Re: Ok, I'll bite
why do you care? Stock in Alcon?
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F1 2008 Megathread
- Thread starter Ponyboy
- Start date
Hope I'm not the only one in this thread.After years and years of using Alcon, looks like Honda switched brake suppliers to Brembo:
http://www.brembo.com/ENG/Racing-Brakes/
I wonder if this is a Brawn inspired change.
As long as it helps them win, the brakes can be made by the Keebler Elves as far as I am concerned. :biggrin:
Re: Ok, I'll bite
Just a point of interest especially w/ Rubinho's previous issues w/ the Honda's braking system. Did the post sound suspect or something?
Just a point of interest especially w/ Rubinho's previous issues w/ the Honda's braking system. Did the post sound suspect or something?
Re: Latest Racer Mag
had a good summary of the Honda Brawn situation. Nothing that we hadn't heard before but it was a handy cliff-notes explanation of what and how Honda had done so wrong (a lot of organizational stupidity) and how Ross will hopefully be sorting that all out and getting everyone pulling in the same direction. Seemed to give ole Nicky the thumbs up too which is quite positive.
Best case would be some consistent 5-6th place finishes.
But we knew that already, right? :tongue:
had a good summary of the Honda Brawn situation. Nothing that we hadn't heard before but it was a handy cliff-notes explanation of what and how Honda had done so wrong (a lot of organizational stupidity) and how Ross will hopefully be sorting that all out and getting everyone pulling in the same direction. Seemed to give ole Nicky the thumbs up too which is quite positive.
Best case would be some consistent 5-6th place finishes.
But we knew that already, right? :tongue:
Today's Barcelona times:
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:20.801 83
2. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:21.258 76
3. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:21.293 77
4. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:21.309 87
5. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:21.368 91
6. Piquet Renault (B) 1:21.443 114
7. Alonso Renault (B) 1:21.454 128
8. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:21.796 124
9. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:21.933 80
10. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:22.011 88
11. Glock Toyota (B) 1:22.155 49
12. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:22.233 90
13. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:22.286 49
14. Kubica BMW-Sauber (B) 1:22.299 93
15. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:22.465 79
16. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:22.521 97
17. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber (B) 1:22.624 61
18. Wurz Honda (B) 1:24.154 82
19. Button Honda (B) 1:24.275 73
3.xxx seconds off the pace?!!! God in Heaven help Honda.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:20.801 83
2. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:21.258 76
3. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:21.293 77
4. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:21.309 87
5. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:21.368 91
6. Piquet Renault (B) 1:21.443 114
7. Alonso Renault (B) 1:21.454 128
8. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:21.796 124
9. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:21.933 80
10. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:22.011 88
11. Glock Toyota (B) 1:22.155 49
12. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:22.233 90
13. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:22.286 49
14. Kubica BMW-Sauber (B) 1:22.299 93
15. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:22.465 79
16. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:22.521 97
17. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber (B) 1:22.624 61
18. Wurz Honda (B) 1:24.154 82
19. Button Honda (B) 1:24.275 73
3.xxx seconds off the pace?!!! God in Heaven help Honda.
Hey now, it's always worthy to note that testing is just that, testing. Who knows what the team's goal was for the day? I mean, just take a look at a day previous...
1. HAMILTON McLaren 1m21.234s
2. KOVALAINEN McLaren 1m21.434s
3. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m21.722s
4. ROSBERG Williams 1m22.309s
5. MASSA Ferrari 1m22.513s
6. FISICHELLA Force India 1m22.516s
7. VETTEL Red Bull 1m22.558s
8. KUBICA BMW 1m22.625s
9. BUTTON Honda 1m22.659s
10. LIUZZI Force India 1m22.942s
11. NAKAJIMA Williams 1m22.977s
12. TRULLI Toyota 1m23.023s
13. ALONSO Renault 1m23.112s
14. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m23.159s
15. HEIDFELD BMW 1m23.284s
16. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1m23.323s
17. WEBBER Red Bull 1m23.458s
18. PIQUET Renault 1m23.467s
19. GLOCK Toyota 1m23.561s
Ya, they're not on the top or anything, but Button's only 1.4 sec off the pace... Do I think Honda will be the front runner I want them to be? MAYBE by Japan, but I fully expect them to struggle to score points until mid season, in which I hope they become regular points scorers with a possible podium by the Japan race near the end of the season... That's how I personally see things panning out, but only time will tell.
1. HAMILTON McLaren 1m21.234s
2. KOVALAINEN McLaren 1m21.434s
3. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m21.722s
4. ROSBERG Williams 1m22.309s
5. MASSA Ferrari 1m22.513s
6. FISICHELLA Force India 1m22.516s
7. VETTEL Red Bull 1m22.558s
8. KUBICA BMW 1m22.625s
9. BUTTON Honda 1m22.659s
10. LIUZZI Force India 1m22.942s
11. NAKAJIMA Williams 1m22.977s
12. TRULLI Toyota 1m23.023s
13. ALONSO Renault 1m23.112s
14. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m23.159s
15. HEIDFELD BMW 1m23.284s
16. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1m23.323s
17. WEBBER Red Bull 1m23.458s
18. PIQUET Renault 1m23.467s
19. GLOCK Toyota 1m23.561s
Ya, they're not on the top or anything, but Button's only 1.4 sec off the pace... Do I think Honda will be the front runner I want them to be? MAYBE by Japan, but I fully expect them to struggle to score points until mid season, in which I hope they become regular points scorers with a possible podium by the Japan race near the end of the season... That's how I personally see things panning out, but only time will tell.
I'm all for optimism in testing. However, for the past several years, Honda's pace has been fairly self-evident during testing. Unless they can find 2 seconds in the new aero, to be introduced next week, the hope of a competitive car will be rather hollow.
From the Honda F1 Racing site:
Barcelona, 25-27 February 2008
The Honda Racing F1 Team completed the three-day test at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona today as the team continues its preparations for the start of the 2008 Formula One season in Australia on 16 March.
Rubens and Alex began the test programme on Monday on a track surface that was damp and slippery following overnight rain. Both drivers ran through a qualifying simulation in the morning, running on the extreme wet and wet Bridgestone tyres in changing conditions. The circuit dried sufficiently to allow dry running in the afternoon with Rubens and Alex successfully completing full race distances with pit stops. Rubens covered 115 laps over the day with Alex totalling 109 laps.
Jenson joined Rubens at the wheel of the RA108s on Tuesday morning with the test programme continuing to focus on qualifying and race practice. Neither driver was able to complete their full race distances on this occasion as running was brought to an early conclusion with two different issues stopping the cars on their second stints. The team have identified the cause of the problems and will be implementing the required fixes. Jenson completed 66 laps with Rubens covering 73 laps.
The final day of the test on Wednesday saw Alex back in the car running alongside Jenson. The drivers spent the morning working on the set-up and handling of the car, alongside a race start programme, before working through a further race simulation exercise in the afternoon. Jenson completed 89 laps with Alex finishing the day on 109 laps.
The team will complete its pre-season preparations at a private test at the Jerez circuit from Tuesday 4 to Thursday 6 March.
