What does RNG think F1 will be like in 10 years?

Hello everyone and welcome to a RNG experiment on the blog! I used RNG to simulate ten seasons of Formula One. I simulated team rankings, drivers and champions. Let's see what happened.

We'll begin with the team rankings. In last place is Racign Point with Alfa Romeo just ahead. These two teams are significant backmarkers. The midpack is made up of Williams, Alpha Tauri and Haas in ascending order. The middle-top teams are Renault, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull, but the top team by far is McLaren.

Then we go to the drivers. Racing Point have two regens, 26-year old Marco Camacho and 28yo Zoran Somfalvi. Similarily, Alfa Romeo have two regens, 24yo Sebastiano Capasso and 18yo wonderkid Francesco Barile. Williams have 27yo Marcel Hasler and a 32 year old Lando Norris. Alpha Tauri have 26yo Andrea Magozzi and 21yo Maurice Chan. The final bottom half team Haas have Marcus Armstrong and 22yo Gerard Pace.

Renault have rookie, 23yo David Goffin, as well as Frederik Vesti. Ferrari have Mick Schumacher and 28yo regen Lucas Aagaard. Mercedes have Max Verstappen and George Russel, while Red Bull have academy drivers Juri Vips and Christian Lundgaard. However, the big boys are with McLaren; Charles Leclerc and Robert Schwartzman.

Moving to the seasons. In 2020, Renault kicked on massively while Lewis Hamilton was injured in a big shunt in Canada and couldn't race for four rounds, ending hic championship hopes. The Merc was still clearly the best car, Bottas taking the opportunity to win his only World Championship from Vettel and Ricciardo surprisingly. 2021 saw Vettel and Hamilton both leave the sport, and a dominant Ferrari with Leclerc heading new teammate Sainz to win the championship. Verstappen was best of the rest in third.

2022 was very similar, with Verstappen pipping Sainz to second but Leclerc dominating. 2023 was a bit different with Bottas in the Renault sneaking third, but more importantly Sainz beat Leclerc to become world champion. McLaren and Merc resurged in 2024 with McLaren's Schwartzman and Merc's Verstappen finishing second and third to Sainz. In 2025, McLaren returned to the ascendancy with Shwartzman winning his first ever championship over Merc's George Russell, and Sainz.

In 2026 Russell got the championship ahead of Leclerc, who had moved to McLaren, and Mick Schumacher's Ferrari. The next year it wasn't Russell but it was his teammate Max Verstappen who finally won his first championship, with RB's Lucas Aagaard and Leclerc in 2027. In 2028, Renault's Marcus Armstrong and Versteppen finished runners-up to Leclerc's McLaren who won his third championship. Leclerc doubled up in 2029 with Sainz and Shwartzman second and third. Finally, in 2030 Red Bull won their first championship in 16 years with Christian Lundgaard defeating the other Dane Lucas Aagaard and Schwartzman to win his first ever championship.

The final thing I've kept track of is big name retirements, and there's only been four champions who have retired in the last ten years. Lewis Hamilton and Seb Vettel, as I mentioned, retired after the first year. Valtteri Bottas retired in 2025, while Carlos Sainz retired at the end of the final sim year, 2030.

Thanks for reading. What didn't you expect? Let me know down below.