2007 Preview - [Part Three]

Now on to the final teams that will take part this season.

Williams

In Nico Rosberg, Williams have one of the stars of the future. At the beginning of last season he showed good promise before the failing car brought him back down to earth. If Williams can give him a good car then expect him to bring home points.

Alexander Wurz has not raced since the 2000 season. That is a long time out of the cockpit. In the meantime he's been testing for McLaren and Williams. To make a comeback after this long and be successful will be quite a story if Wurz can pull it off. The Austrian is highly talented and his return to the cockpit is richly deserved.

After the worst season in their history, Williams have worked hard during the winter to improve - the most notable been the change to Toyota power. The 2007 package so far appears to have made strides and the team sits comfortable in mid-table after the winter tests. Lack of funds and the inability to make the Bahrain test show the limitations the team are already under for the coming year.


Scuderia Toro Rosso

Toro Rosso remain with an unchanged line-up but 2007 is likely to be the last chance Liuzzi and Speed have to impress. This years car looks like a modified version of the A team car, powered by the Ferrari engine. There is no excuses for STR not to make strides up the field. With a number of Red Bull backed drivers waiting for their chance, both drivers must deliver.


Spyker

Another new owner for the former Jordan team this year with the Dutch Spyker team. As was the case with the Midland guise there is a lot of optimism. Albers goes into his third year of Formula One now, his seat security helped by his Dutch ties. In Adrian Sutil they bring a young albeit unknown talent to the table. Despite the hype I expect Spyker to struggle at the tail end of the grid as has become the case from the former race-winning team.


Super Aguri

The Japanese team was one of the highlights of the last season. They went from 5 seconds off the pace in an aged car to hauling themselves up onto the tail end of the grid. With the aid of Honda and their status as a B team will undoubtedly help them make strides in terms of development. Taku Sato has improved from been erratic to a team leader to add to his pace. In Anthony Davidson they have another, like Button who has been overly hyped by the media and must earn his place on the grid. It will be difficult to properly judge Aguri as like STR, they are expected to run a modified customer chassis from their parent company.


Who wins, who loses will soon be decided. All the smokes and mirrors of winter testing will be removed come March 18th at Melbourne. The first race in the post-Schumacher era promises to be interesting.

2007 Preview - [Part Two]

After the big three teams, the 2007 season promises to have a tightly packed midfield battle.

Honda

Jenson Button enters the third year with the Honda works team and still only has the single grand prix win to his name. One has to be careful when listening to commentary about just how good Jenson really is. I have always thought he was overrated beyond belief and still stand by that. Apart from being a ‘smooth’ driver, he hasn’t shown anything that puts him in the leagues of the great. His first win came at a rain affected grand prix and wouldn’t of happened if Mother Nature hadn’t of intervened, so he is still out searching for his first ‘proper’ grand prix victory.

Last year I expected Barrichello to provide Button with good competition but that quickly went down the drain. Rubens suffered from having to deal with a car that was built to suit his team-mate; such was the case he had at Ferrari. At this stage in his career Rubens is quickly becoming a journeyman and I don’t expect to see anything special like last year.

Honda as a team is quickly approaching a crossroads. After years of expectations and show-boating in pre-season which quickly drained away during the year they have struggled so far this year. Whether it’s a case they are sand-bagging to hide their pace or deciding not to show their one lap pace as has been the case in past winters remains to be seen. Their line-up whilst experience is hardly world class. They will have a fight on their hands to hold back BMW.


BMW

Heidfeld had a penchant for being in the right team at the wrong time throughout his career. After promising results early in the career he found himself in the likes of Prost, Jordan and Williams as they fell from grace. Now at BMW he has a car of showcasing his talents. He must deliver however. As was the case with Villeneuve there is another youngster snapping at his heels for his race seat. A failure to perform could see his seat in threat.

The rise of Kubica in the past 12 months is as astonishing at the improvements seen in Massa. He was unknown to the majority of the racing world up until he was chosen as BMW’s reserve driver and it took him only half a season to oust a former world champion out of this race seat. As is the case with all the Friday drivers there performances have to be taken with a pinch of salt. Kubica showed that there is talent behind the raw speed with a podium inside his first three races.

Towards the end of last year BMW were easily the fourth best team. If they carry their testing pace over to the season I expect them to be giving Renault a run for their money, if not McLaren and Ferrari. BMW have always produced a class engine and combined with Sauber’s knowledge in how to put the rest together and a driver partnership that will push each other – expect fireworks.


Toyota

2007 will mark the first year that Ralf will be driving out of his brother’s shadow – at least on the track. Having promised so much earlier in the career, Ralf’s career is on the slide as of late. He is in need of a challenge to bring his top game back much in the way Montoya did when he joined Williams.

Jarno Trulli suffers much like Fisichella. We never know which one we will see on the track. Will it be the racer or the Sunday driver? By raw speed he’s one of the quickest on a single lap. It’s a shame Trulli never realised a race is more than a single lap. I’m sure Toyota wish he could qualify the car and let someone race it.

Toyota entered this season again promising much. Their car was one of the first out and after early promise they have again fallen into the midfield back in testing. As is the case with their NASCAR venture they need to realise that throwing money at the problem wouldn’t solve the problem. Dumping Gascoigne was a mistake. If Toyota is to succeed they need to stop letting the big wigs that have no knowledge of the sport to stop making the decisions.


Red Bull

With Schumacher’s retirement, Coulthard is now the old man of the F1 grid. While he doesn’t show any intention of letting up, I’m sure he will be looking over his shoulder at the abundance of talent that Red Bull has. The talent remains within him to drag that Red Bull up the field if the right car is given to him.