Rubens Barrichello
“I was able to complete a lot of laps over the two days, particularly with the race distance on Monday. We had a minor concern with the engine on Tuesday which cut my race distance short but the issue is easy to address. We are finding that the performance of the car is quite varied as I had a different reaction from the car over the two days so we have some set-up work to complete. It is too early to make a final comment on performance as we have our new aero update kit to evaluate next week.”
Jenson Button
“Our focus this week was to run through the requirements of a race weekend with qualifying and race practice to ensure that we are well prepared for the start of the season. Our main aero updates and some new mechanical developments will arrive for the Jerez test next week and we have a great deal to do there to ensure that we are in a position to be competitive for Melbourne. We have been doing a lot of work to overcome our handling issues but the pace and the lap times are not there yet.”
Alex Wurz
“On Monday, we completed a full race distance, along with the opportunity to drive in the wet conditions, which was very useful for working on engine drivability. We have made some good steps on the drivability over the last few tests which is pleasing. The programme for Wednesday concentrated on set-up evaluations and suspension development which proved to be very interesting and we gained a lot of understanding and data which we will work on processing before the start of the season.”
Steve Clark – Head of Race & Test Engineering
“The focus of our test programme this week was to run through qualifying and race scenarios in preparation for the start of the season with our race drivers, pit crew and equipment. Running the car over a race distance and tightly timed practice sessions highlights any reliability concerns and ensures the team are familiar with the car and its workings. This all went well with race practices on all three days and qualifying simulations on Monday and Tuesday. We also completed an evaluation of revised suspension settings on Wednesday morning to address the handling concerns that the RA108 has been experiencing, which produced some positive results. We now have a three-day test in Jerez next week, where we will be running with a completely revised aerodynamic package, to finalise our pre-season preparation.”
Oh, and the rumor mill is abuzz with news of Ron Dennis' dismissal at McLaren. An announcement is pending supposedly.
From the Honda F1 Racing site:
Barcelona, 25-27 February 2008
The Honda Racing F1 Team completed the three-day test at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona today as the team continues its preparations for the start of the 2008 Formula One season in Australia on 16 March.
Rubens and Alex began the test programme on Monday on a track surface that was damp and slippery following overnight rain. Both drivers ran through a qualifying simulation in the morning, running on the extreme wet and wet Bridgestone tyres in changing conditions. The circuit dried sufficiently to allow dry running in the afternoon with Rubens and Alex successfully completing full race distances with pit stops. Rubens covered 115 laps over the day with Alex totalling 109 laps.
Jenson joined Rubens at the wheel of the RA108s on Tuesday morning with the test programme continuing to focus on qualifying and race practice. Neither driver was able to complete their full race distances on this occasion as running was brought to an early conclusion with two different issues stopping the cars on their second stints. The team have identified the cause of the problems and will be implementing the required fixes. Jenson completed 66 laps with Rubens covering 73 laps.
The final day of the test on Wednesday saw Alex back in the car running alongside Jenson. The drivers spent the morning working on the set-up and handling of the car, alongside a race start programme, before working through a further race simulation exercise in the afternoon. Jenson completed 89 laps with Alex finishing the day on 109 laps.
The team will complete its pre-season preparations at a private test at the Jerez circuit from Tuesday 4 to Thursday 6 March.
Rubens Barrichello
“I was able to complete a lot of laps over the two days, particularly with the race distance on Monday. We had a minor concern with the engine on Tuesday which cut my race distance short but the issue is easy to address. We are finding that the performance of the car is quite varied as I had a different reaction from the car over the two days so we have some set-up work to complete. It is too early to make a final comment on performance as we have our new aero update kit to evaluate next week.”
Jenson Button
“Our focus this week was to run through the requirements of a race weekend with qualifying and race practice to ensure that we are well prepared for the start of the season. Our main aero updates and some new mechanical developments will arrive for the Jerez test next week and we have a great deal to do there to ensure that we are in a position to be competitive for Melbourne. We have been doing a lot of work to overcome our handling issues but the pace and the lap times are not there yet.”
Alex Wurz
“On Monday, we completed a full race distance, along with the opportunity to drive in the wet conditions, which was very useful for working on engine drivability. We have made some good steps on the drivability over the last few tests which is pleasing. The programme for Wednesday concentrated on set-up evaluations and suspension development which proved to be very interesting and we gained a lot of understanding and data which we will work on processing before the start of the season.”
Steve Clark – Head of Race & Test Engineering
“The focus of our test programme this week was to run through qualifying and race scenarios in preparation for the start of the season with our race drivers, pit crew and equipment. Running the car over a race distance and tightly timed practice sessions highlights any reliability concerns and ensures the team are familiar with the car and its workings. This all went well with race practices on all three days and qualifying simulations on Monday and Tuesday. We also completed an evaluation of revised suspension settings on Wednesday morning to address the handling concerns that the RA108 has been experiencing, which produced some positive results. We now have a three-day test in Jerez next week, where we will be running with a completely revised aerodynamic package, to finalise our pre-season preparation.”
Oh, and the rumor mill is abuzz with news of Ron Dennis' dismissal at McLaren. An announcement is pending supposedly.
The latest rumor... Ron Dennis to step down next week...
If he does, Frank William will be the last of the Mohicans.
I like Ron Dennis, regardless what people said about him, he always did thing his way, but in most cases, he brought home the trophies. I still remember the good old era when he had Senna and Honda engines, those were the best years in F1.
15 wins out of 16 races in 1988, a winning percentage record that will probably never be broken by any F1 team, now or future.
If he does, Frank William will be the last of the Mohicans.
I like Ron Dennis, regardless what people said about him, he always did thing his way, but in most cases, he brought home the trophies. I still remember the good old era when he had Senna and Honda engines, those were the best years in F1.
15 wins out of 16 races in 1988, a winning percentage record that will probably never be broken by any F1 team, now or future.
Woo Hoo! Only 10 more days until the first practice session of the first race of the season!!! :biggrin:
:biggrin:
april 4,5,6 f1 race here in bahrain...... ill be there.... :wink: they did there practice run last month... ill try to bring my camera... keep u guys updated..............
Re: Honda's Kevin Taylor departs
So, changes at Honda. Who's all over this one? Is this good news, bad news or no news?
So, changes at Honda. Who's all over this one? Is this good news, bad news or no news?
Compared to last year, it cant get any worse can it? On the good side they are clearly looking to change things up ASAP, as opposed to letting things fester through the season which is what it seemed like last year. Im just keeping my fingers crossed that they are competetive. I think the addition of Brawn was a good idea. But realistically wasn't looking to anything significant until probably next year while Brawn cleans house so to speak.
Some more changes at Honda (which I believe is very good for the team considering last year's performance):
Wada to leave F1 in Honda reshuffle
Honda Racing are to undergo a senior management reshuffle next month, autosport.com can reveal, with the Formula One team's chairman Yasuhiro Wada leaving the outfit.
Wada, general manager of Honda's Motor Sports Division since 2000, first joined the F1 team in 2005 while the Japanese manufacturer increased their involvement in the then BAR outfit.
His responsibilities grew when Honda bought the team outright for the start of the 2006 season, and he has worked closely with CEO Nick Fry since then. He was also the driving force behind Honda's decision to create Super Aguri.
