As a long time F1 fan I agree on some of the points you raise;
1) Abu Dhabi is the most woeful excuse for a circuit and I dubbed it Apoo Crappi in 2009.
2) Double points is a gimmick, but it's the same type of gimmick F1 employed years ago. Although opposite the "Best of" so many rounds gimmick which robbed Senna when Prost pushed him out at Japan had us all talking and made a great show on and off track. However, I can't see this double points being positive though.
I like your prediction B3, I have a bud that is an engineer for Merc (lucky bastard worked on Schumi's cars), every year he's all exited about the how good the car's going to be and once the year starts, always a let down. I expect this year will be the same, Merc will be great before the season starts and then throw it away. Their corporate thinking always holds them back, like BMW many years before, they cut funding to RnD too soon.
My Mum's Workmates son who is at McLaren is the opposite, he's very cagey about the car and likened it to the Arrows he worked on in the 2000s. He expects speed but not grip.
I hoping to get to the Silverstone tests to see a few other teams on track and make a prediction of my own, January is too soon.
Hopefully sit on the bank on the outside of Stowe, its a fantastic place to see how the cars handling is shaping up, I sat through the 2008 GP there.