Like Button I think that Mark Webber is overrated. I’ve yet to see anything from him that merits the praise he often gets. He’s also got a big mouth. Webber needs to be more focused on establishing his racing career than taking pot shots at other teams. Interesting how he defines Williams as no more than a Toyota B squad when his own team have attained the label of a Renault B squad. He would do well to check up on things before talking.

The strongest part of the Red Bull package is the arrival of Adrian Newey to the team. In him they might have found the missing link that had denied them success so far. Red Bull must be willing to invest in the car however. In the past two years they have taken the stance to kerb car development in favour of working on next year’s car. If they can set the wheels in motion then they could be a surprise package and move up closer to the top ten.

2007 Preview - [Part One]

With only six weeks to go before the start of the new Formula One season, it is a big jump into the unknown. Gone is the legendary Michael Schumacher, Michelin tires and the biggest shake-up in driver line-up in recent years. It promises to be an exciting year. As winter testing and car launches are coming out thick and fast, it's a good opportunity to evaluate the challengers for the Fernando Alonso's title.

Team-by-Team:

McLaren

McLaren's acquisition of Fernando Alonso from Renault was quite a coup for Ron Dennis this time last year. After the season Mclaren had last year however, Alonso must of been wondering if he had made a poor choice. Juan-Pablo Montoya made a similar move back in 2005, which was over-hyped and produced little result. Alonso's move to McLaren is similar to the one taking by Schumacher back in 1996. If Alonso can return McLaren to their winning ways, he will cement his place in F1 history amongst the legends.

Lewis Hamilton begins his F1 career by entering the lion's den. There will be allot of pressure on the young Brit and it will be interesting to see how he copes. A rookie season alone is enough pressure for one to deal with but to have the world champion as your partner and racing for McLaren only increases it. To their credit, McLaren have groomed Hamilton from early age and having watched his career rise from strength to strength, there is no doubt he can make it on the big stage.

So far in winter testing the new McLaren has looked promising with, both Alonso and Hamilton topping the time sheets at various stages. As always with winter testing these performances have to be considered with a pinch of salt. The real test will be Melbourne on March 18th.


Renault:

If it wasn't for Alonso moving on from Renaul, I believe Giancarlo Fisichella would not still be with the team anymore. I've always rated Fisi' in the highest regard but when the time came that he got a world championship car, he's blown his opportunity. He now runs in the same vein as Jarno Trulli, deciding to show up and race every now and then with a great turn of speed before disappearing back into obscurity.

Heikki Kovalainen is a driver I am excited to see over the coming season. Like Hamilton he enters his rookie team with a top-line team and his mettle will be tested during the season. On his way to the top, Heikki has shown a fantastic racing pedigree and has duked it out with the best. This is the man who beat Schumacher in the International Race of Champions a few years ago. I'm predicting that Heikki will be more of match for Fisichella. He'll put the Italian in the shade similar to how Kimi did to Coulthard in McLaren in 2003.

It's a massive year for Renault as a constructor. They have to prove that there is life after Alonso, much in the same way they had to when in their Benetton guise in the post-Schumacher era. Of the top teams they have the weakest driver line-up with the unreliable Fisichella and the unproven Kovalainen. Renault recently said they would remain in the sport providing they remained competitive which only increases the pressure on the team to be competitive in 2007.


Ferrari

When Felipe Massa was announced as a Ferrari driver last season, it was widely regarded that he was keeping the seat warm for either Raikkonen or Rossi. The way he started the season laid credence to that with a number of shaky performances and excursions off the track. During the mid-season the Brazilian picked up his game and challenged his team-mate on a regular basis. Never before have I seen a driver improve so much during the course of a season, which he capped with two dominant wins at Turkey and Brazil. His improvement no doubt caused Ferrari driver selection headaches as they waited for Schumacher to decide on his future. He starts 2007 as strong favourite for the title. Unlike Raikkonen and Alonso who are settling in to new environments, Massa has the advantage of continuity on his side. If Ferrari carry on their end of season form it could offer Massa the springboard to the world title.

Kimi Raikkonen is finally in a team that should be ability he could only show the odd time in the misfiring McLaren. Since he first graced a Formula car back in 2002 with Sauber, I've tipped him to be world champion. The Iceman's patience has been thoroughly tested with McLaren, who despite collecting a number of wins failed to bring home the ultimate prize because of reliability issues. Now that he has a team around him that is more than capable of delivering him the championship it is up to Kimi to do it on the track come March.

2007 brings major changes to Ferrari. There has been a major upheaval with Ross Brawn going on a sabbatical, leading to a number of internal changes within the Ferrari company. On the driver front they have lost Michael Schumacher which is an immense loss for the team. Despite the changes, Ferrari start as favourites to capture both titles. In Massa and Raikkonen they have the strongest driver line-up and whilst rivals teams have to adjust to Bridgestone tires, Ferrari have a close understanding with the Japanese tire manufacture.
As always it is difficult to judge how competitive they will be come Melbourne as Ferrari conduct most of their tests at Mugello and Fiorano.


That's it for the first part of this 2007 season preview. Keep a look out for the next post as I look at the battle for midfield supremacy.

Warm-Up Lap

Greetings and Welcome all to The Chequered Flag.

On this blog I will be covering the Formula One World Championship from beginning to end over the coming months and offer my views on the impact that they will make.

Whether you agree or disagree with my views, I hope that you take something away from it and at makes you think about it!

Until the next post..