From the start of April however, Wada will relinquish his responsibilities in motorsport and will instead become the general manager of the Public Relations Division at Honda Motor Company in Japan. It is thought that the Australian Grand Prix will be his last race in his current role.
The reasons for Wada's imminent move are not known, although they come against the backdrop of a troubled 2007 campaign and a big push to refocus the F1's team efforts on the back of the arrival of Ross Brawn as team principal.
A Honda Racing team spokesperson said: "Wada san has spent the past eight years with Honda Performance Development in the US, Honda Racing Development in the UK and Honda's Motor Sports Division at its Tokyo Headquarters.
"In keeping with the Honda Company philosophy, which encourages rotation within the various areas of the Honda business, Keita Muramatsu will now move to the position of General Manager, Motor Sports Division."
Further changes are to be made to the motorsport structure at Honda in Japan, with the company's operating officer Hiroshi Oshima taking on an extra role as Managing Officer with responsibility for Motor Sports and Circuit Business. Brawn and Fry both report to Oshima.
Oh, and boys, 9 DAYS, 13 HOURS, 45 MINUTES AND 11 SECONDS BEFORE THE AUSTRALIAN GP :biggrin:
Wada to leave F1 in Honda reshuffle
Honda Racing are to undergo a senior management reshuffle next month, autosport.com can reveal, with the Formula One team's chairman Yasuhiro Wada leaving the outfit.
Wada, general manager of Honda's Motor Sports Division since 2000, first joined the F1 team in 2005 while the Japanese manufacturer increased their involvement in the then BAR outfit.
His responsibilities grew when Honda bought the team outright for the start of the 2006 season, and he has worked closely with CEO Nick Fry since then. He was also the driving force behind Honda's decision to create Super Aguri.
From the start of April however, Wada will relinquish his responsibilities in motorsport and will instead become the general manager of the Public Relations Division at Honda Motor Company in Japan. It is thought that the Australian Grand Prix will be his last race in his current role.
The reasons for Wada's imminent move are not known, although they come against the backdrop of a troubled 2007 campaign and a big push to refocus the F1's team efforts on the back of the arrival of Ross Brawn as team principal.
A Honda Racing team spokesperson said: "Wada san has spent the past eight years with Honda Performance Development in the US, Honda Racing Development in the UK and Honda's Motor Sports Division at its Tokyo Headquarters.
"In keeping with the Honda Company philosophy, which encourages rotation within the various areas of the Honda business, Keita Muramatsu will now move to the position of General Manager, Motor Sports Division."
Further changes are to be made to the motorsport structure at Honda in Japan, with the company's operating officer Hiroshi Oshima taking on an extra role as Managing Officer with responsibility for Motor Sports and Circuit Business. Brawn and Fry both report to Oshima.
Oh, and boys, 9 DAYS, 13 HOURS, 45 MINUTES AND 11 SECONDS BEFORE THE AUSTRALIAN GP :biggrin:
Re: Honda's Kevin Taylor departs
I'm not sure it's big news. They have a bit of redundancy in various positions and responsibilities. W/ the arrival of Brawn as team principle, there's bound to be some organizational changes. I think this is one aspect of Brawn's way to "right the ship."
So, changes at Honda. Who's all over this one? Is this good news, bad news or no news?
I'm not sure it's big news. They have a bit of redundancy in various positions and responsibilities. W/ the arrival of Brawn as team principle, there's bound to be some organizational changes. I think this is one aspect of Brawn's way to "right the ship."
The Latest Season Preview
All the 11 teams have been working hard since the flag fell on last year's final race in Brazil, but at Albert Park next week the world will see whose homework has paid off. The long winter is over, the new season is approaching, and the teams are about to discover whether their hard work out of the public eye is going to pay off.
This year, there are rule changes that require more longevity from gearboxes and engines, along with the loss of traction control, so the team have universally aimed to gets cars on track early, looking to ensure they have nailed reliability before the season.
Another change, essentially mandating a fixed electronic controller for the engine, should ensure that traction control is successfully eliminated; however, there are renewed concerns over the potential for cheating (launch control, technically banned again, being mentioned fairly regularly), whilst the ongoing dispute over the use of customer chassis has prevented Prodrive from making the grid.
Ferrari
2007 ranking: 1st
2007 points: 204
2007 wins: 9
2007 podiums: 21
The off-season started with Ferrari uncertain their newly-crowned World Champion would keep his title, as McLaren appealed the stewards decision not to penalise for temperature irregularities. In the event, the appeal was disallowed, and since then the team has proceeded with a normal off-season program.
Intent on maintaining their form, the team have had Michael Schumacher out to test their cars; despite a season away from the sport, the former world champion has apparently lost none of his speed or legendary feedback skills.
With Ross Brawn heading to Honda instead of returning from sabbatical, the team announced some hierarchical changes.
Jean Todt is concentrating on his role as chief executive of the whole company, stepping back to let Stefano Domenicali be Director of the Gestione Sportiva, whilst Mario Almondo moves to operations director, being replaced as technical director by Aldo Costa. Gilles Simon will be engine director.
The series of internal promotions appear intended to reward work done and offer some form of progress.
At first sight, it seems the promotions are justified: the new car was born well, generally turning in quick times in testing and setting the early pace.
On the driver front, Felipe Massa took advantage of the downtime to get married, so it will be interesting to see what impact, if any, that has on his pace. Kimi Raikkonen continues his laconic interactions with the media, pronouncing himself happily settled in to the team, but he is illustrating it by turning out quick laps in testing.
Prospects for 2008: Testing has shown the new car to be reliable and on a similar pace to McLaren, leaving little to choose between them at the front of the field.
With both carry strong momentum in to the year, Ferrari should have a small early edge as McLaren continue to be distracted with the ongoing legal rumblings and settling in their new driver, but the trick to the season will be maintaining a solid development pace throughout.
Targets: Retain both world championships.
BMW Sauber
2007 ranking: 2nd
2007 points: 101
2007 wins: 0
2007 podiums: 2
After an impressive season as the third-best team on track, BMW is determined to continue its forward movement, and promoted Christoph Zimmermann to fill the vacant chief designer role, patching the hole that Jorg Zander made by departing for Honda.
The team fought to keep Timo Glock on the books after its test driver signed a conflicting contract with Toyota, but the Contract Recognition Board didn't see it that way and they parted company.
Consequently, it is no surprise that they are testing more young drivers! WTCC driver Augusto Farfus and Formula BMW driver Christian Vietoris both tested at Valencia; GP2 driver Marko Asmer and British F3 champion Javier Villa tested in Jerez. Asmer was signed as a junior test driver, alongside test and reserve driver Christian Klien.
Success has helped keep up the strong sponsorships - and encouraged more partnerships, such as T-Systems bringing IT and telecommunications support. The tight financial ship run by BMW means that expenditure has to be well justified, which seems to encourage well-targeted development.
Prospects for 2008: After a strong performance in 2007, the team has strong momentum heading in to the new season and are arguably the best positioned to challenge Ferrari and McLaren as the year wears on.
However, its aggressive development brought reliability issues, reducing running time, and perhaps setting up headaches for the early races.
Targets: Win a race.
