At the start of the season I listed a few predictions for the year and I think we – that’s you lot out there and me – agreed we would review those predictions at mid-season.

Well, as I write, we are 12 days into the second half of the year and pretty much at the halfway stage of the 2009 season. So, casting caution to the summer breezes, here are my latest musings on what may transpire before the year is out…

Some of my earlier predictions have come to pass, while many have not. Hopefully, however, it’s just a bit of fun as we move through what has turned out to be a very exciting season.

Before racing gets underway in 2010:

• Sébastien Loeb will retire from rallying and switch to either Grand Prix cars or long-distance sports cars. Probably the latter.
• Valentino Rossi will win another MotoGP title and everybody will yet again wonder what on earth they can do about this extraordinary bloke.
• Rubens Barrichello, Kimi Räikkönen, Giancarlo Fisichella, Jarno Trulli and Sébastien Bourdais will all disappear from Grand Prix racing.
• Lewis Hamilton will make noises about leaving McLaren. But he won’t.
• Nico Rosberg will replace Heikki Kovalainen at McLaren.
• Michael Schumacher will deny that he is to return to Formula 1, with Brawn GP, but he might.
• The winner of the Formula 2 championship will impress the Williams team and be offered a job.
• British Formula 3 champion Jaime Alguersuari will be very quick in the Toro Rosso and everybody will say that, within a short time, Grand Prix racing will be for teenagers only.
• Fernando Alonso will race for Scuderia Ferrari.
• Max Mosley will not stand again for the presidency of the FIA; Bernard Ecclestone will retire in 2010 and Ron Dennis will return to the fray.
• Jacques Villeneuve will return to Grand Prix racing.
• The British Grand Prix will stay at Silverstone.

A few, but not many, of these will come to pass. Oh yes, and Jenson Button will be World Champion, but only by the skin of his teeth, and Red Bull will win the constructors’ championship.

All this is hopeless guesswork because motor racing is just so unpredictable. But that’s partly why we love it so much. You, of course, will have your own opinions.