2008 Season Preview - Part I

Slightly delayed but worth the wait! This is the Chequered Flag’s 2008 season preview. Like last year it will be divided into three parts covering the field. Last year I hit the nail on the head with a number of predictions, so hopefully I’ll be right again this year!

Toro Rosso

Can they step out of big brothers shadow?
A slow start to last year ended with their first double points finish in China, the Red Bull Junior squad has a new line-up this season. An Achilles heel may be their late arrival of the new car which means they will start the season in the '07 car. Starting late has never been a successful formula, especially for a mid-tier team. They will be playing catch-up all season and they hardly have a driver line-up brimming with experience to develop the car along. Toro Rosso would do well to hire an experienced hand to help bring the new car on song.

Vettel is a potential starlet, so much so he was allegedly coveted for the free McLaren seat. He showed tremendous character to come back from running into the back of his team-mate at Fiji to score points at China, even if one could point to Hamilton’s excessive stop-starting weaving as a cause to it. If STR provide a good car he can bring it home in the points. How long he will be there is probably the more concerning thing for them. A talent like him risks been poached by the bigger teams at any time. I’m sure BMW have an idea for him to replace Heidfeld when he retires.

Sébastian Bourdais comes into the sport on the back of four Champ Car titles. A help or a hindrance? Well in the past a number Champ Car winners have failed to light up the show. Testing has gone okay for the Frenchman but he is in the deep end and will have to learn to swim fast. Toro Rosso have shown themselves to be brutal if a driver fails to live up to expectations. Bourdais will be looking to be on Vettel’s coat tails or will be joining Klien, Speed and Luizzi on list of former drivers.

Honda

It can’t worse than last year, could it?
That’s the question Honda fans and Jenson Button are asking. Their joke of a livery that was only superceded by their joke performances, 2008 is all about rebuilding credibility. Ross Brawn, tactical genius has been drafted in to assist the ailing team but his arrival is surely too late to provide any major impact in 2008. Testing so far has failed to show that the team has made significant improvements. In my view money that could be better spent on R&D is used to finance the running of team which otherwise would be paid by actual sponsorship. Their failure to secure a long term main sponsor after the loss of BAT has hurt them bad. Paying the expenses for the ‘B’ team don’t help the situation either. Of course having Super Aguri on the grid would make sure that Honda aren’t going to be last!

How this car goes will ultimately decide Button’s future. I don’t see him waiting around for another season, even with Ross Brawn on-board if this years car is as bad as the last. I’m sure there is clauses in his contract that would allow himself to extradite himself from the team if it came to it. In a way it’s a touch of irony that he would be wanting to ditch the team after he worked so hard to break his Williams contract seeing Honda as the future.

Along with Button, this is a make or break season for Barrichello, albeit if he doesn’t match Button it will be him out of a job. The Brazilian, who will eclipse the record for longest serving grand prix driver this year scored zero points last year and was outclassed by Button. Regardless of the car he should have at least matched his team mate. Rubens has to show he still has the hunger to succeed. After everything he’s accomplished does he really have that hunger? I doubt it.

Force India

I wonder how much it costs per year to get uniforms updated with new team logos?
Ever since Eddie Jordan sold up this team has been falling about like a drunk in search of it’s identity. Is Mallya the man to finally take the team by the hand and find it? Time will tell. Talk of progression has been big this camp with the new Indian billionaire owner but isn’t that always the case with the previous reincarnations of the Jordan team. On track results and not big words is the yardstick teams are judged by.

In Giancarlo Fisichella is a Jekyll and Hyde driver. He failed, despite his own protestations that it wasn’t his fault, to take advantage of race winning cars provided by Renault. His move to Renault a number of years ago should’ve headlined a new beginning and perhaps the first Italian Formula One champion since Ascari back in the 1950’s. It proved to be a false dawn and Fisichella takes his bruised reputation back to the tail end of the grid. Have Force India signed a washed up driver? Maybe. But the Italian’s best work has been in middle and lower tier teams. The likes of Minardi, Jordan, Sauber all benefited from the Italian and perhaps it is in this sort of environment that can get the most out of him. Failure to put aspiring Sutil away though will mean the end of his career at the end of the season.

Adrian Sutil remains with the team for his second year despite been heavily linked with Toyota. Last year saw raw pace sprinkled with inexperience that he must overcome to show himself as a star of the future. He could benefit most from Fisichella’s arrival. Look at how much Rosberg grew with Wurz alongside him at Williams. Beating his teammate must be his number on objective. In the eyes of many Fisichella is past it and if Sutil fails to beat him, then he may wish he pushed harder to get his chance at Toyota.

Super Aguri

Will they, won’t they?
That’s the question swirling around the Honda ‘B’ team at the moment. The last time I remember a team missing this much of pre-season was Lola back in 1996 and look how that turned out. Their future has always been in doubt given that they suckle from Honda’s cash flow. Remember that Super Aguri was basically founded to keep Takuma Sato in an F1 drive as outrageous as that sounds. The 2007 was a successful one by the team’s first year standards. They scored points and encroached on second qualifying at times. Their end of season slump was due to the bigger budget teams having the development money. Of course in this sport, it’s down to the bottom dollar and that is where Super Aguri are in trouble with their failure to attract a major sponsor. Honda cannot afford to run two operations, especially seeing as both are flops as it stands.

Driverwise should they make the field they will most likely remain with the same driver lineup. As previously stated, the team was built for Sato which makes him a given. Davidson was given the nod by Honda ‘A’ squad chief Nick Fry who said he would object to another driver been brought in his place. This is exactly why Aguri is failing – sentimentality. Davidson showed pace in qualifying but his races were nothing to write home about. Sato is inconsistent, at times he shows he has what it takes, others he’s off in the doldrums. Honda need to get ruthless and cut them and Super Aguri and try to salvage a waning main team.