Renault
2007 ranking: 3rd
2007 points: 51
2007 wins: 0
2007 podiums: 1
At the end of the 2007 season, Renault made it clear that it was looking for Alonso to return to the fold, and once its own meeting with the FIA over their own spying irregularity was resolved, he promptly signed on again.
Test driver Nelsinho Piquet was promoted to a race seat. Of course, Giancarlo Fisichella was aware very early that he was unlikely to remain with the team and headed off to Force India, whilst Heikki Kovalainen went to McLaren ...
Romain Grosjean, Euro F3 champion, has been signed on as test driver, as has ex-Super Aguri driver Sakon Yamamoto. The team is running with a perfectly decent budget for the year ahead, and with these drivers signed on in addition to their race team, they must be expecting to pursue plenty more opportunities to improve the budget as the year passes.
Judging by their testing pace, the team seems to be in a position to fight BMW and Williams for the front of the midfield, so it will be interesting to see whether they concentrate on evolving the car through the season, or commit early to the new rules and 2009.
The determining factor is likely to be a decision fairly early in the season as to whether they will be able to make enough progress to win a race ...
Prospects for 2008: This is an experienced team that has demonstrated the ability to win championships, even when it are not racing the outright fastest car on the grid. Despite an off year while getting to grips with the transition to Bridgestone, Renault must be expected to bounce back and at least occasionally threaten at the front.
Targets: Podiums - and at least one win.
Williams
2007 ranking: 4th
2007 points: 33
2007 wins: 0
2007 podiums: 1
Williams began its winter by sorting out its drivers for the coming season. Retaining Nico Rosberg was clearly on the cards, considering his form in the last year (actually, they signed him on for another two besides), whilst test driver Kazuki Nakajima's confirmation in the race seat seems a perfectly appropriate reward for his efforts through the season.
Another advantage of the Japanese in a race seat, besides making engine sponsor Toyota happier, is that it opens some interesting opportunities to expand the sponsorship coming from Japan: the team can certainly use the funding.
It might explain the rumours that it is in talks with investment capital companies, though it is extending existing deals - for example, Oris has signed up for another three years, and Hamleys has stepped up its involvement.
On the marketing front, the team went testing with six different liveries, marking some of the highlights of its 30 years in the sport. If nothing else, it helped to keep its image in the news, which is always helpful for encouraging new sponsors.
The team took F3 driver Sam Bird to the Kemble airfield for aerodynamic testing, keeping an eye on potential future talent whilst developing the car, though it was Nico Hulkenberg who was signed up to the testing role.
Prospects for 2008: The FW30 is clearly quicker than its predecessor, with some decent showings in testing, including in the wet (which is always a good sign).
There is every expectation for the team to take the challenge back to the front of the midfield - with continued development through the season, they should be fighting BMW, Red Bull and Renault, not to mention keeping the front-runners honest.
Targets: Regular podiums.
Red Bull Racing
2007 ranking: 5th
2007 points: 24
2007 wins: 0
2007 podiums: 1
It was a relatively quiet off-season for Red Bull, which seemed content to get on with developing its new car without fanfare. To back up David Coulthard and Mark Webber, it signed former BMW-Sauber test driver Sebastien Buemi to the testing role, though he will also be racing GP2 this year.
Philosophically, the team is continuing to pursue outright speed, having come to the conclusion that its appalling reliability last season was the result of manufacturing and operational faults.
With many of those resolved, the performance compromise from simplifying the car would only move it further off the pace. In fact, it is continuing to pursue the fine details, so complexity has gone up.
It does raise some concerns that it might encounter operational hiccups, as more problems are likely to come to light, but this pain needs to be faced and resolved before the team can even contemplate regular race wins.
With Red Bull behind it, there are limited concerns over the budget: provided it continue to show it is well-employed, the team can pursue any talent it needs to improve their complement of engineers and designers, so it will be no surprise if it continues to bring talent on board as the year progresses.
Naturally, the team continues to look for sponsors to defray costs, but it is in a strong position to sign only the deals that make sense.
Prospects for 2008: the new car is clearly faster than its predecessor, and both drivers are comfortable in the team. If the reliability gremlins from last year do not manifest again, then there is every reason to see a competitive year ahead, fighting for points in the midfield.
Targets: Regular points, occasional podiums ...
Toyota
2007 ranking: 6th
2007 points: 13
2007 wins: 0
2007 podiums: 0
After another fairly unimpressive season, Toyota went in to the winter fighting to hire Sauber's test driver, Timo Glock, who had managed to sign contracts with both teams.
Fortunately, the Contract Recognition Board agreed that he could race for Toyota, so it has a quick, young talent to run alongside Trulli in 2008. It signed up Kamui Kobayashi from Formula Third as test driver: talented but young, he is expected also to race in GP2 for this year.
With Vijay Mallya now owning Force India, his Kingfisher sponsorship was terminated early. It made enough of a dent in the team's finances that the team is coming under significant pressure from Japan to improve its showings: it was made clear that it must move up the grid if it is to remain in the sport, with talk of a 2010 deadline.
It would be no surprise to see the organisation change further over the season as the team attempts to step up its game.
The new car appears to represent a significant change of direction: a poor year with the TF107 at least showed the team where the weaknesses lay, and the new car has a new philosophy behind the aerodynamics, besides the usual weight and stiffness evolutions.
Winter testing has shown some interesting results on occasion, enough that it might be a real surprise at some circuits this year, but it will take some solid development to be consistent throughout the year.
Prospects for 2008: If the car has improved as much as the team is saying and their better test results imply, then it ought to be as competitive as any other midfield runner.
Those testing results confirm that progress has been made, and whilst the team has not shown that its massive budget is any guarantee of progress through the season, it is very definitely capable of moving forward.
Targets: Podium finishes.
Toro Rosso
2007 ranking: 7th
2007 points: 8
2007 wins: 0
2007 podiums: 0
It was a pretty quiet winter for Toro Rosso, who largely stayed out of the press. Signing Sebastien Bourdais from Champ Car to race alongside Sebastian Vettel means it has an interesting lineup.
Presuming that its star makes the transition in a similar fashion to Montoya or Villeneuve, he ought to be as fast as the impressive Vettel comfortably ahead of the half-way point of the season.
The outfit is planning to start the new season with their old car: the STR2 was capable of some pretty decent showings at times, it is reliable and the team is comfortable with setting it up, so there may be some advantages at the early races in the event of rain, or other factors that interfere with testing.
On the other hand, when the new car is available, Toro Rosso will have to start the learning curve when others are well down the road with their new cars and already looking to bring on developments.
Although there is no expectation of Red Bull funding drying up completely for the junior outfit, the owners appear to be ready to realise a return on their investment: don't be surprised if the year sees some prospective partners taking a close look at the outfit with a view to buying in, particularly over the Monaco weekend!
Prospects for 2008: With more than a quarter of the season expected to pass before the new car is ready, the team is clearly looking to score points early through reliability, then hopes to get the new car up to speed before the season is over.
If the strategy works, then it will finish ahead of Super Aguri and Force India - perhaps even Honda. On the other hand, the team will struggle badly if the midfield turns out to be reliable with their new cars!
Targets: Score points!
Honda
2007 ranking: 8th
2007 points: 6
2007 wins: 0
2007 podiums: 0
After a dismal season, Honda has been struggling to take positives from the year: one was being recipients of the 'Green Award Grand Prix' for the earth car campaign.
