" videos from Vodafone that they were good mates, and not just work mates.

I was right in saying that Hamilton would win comfortably, ’cause he did. The following is direct from my initial post.

Also Lewis will qualify consistently better, and create his own luck whereas Jenson will require the luck to fall upon him. Another reason is that Lewis is part of the McLaren furniture, and Jenson was in the right place at the right time. Again!

Feels good to get a prediction so right.

Red Bull

Well its hard to dispute that Webber and Vettel were not the story of the year. In my initial post I wrote:

This pairing will be the one to watch for purely sporting reasons I think. RBR will stick to their equal opportunity philosophy until the last minute, as will McLaren.

I cant believe how right I was with this, and even now, I don’t know why I said it.

I said of Vettel that he made his own bad luck in 09, but he is driven to win, whereas Webber had a point to prove. Well in 2010, it’s safe to say that Webber did prove his point, and that Vettel still made some of his own bad luck. Cue replays of Spa V Button, and that point in time that will be remembered in years to come: Turkey. Lap 41. I remember reading or watching something with a pundit saying that Vettel is so good, he is the only driver in the world who can T-bone two cars from being behind them. A great line and prophetically true.

Without doubt, Vettel was the best driver in 2010. 10 poles speak for themselves, but his victories in Valencia and Abu Dhabi were quite special drives. He also lost 3 victories from mechanical failure (Bahrain, Australia, Korea) and some major points from his own errors. See above T-boning incidents.

Webber was the surprise packet of year many would say. No one expected him to ever be able to sustain a championship battle the way he did. I surely didn’t. His drives in Monaco, and Silverstone and Hungary were as good as I have ever seen. The way he went about his victories reminded me of Hakkinen in some ways. Methodical, and dominant and not a blemish all weekend.

As for the Webber/Vettel personal affair, I would never have predicted their relationship to be so cold. The perception now is that they really aren’t very good friends at all. This may come from a bit of jealousy from Vettel's camp. He is the golden boy of Red Bull, yet his much older, less fancied team mate was better than matching him most of the season. Certainly up until Silverstone. Vettel pretty much out drove Webber from Hokkenheim on.

Turkey was the obvious point in time that Webber thought he was all alone in the team, and just one day after he signed on for 2011. He must have been gutted beyond imagination leading into qualifying at Silverstone, and his lap time was exactly the difference predicted between the two front wings in question. Even as they lined up on the grid at Silverstone, I knew that Webber was going to give Vettel a hard time into Copse. Typical Aussie attitude to over perform when everyone seems against you. I think Webber's win at Silverstone was the best drive of the year, purely for the emotion that would have been going through him.

Ultimately though, Vettel beat Webber, as was predicted. I think 2011 will be a different story again.

Mercedes

In the first post I wrote:

I'm predicting Schumacher to win this battle, but I cant wait to be proven wrong. This could ruin Nico's career. I don’t think either way it will propel him to superstardom.

Again wrong, but so right. Rosberg did beat Schumacher very convincingly, and yet it still really hasn’t improved his standing in the driver's pecking order. Rosberg could never win from this battle. If he lost, it was expected. If he won, its because Schumacher made a mistake, he’s too old... blah de blah de blad... it goes on.

Not much else to say about these two. Quite an anti-climax in the end. Schumacher outpaced Nico occasionally, but overall Rosberg out-qualified and out-raced Schumacher. Lets see how they go in 2011 for a full, and more educated result.