It was the start of a positive off-season, which continued with the hiring of Ross Brawn as team principle, with full responsibility for design, manufacturing and engineering the car. It is an exciting development in the aggressive recruitment program that the team has pursued this season.
That said, the ex-Ferrari technical director is clearly arriving too late to make a significant difference to the new car being built. It is not an evolution of the disastrous 2007 car, but redrawn along the lines of the competition: Brawn's experience should at least help to shortcut the learning curve.
In addition to developing a new car, Honda tested GP2 drivers Mike Conway, Luca Filippi and Andreas Zuber for its young driver program: they caused controversy there, too, because they lent an RA107 to Super Aguri and had them run the drivers, so avoiding using up their own testing mileage.
Takashi Kogure also got a run at Valencia, with the Honda team, and Alexander Wurz was signed as test driver, despite his retirement from the sport after the Chinese Grand Prix, which adds considerable experience to the squad.
Prospects for 2008: The revised car is not quick enough to threaten the midfield from the outset, but it appears to be a solid candidate for rapid development, provided the team is not diverting too many resources to the 2009 project.
As the year unfolds Honda should improve in form, but whether it will be fast enough to fight for points remains to be seen.
Targets: Improve rapidly, to score regular points by year end.
Super Aguri
2007 ranking: 9th
2007 points: 4
2007 wins: 0
2007 podiums: 0
It has been a tough off-season for Super Aguri. With budgets tight after sponsor SS United defaulted on payments, it has had to restructure, dropping as many as 30 staff. It has almost eliminated its testing, though it accepted the use of a chassis from Honda to test some young drivers.
It took a while to make the driver line-up official, but Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson eventually retained their seats.
The close relationship with Honda is allowing Super Aguri to continue playing the game. Running ex-Honda chassis in addition to Honda engines means that it is unequivocally tied to that outfit, but it does significantly reduce the number of staff and costs of running the team.
Mind you, the customer car row has left even this approach problematic: Spyker is forcing Super Aguri and Toro Rosso to arbitration over their usage of chassis designed by other teams.
Although a couple of sponsors have not been living up to their end, all is not lost for the team, which is looking for investors to take a stake in the outfit. Talks have been held with different potential partners, one of whom, interestingly, was the Spice Group - a promoter of Team India.
Despite spending almost no time testing, the team has worked hard on the SA08, which passed the crash tests first time around this year. The car is expected to offer better performance than last year, though with such limited track time, the drivers are going to struggle with getting set up effectively for races.
Prospects for 2008: Bearing in mind the learning curve the senior outfit Honda have to go through to perform well, there is little doubt that the team would struggle to make much impression, even if there were no budget constraints. This is likely to be a tough year.
Targets: Finish better than last overall - and keep taking the challenge to Honda on race day!
Force India
2007 ranking: 10th
2007 points: 1
2007 wins: 0
2007 podiums: 0
Off season started well, with the team officially changing its name from Spyker to Force India and confirming its Ferrari engine supply.
That sorted, it set about finding a team-mate for Adrian Sutil, with Klien, Tonio Liuzzi, Ralf Schumacher and Giancarlo Fisichella amongst those who tried out. As it turns out, Fisichella got the nod, and has another opportunity to help a struggling team improve. Liuzzi has been signed as test driver, with an official mandate to keep the race drivers honest!
The new owner is not short on cash and brings more sponsorship from India besides: with the budget swelling, the team has expanded its staff and are expecting its performance to improve. Whilst unlikely to threaten the front of the field, this year should show an indication of its potential under this management.
Mark Smith has been hired from Red Bull to work under Mike Gascoyne as Design Director, whilst Ian Hall is coming on board from Toyota to head up the 2009 car project. Combined with the re-commissioning of the Brackley wind tunnel (which has been upgraded for 24 hours running), the team is in a position to significantly step up its game, clearly a prerequisite to moving off the back of the grid.
Prospects for 2008: With a swelling budget, more experience at the top of the company, and an experienced driver on board, the team has its best foundation for a progressive year since Jordan spiralled to the back of the grid.
Targets: Regular trips to the second session in qualifying. Improve race pace through the season, perhaps culminating with the pace to score points.
McLaren
2007 ranking: 11th
2007 points: 0
2007 wins: 8
2007 podiums: 23
After being pipped to the post by Ferrari in Brazil, McLaren felt obliged to appeal the steward's decision not to expel any cars for fuel temperature irregularities; the appeal was thrown out, but it set the tone for a long and difficult winter ahead.
The team has been cracking on with producing a new car, but even as it worked on it, there was uncertainty over whether the FIA's mandated independent audit would suggest that Ferrari's intellectual property was included - or the consequences if they should do so: whilst it came to nought, there is no doubt it provided a distraction.
Team members have had meetings with the Modena magistrates, who also visited senior team officials at home and the factory in the company of the British police: the ongoing legal distraction in Italy has no clear end in sight.
Lewis Hamilton's fame has been good for publicity, at least in the UK, where a street has been named after him - though his decamping to Switzerland to avoid tax raised more than a few eyebrows.
On the other hand, when testing at Barcelona in Spain, there was an incident with racial name-calling that resulted in the FIA stepping in.
And of course, Fernando Alonso has gone back to Renault. Whilst that opens the door for another exciting young talent in Heikki Kovalainen, it deprives the team of considerable experience, which may well impact both its rate of development, and how quickly it can dial the car in on race weekends.
There have been changes in sponsorship, more likely based on the revised driver line-up than the spying affair, though one provoked confusion: Spanish firm Mutua Madrilena stated early that they were parting ways, denying that their exit was related to Alonso leaving, but they continued to appear on McLaren overalls until February, when a two-year deal with Renault was announced.
Prospects for 2008: Breaking in another new driver may take a while, leaving Hamilton with an early advantage over his team-mate, but perhaps reducing their overall ability to threaten Ferrari in the first half of the season. However, that will change in short order and this clearly remains one of the two teams to beat.
Targets: Both world championships
All the 11 teams have been working hard since the flag fell on last year's final race in Brazil, but at Albert Park next week the world will see whose homework has paid off. The long winter is over, the new season is approaching, and the teams are about to discover whether their hard work out of the public eye is going to pay off.
This year, there are rule changes that require more longevity from gearboxes and engines, along with the loss of traction control, so the team have universally aimed to gets cars on track early, looking to ensure they have nailed reliability before the season.
Another change, essentially mandating a fixed electronic controller for the engine, should ensure that traction control is successfully eliminated; however, there are renewed concerns over the potential for cheating (launch control, technically banned again, being mentioned fairly regularly), whilst the ongoing dispute over the use of customer chassis has prevented Prodrive from making the grid.
Ferrari
2007 ranking: 1st
2007 points: 204
2007 wins: 9
2007 podiums: 21
The off-season started with Ferrari uncertain their newly-crowned World Champion would keep his title, as McLaren appealed the stewards decision not to penalise for temperature irregularities. In the event, the appeal was disallowed, and since then the team has proceeded with a normal off-season program.
Intent on maintaining their form, the team have had Michael Schumacher out to test their cars; despite a season away from the sport, the former world champion has apparently lost none of his speed or legendary feedback skills.
With Ross Brawn heading to Honda instead of returning from sabbatical, the team announced some hierarchical changes.
Jean Todt is concentrating on his role as chief executive of the whole company, stepping back to let Stefano Domenicali be Director of the Gestione Sportiva, whilst Mario Almondo moves to operations director, being replaced as technical director by Aldo Costa. Gilles Simon will be engine director.
The series of internal promotions appear intended to reward work done and offer some form of progress.
At first sight, it seems the promotions are justified: the new car was born well, generally turning in quick times in testing and setting the early pace.
On the driver front, Felipe Massa took advantage of the downtime to get married, so it will be interesting to see what impact, if any, that has on his pace. Kimi Raikkonen continues his laconic interactions with the media, pronouncing himself happily settled in to the team, but he is illustrating it by turning out quick laps in testing.
Prospects for 2008: Testing has shown the new car to be reliable and on a similar pace to McLaren, leaving little to choose between them at the front of the field.
With both carry strong momentum in to the year, Ferrari should have a small early edge as McLaren continue to be distracted with the ongoing legal rumblings and settling in their new driver, but the trick to the season will be maintaining a solid development pace throughout.
Targets: Retain both world championships.
BMW Sauber
2007 ranking: 2nd
2007 points: 101
2007 wins: 0
2007 podiums: 2
After an impressive season as the third-best team on track, BMW is determined to continue its forward movement, and promoted Christoph Zimmermann to fill the vacant chief designer role, patching the hole that Jorg Zander made by departing for Honda.
The team fought to keep Timo Glock on the books after its test driver signed a conflicting contract with Toyota, but the Contract Recognition Board didn't see it that way and they parted company.
Consequently, it is no surprise that they are testing more young drivers! WTCC driver Augusto Farfus and Formula BMW driver Christian Vietoris both tested at Valencia; GP2 driver Marko Asmer and British F3 champion Javier Villa tested in Jerez. Asmer was signed as a junior test driver, alongside test and reserve driver Christian Klien.
Success has helped keep up the strong sponsorships - and encouraged more partnerships, such as T-Systems bringing IT and telecommunications support. The tight financial ship run by BMW means that expenditure has to be well justified, which seems to encourage well-targeted development.
Prospects for 2008: After a strong performance in 2007, the team has strong momentum heading in to the new season and are arguably the best positioned to challenge Ferrari and McLaren as the year wears on.
However, its aggressive development brought reliability issues, reducing running time, and perhaps setting up headaches for the early races.
Targets: Win a race.
Renault
2007 ranking: 3rd
2007 points: 51
2007 wins: 0
2007 podiums: 1
At the end of the 2007 season, Renault made it clear that it was looking for Alonso to return to the fold, and once its own meeting with the FIA over their own spying irregularity was resolved, he promptly signed on again.
Test driver Nelsinho Piquet was promoted to a race seat. Of course, Giancarlo Fisichella was aware very early that he was unlikely to remain with the team and headed off to Force India, whilst Heikki Kovalainen went to McLaren ...
Romain Grosjean, Euro F3 champion, has been signed on as test driver, as has ex-Super Aguri driver Sakon Yamamoto. The team is running with a perfectly decent budget for the year ahead, and with these drivers signed on in addition to their race team, they must be expecting to pursue plenty more opportunities to improve the budget as the year passes.
Judging by their testing pace, the team seems to be in a position to fight BMW and Williams for the front of the midfield, so it will be interesting to see whether they concentrate on evolving the car through the season, or commit early to the new rules and 2009.
The determining factor is likely to be a decision fairly early in the season as to whether they will be able to make enough progress to win a race ...
Prospects for 2008: This is an experienced team that has demonstrated the ability to win championships, even when it are not racing the outright fastest car on the grid. Despite an off year while getting to grips with the transition to Bridgestone, Renault must be expected to bounce back and at least occasionally threaten at the front.
Targets: Podiums - and at least one win.
Williams
2007 ranking: 4th
2007 points: 33
2007 wins: 0
2007 podiums: 1
Williams began its winter by sorting out its drivers for the coming season. Retaining Nico Rosberg was clearly on the cards, considering his form in the last year (actually, they signed him on for another two besides), whilst test driver Kazuki Nakajima's confirmation in the race seat seems a perfectly appropriate reward for his efforts through the season.
Another advantage of the Japanese in a race seat, besides making engine sponsor Toyota happier, is that it opens some interesting opportunities to expand the sponsorship coming from Japan: the team can certainly use the funding.
It might explain the rumours that it is in talks with investment capital companies, though it is extending existing deals - for example, Oris has signed up for another three years, and Hamleys has stepped up its involvement.
On the marketing front, the team went testing with six different liveries, marking some of the highlights of its 30 years in the sport. If nothing else, it helped to keep its image in the news, which is always helpful for encouraging new sponsors.
The team took F3 driver Sam Bird to the Kemble airfield for aerodynamic testing, keeping an eye on potential future talent whilst developing the car, though it was Nico Hulkenberg who was signed up to the testing role.
Prospects for 2008: The FW30 is clearly quicker than its predecessor, with some decent showings in testing, including in the wet (which is always a good sign).
There is every expectation for the team to take the challenge back to the front of the midfield - with continued development through the season, they should be fighting BMW, Red Bull and Renault, not to mention keeping the front-runners honest.
Targets: Regular podiums.
Red Bull Racing
2007 ranking: 5th
2007 points: 24
2007 wins: 0
2007 podiums: 1
It was a relatively quiet off-season for Red Bull, which seemed content to get on with developing its new car without fanfare. To back up David Coulthard and Mark Webber, it signed former BMW-Sauber test driver Sebastien Buemi to the testing role, though he will also be racing GP2 this year.
Philosophically, the team is continuing to pursue outright speed, having come to the conclusion that its appalling reliability last season was the result of manufacturing and operational faults.
With many of those resolved, the performance compromise from simplifying the car would only move it further off the pace. In fact, it is continuing to pursue the fine details, so complexity has gone up.
It does raise some concerns that it might encounter operational hiccups, as more problems are likely to come to light, but this pain needs to be faced and resolved before the team can even contemplate regular race wins.
With Red Bull behind it, there are limited concerns over the budget: provided it continue to show it is well-employed, the team can pursue any talent it needs to improve their complement of engineers and designers, so it will be no surprise if it continues to bring talent on board as the year progresses.
Naturally, the team continues to look for sponsors to defray costs, but it is in a strong position to sign only the deals that make sense.
Prospects for 2008: the new car is clearly faster than its predecessor, and both drivers are comfortable in the team. If the reliability gremlins from last year do not manifest again, then there is every reason to see a competitive year ahead, fighting for points in the midfield.
Targets: Regular points, occasional podiums ...
Toyota
2007 ranking: 6th
2007 points: 13
2007 wins: 0
2007 podiums: 0
After another fairly unimpressive season, Toyota went in to the winter fighting to hire Sauber's test driver, Timo Glock, who had managed to sign contracts with both teams.
Fortunately, the Contract Recognition Board agreed that he could race for Toyota, so it has a quick, young talent to run alongside Trulli in 2008. It signed up Kamui Kobayashi from Formula Third as test driver: talented but young, he is expected also to race in GP2 for this year.
With Vijay Mallya now owning Force India, his Kingfisher sponsorship was terminated early. It made enough of a dent in the team's finances that the team is coming under significant pressure from Japan to improve its showings: it was made clear that it must move up the grid if it is to remain in the sport, with talk of a 2010 deadline.
It would be no surprise to see the organisation change further over the season as the team attempts to step up its game.
The new car appears to represent a significant change of direction: a poor year with the TF107 at least showed the team where the weaknesses lay, and the new car has a new philosophy behind the aerodynamics, besides the usual weight and stiffness evolutions.
Winter testing has shown some interesting results on occasion, enough that it might be a real surprise at some circuits this year, but it will take some solid development to be consistent throughout the year.
Prospects for 2008: If the car has improved as much as the team is saying and their better test results imply, then it ought to be as competitive as any other midfield runner.
Those testing results confirm that progress has been made, and whilst the team has not shown that its massive budget is any guarantee of progress through the season, it is very definitely capable of moving forward.
Targets: Podium finishes.
Toro Rosso
2007 ranking: 7th
2007 points: 8
2007 wins: 0
2007 podiums: 0
It was a pretty quiet winter for Toro Rosso, who largely stayed out of the press. Signing Sebastien Bourdais from Champ Car to race alongside Sebastian Vettel means it has an interesting lineup.
Presuming that its star makes the transition in a similar fashion to Montoya or Villeneuve, he ought to be as fast as the impressive Vettel comfortably ahead of the half-way point of the season.
The outfit is planning to start the new season with their old car: the STR2 was capable of some pretty decent showings at times, it is reliable and the team is comfortable with setting it up, so there may be some advantages at the early races in the event of rain, or other factors that interfere with testing.
On the other hand, when the new car is available, Toro Rosso will have to start the learning curve when others are well down the road with their new cars and already looking to bring on developments.
Although there is no expectation of Red Bull funding drying up completely for the junior outfit, the owners appear to be ready to realise a return on their investment: don't be surprised if the year sees some prospective partners taking a close look at the outfit with a view to buying in, particularly over the Monaco weekend!
Prospects for 2008: With more than a quarter of the season expected to pass before the new car is ready, the team is clearly looking to score points early through reliability, then hopes to get the new car up to speed before the season is over.
If the strategy works, then it will finish ahead of Super Aguri and Force India - perhaps even Honda. On the other hand, the team will struggle badly if the midfield turns out to be reliable with their new cars!
Targets: Score points!
Honda
2007 ranking: 8th
2007 points: 6
2007 wins: 0
2007 podiums: 0
After a dismal season, Honda has been struggling to take positives from the year: one was being recipients of the 'Green Award Grand Prix' for the earth car campaign.
It was the start of a positive off-season, which continued with the hiring of Ross Brawn as team principle, with full responsibility for design, manufacturing and engineering the car. It is an exciting development in the aggressive recruitment program that the team has pursued this season.
That said, the ex-Ferrari technical director is clearly arriving too late to make a significant difference to the new car being built. It is not an evolution of the disastrous 2007 car, but redrawn along the lines of the competition: Brawn's experience should at least help to shortcut the learning curve.
In addition to developing a new car, Honda tested GP2 drivers Mike Conway, Luca Filippi and Andreas Zuber for its young driver program: they caused controversy there, too, because they lent an RA107 to Super Aguri and had them run the drivers, so avoiding using up their own testing mileage.
Takashi Kogure also got a run at Valencia, with the Honda team, and Alexander Wurz was signed as test driver, despite his retirement from the sport after the Chinese Grand Prix, which adds considerable experience to the squad.
Prospects for 2008: The revised car is not quick enough to threaten the midfield from the outset, but it appears to be a solid candidate for rapid development, provided the team is not diverting too many resources to the 2009 project.
As the year unfolds Honda should improve in form, but whether it will be fast enough to fight for points remains to be seen.
Targets: Improve rapidly, to score regular points by year end.
Super Aguri
2007 ranking: 9th
2007 points: 4
2007 wins: 0
2007 podiums: 0
It has been a tough off-season for Super Aguri. With budgets tight after sponsor SS United defaulted on payments, it has had to restructure, dropping as many as 30 staff. It has almost eliminated its testing, though it accepted the use of a chassis from Honda to test some young drivers.
It took a while to make the driver line-up official, but Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson eventually retained their seats.
The close relationship with Honda is allowing Super Aguri to continue playing the game. Running ex-Honda chassis in addition to Honda engines means that it is unequivocally tied to that outfit, but it does significantly reduce the number of staff and costs of running the team.
Mind you, the customer car row has left even this approach problematic: Spyker is forcing Super Aguri and Toro Rosso to arbitration over their usage of chassis designed by other teams.
Although a couple of sponsors have not been living up to their end, all is not lost for the team, which is looking for investors to take a stake in the outfit. Talks have been held with different potential partners, one of whom, interestingly, was the Spice Group - a promoter of Team India.
Despite spending almost no time testing, the team has worked hard on the SA08, which passed the crash tests first time around this year. The car is expected to offer better performance than last year, though with such limited track time, the drivers are going to struggle with getting set up effectively for races.
Prospects for 2008: Bearing in mind the learning curve the senior outfit Honda have to go through to perform well, there is little doubt that the team would struggle to make much impression, even if there were no budget constraints. This is likely to be a tough year.
Targets: Finish better than last overall - and keep taking the challenge to Honda on race day!
Force India
2007 ranking: 10th
2007 points: 1
2007 wins: 0
2007 podiums: 0
Off season started well, with the team officially changing its name from Spyker to Force India and confirming its Ferrari engine supply.
That sorted, it set about finding a team-mate for Adrian Sutil, with Klien, Tonio Liuzzi, Ralf Schumacher and Giancarlo Fisichella amongst those who tried out. As it turns out, Fisichella got the nod, and has another opportunity to help a struggling team improve. Liuzzi has been signed as test driver, with an official mandate to keep the race drivers honest!
The new owner is not short on cash and brings more sponsorship from India besides: with the budget swelling, the team has expanded its staff and are expecting its performance to improve. Whilst unlikely to threaten the front of the field, this year should show an indication of its potential under this management.
Mark Smith has been hired from Red Bull to work under Mike Gascoyne as Design Director, whilst Ian Hall is coming on board from Toyota to head up the 2009 car project. Combined with the re-commissioning of the Brackley wind tunnel (which has been upgraded for 24 hours running), the team is in a position to significantly step up its game, clearly a prerequisite to moving off the back of the grid.
Prospects for 2008: With a swelling budget, more experience at the top of the company, and an experienced driver on board, the team has its best foundation for a progressive year since Jordan spiralled to the back of the grid.
Targets: Regular trips to the second session in qualifying. Improve race pace through the season, perhaps culminating with the pace to score points.
McLaren
2007 ranking: 11th
2007 points: 0
2007 wins: 8
2007 podiums: 23
After being pipped to the post by Ferrari in Brazil, McLaren felt obliged to appeal the steward's decision not to expel any cars for fuel temperature irregularities; the appeal was thrown out, but it set the tone for a long and difficult winter ahead.
The team has been cracking on with producing a new car, but even as it worked on it, there was uncertainty over whether the FIA's mandated independent audit would suggest that Ferrari's intellectual property was included - or the consequences if they should do so: whilst it came to nought, there is no doubt it provided a distraction.
Team members have had meetings with the Modena magistrates, who also visited senior team officials at home and the factory in the company of the British police: the ongoing legal distraction in Italy has no clear end in sight.
Lewis Hamilton's fame has been good for publicity, at least in the UK, where a street has been named after him - though his decamping to Switzerland to avoid tax raised more than a few eyebrows.
On the other hand, when testing at Barcelona in Spain, there was an incident with racial name-calling that resulted in the FIA stepping in.
And of course, Fernando Alonso has gone back to Renault. Whilst that opens the door for another exciting young talent in Heikki Kovalainen, it deprives the team of considerable experience, which may well impact both its rate of development, and how quickly it can dial the car in on race weekends.
There have been changes in sponsorship, more likely based on the revised driver line-up than the spying affair, though one provoked confusion: Spanish firm Mutua Madrilena stated early that they were parting ways, denying that their exit was related to Alonso leaving, but they continued to appear on McLaren overalls until February, when a two-year deal with Renault was announced.
Prospects for 2008: Breaking in another new driver may take a while, leaving Hamilton with an early advantage over his team-mate, but perhaps reducing their overall ability to threaten Ferrari in the first half of the season. However, that will change in short order and this clearly remains one of the two teams to beat.
Targets: Both world championships
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Re: A little more pulp please
^^^^^^
That's a lot of hard data. But what does it all mean?
From Grand Prix, A different kind of Preview, this soundbite stuff is more my style:
:tongue: :wink:
^^^^^^
That's a lot of hard data. But what does it all mean?
From Grand Prix, A different kind of Preview, this soundbite stuff is more my style:
:tongue: :wink:
Looks like an update on the F1 site for team previews. Honda might be in for another long season. Though I hope not. Here is what it said:
Honda
16 Jenson Button 17 Rubens Barrichello
Testers: Alex Wurz, Mike Conway, Luca Filippi
Honda made much of the power of dreams and their Earthdreams programme when they launched their eco-friendly Formula One car last year, but it proved to be an utterly disastrous season that brought the team to their knees. Jenson Button did a fantastic job to maintain his momentum as, for yet another year, he saw his genuine aspirations of mounting a championship challenge crumble the moment the first race started.
Testing times suggest that the new RA108, at least in its current guise, is not going to turn that trick for him either. Insiders say his first comments on the new car were unprintable. At the launch in late January, there was much evidence of brave smiles for the cameras to disguise an ongoing crisis.
But… nobody in the real world doubts that the presence of new team principal Ross Brawn will have a huge influence on the team’s development in the medium term. His record at Benetton and Ferrari speaks volumes, and this major asset will surely lead the team from the wilderness. It will, however, take time.
Honda
16 Jenson Button 17 Rubens Barrichello
Testers: Alex Wurz, Mike Conway, Luca Filippi
Honda made much of the power of dreams and their Earthdreams programme when they launched their eco-friendly Formula One car last year, but it proved to be an utterly disastrous season that brought the team to their knees. Jenson Button did a fantastic job to maintain his momentum as, for yet another year, he saw his genuine aspirations of mounting a championship challenge crumble the moment the first race started.
Testing times suggest that the new RA108, at least in its current guise, is not going to turn that trick for him either. Insiders say his first comments on the new car were unprintable. At the launch in late January, there was much evidence of brave smiles for the cameras to disguise an ongoing crisis.
But… nobody in the real world doubts that the presence of new team principal Ross Brawn will have a huge influence on the team’s development in the medium term. His record at Benetton and Ferrari speaks volumes, and this major asset will surely lead the team from the wilderness. It will, however, take time.
Yep TSN in Canada carry all the F1 races.
Bram
Bram
Not in the US. I think F1 is on the major networks in Canada though.
Austrailian GP 2nd Practice Times:
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:26.559 33
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:27.473 + 0.914 27
3. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:27.640 + 1.081 29
4. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:27.683 + 1.124 28
5. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:28.037 + 1.478 26
6. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:28.208 + 1.649 28
7. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:28.292 + 1.733 22
8. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:28.352 + 1.793 31
9. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:28.469 + 1.910 32
10. Glock Toyota (B) 1:28.582 + 2.023 28
11. Button Honda (B) 1:28.632 + 2.073 30
12. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:28.731 + 2.172 32
13. Alonso Renault (B) 1:28.779 + 2.220 37
14. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:28.849 + 2.290 28
15. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:28.860 + 2.301 35
16. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:29.077 + 2.518 33
17. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:29.161 + 2.602 32
18. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:29.193 + 2.634 40
19. Piquet Renault (B) 1:29.518 + 2.959 14
20. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:29.605 + 3.046 11
21. Sato Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:30.663 + 4.104 16
22. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:31.527 + 4.968 8
Force India and Honda did much better than I expected. And what the heck happened to BMW and Renault?
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:26.559 33
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:27.473 + 0.914 27
3. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:27.640 + 1.081 29
4. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:27.683 + 1.124 28
5. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:28.037 + 1.478 26
6. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:28.208 + 1.649 28
7. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:28.292 + 1.733 22
8. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:28.352 + 1.793 31
9. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:28.469 + 1.910 32
10. Glock Toyota (B) 1:28.582 + 2.023 28
11. Button Honda (B) 1:28.632 + 2.073 30
12. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:28.731 + 2.172 32
13. Alonso Renault (B) 1:28.779 + 2.220 37
14. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:28.849 + 2.290 28
15. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:28.860 + 2.301 35
16. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:29.077 + 2.518 33
17. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:29.161 + 2.602 32
18. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:29.193 + 2.634 40
19. Piquet Renault (B) 1:29.518 + 2.959 14
20. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:29.605 + 3.046 11
21. Sato Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:30.663 + 4.104 16
22. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:31.527 + 4.968 8
Force India and Honda did much better than I expected. And what the heck happened to BMW and Renault?
Force India and Honda did much better than I expected. And what the heck happened to BMW and Renault?
Ya, I was thinking the same thing... At first I thought it was just Piquet screwing up, but then I realized Alonso had toppled down the timesheets as well. I was very pleasantly surprised to see Button up in 11th... Though it was just practice, I do believe he finished 11th in both practice sessions. If they start the season that high on the grid, imagine where they'll be by the end of the season once Brawn has had time to cause an effect within the team...
Can i ask a F1 newbie question, who is televising these? speed channel? Were can you watch reruns?
Speed usually, but you will want to set your TiVo ahead of time as the races usually take place at some crazy hours.
Somebody chime in with the TV roster here. I know a major network (looks like CBS) carries a few races. My guess Monaco and Paris, France will both be on a major network.
At least, here is the calendar.
Speed is the only F1 broadcaster here in the 'States. However, I have a feeling during the course of the year that ITV will broadcast some of the sessions over the internet (like they did last night and it was awesome).
Quali tonight. If I can locate an internet feed, I'll post it up.
Quali tonight. If I can locate an internet feed, I'll post it up.
I think Alonso's fat wallet might be slowing him down these days. :biggrin:
