McLaren's Penalised

Both McLaren's were docked five spots for impeding Alonso and Heidfeld. It's hardly surprising that some action was taken. I'm a bit surprised that any penalty was given for blocking Heidfeld given that according to the commentary he posted his best first sector. That been said, up to then Heidfeld's pace had been poor so even when blocked it would've cost them. Personally I don't think they purposely tried to hold the pair up. It just happened.

As I said I'm not surprised. Brundle commented that people were likely to get hauled up for going at a snails pace back to the pits. The FIA now have to get their fingers out and put and end to this before Bahrain.

Now I await the FIA punishing McLaren only conspiracy theories.

Massa On Pole As Rain Fails To Come

Felipe Massa stormed to pole position this morning with Raikkonen second, securing an all-red front row. Kovalainen outpaced his team-mate as Hamilton struggled around the Sepang circuit.

The expected rain never came despite 20 minute warnings throughout the session. I got up early given my overloaded day to make sure I got to see it as opposed to hearing it on the radio. A six am start isn’t as bad as the Melbourne start! But wait a minute! A Ferrari front row? Weren't the press saying that the Italian team had no qualifying pace and that McLaren had it easy? Ahh don't you love it when people put their foot where their mouth is.

Coming out of qualifying the biggest concern is the fuel saving at the end of qualifying. We escape the issue in Australia, although it was highlighted but today we saw the dangers of it. Heidfeld and Alonso but ran out of sync and ended up with their own personal game of asteroids out there as they danced around cars going at pedestrian pace.

Why this wasn’t addressed after Melbourne, where the problem was noted is beyond me. It’s not like we haven’t had this issue before. Cars going to the grid on race day have been stopped from crawling around because of the dangers. Last year we have seen cars after the final qualifying session. It begs to question why it didn’t add together for the rule-makers. It will be interesting to see if anyone will be penalised for blocking given that it is a big no-no these days.

Tomorrow’s race is still under the threat of rain. McLaren will be looking for it given the raw pace of the Ferrari’s. They needed to be ahead of the Ferrari’s to have a chance to contain them. Other quail mentions go out to Trulli who showed his usual quick lap pace and team-mate Glock. Both Toyota drivers made the top ten for the second time, although question marks always remain over the race pace.

F1 To The BBC!

In shocking news this morning it has been announced that the BBC will cover Formula One from next season. Bye-Bye ITV.

What do I think about that? Bloody brilliant! It was a shocker to wake up and see that on the news site and if it wasn’t April 1^st I would think it a cruel joke. The majority of F1 sites, except the ITV one have it up. According to Planet-F1, ITV claim that they weren’t muscled out of the final two years of their contract. They also say that F1 wasn’t giving them great ratings. Hmm, that’s odd, especially since we listened to Allen prattle on about how great the numbers were at times last year. Why would they go about setting up the ‘groundbreaking’ showing of online streamed coverage if they weren’t in it for the long haul? Hamiltionmania has swept Britain and we are to believe they wanted to pull out? Yeh, I’m not really buying that either.

In the past number of years the coverage offered by ITV has really gone to the dogs and have rightly forfeited the right to cover the sport. It’s not just over the ‘let’s see how far up Hamilton’s butt we can shove our head’s’ line they have taken. I’m not stupid and realise that some portion of commentary should be given to home talent but the way they go on about it is just head-wrecking. They way they prattle on about just makes me want to see him not win.

Hopefully BBC takes a different take on it. As I said, I expect them to feature him but hopefully just not in the ‘he shall do no wrong’ stature that he receives from ITV. The move to ITV also means no more advert breaks during the races! We won’t miss a thing! So far this deal really smells of roses!

As for the team, Ryder is pale imitation of Rosenthal. Tony Jardine has been sorely missed since the arrival of Mark Blundell, who has offered nothing more than a migraine in his attempts to cash in on the success Brundle has had since the switch from cockpit to booth. Then there is James Allen – do I even need to say anything?
The only shining light for ITV was Martin Brundle. The man is an excellent commentary who stays as impartial as possible. His grid walks are the stuff of legends and the BBC should rightly be trying to secure his services.

If you need a co-commentator feel free to drop me a line guys!

For Sale: Pre-owned F1 team. No Longer Wanted Due To Impending Rule Change. Need Sold By 2010

Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz has confirmed that the Toro Rosso team is up for sale. With customer cars outlawed from 2010 with a new Concorde Agreement, the junior Red Bull squad will no longer be able to run a similar car as the main squad.

The customer car row has been rumbling for a number of years now with independent teams such as Williams and Force India (under it many previous guises) fighting tooth and nail against the customer cars. We’ve already seen its impact earlier in the year with Prodrive not making it onto the grid as expected.

I’ve never been a fan of customer cars in Formula One. When I think customer cars I think of the racing in the United States. Not that it is a bad thing mind you. But that’s the way they have done it for many year there and it has it benefits. This however is F1, the pinnacle of single-seater motorsports. F1 doesn’t have a team championship, it is a constructor’s championship – and you can’t spell ‘constructors’ without ‘construct’! The likes of Toro Rosso and Super Aguri don’t do that, rather they run with modified versions of their parent teams. ‘Synergy’ is a term that has been thrown around to cover what in layman’s term can be described as using the same car. If you copy someone’s homework in class, you don’t get away with it. Why should you in F1?

One of the draws of F1 is to see teams running cars that carry the mark and influence of the team. If I wanted to see cars that were all the same, I would watch another form of single-seaters.
Prodrive abused the entry slot they were won to make it onto the grid. At the time customers cars were a hot topic, they knew this. They held out as long as they could in the hope the rules would change that would suit their entry with a customer car. They didn’t and the series lacked a 12^th team this year. Why were they allowed to do this I ask? Perhaps one of the other bidders had ambitions or resources to make their own car if it came to it and could’ve been on the grid this year. We will never know now.

Don’t get me wrong, customer cars do have advantages. They would help with the much heralded cost-cutting that Mosley goes on about.

Should the sport be diluted that much in an attempt to save money? I think not.

Bernie's Flawed Logic

Bernie Ecclestone has come out and said that he wants victories to determine who wins the title.

But Bernie, every title since 1989 has been won by the driver with the most wins in a season! I have to wonder where the F1 supremo’s logic is coming on this one. Maybe he’s watching NASCAR and following the idea that win’s mean more in the Chase. It’s clear as day with the history that the guy who has won most brings the prize home. He claims according to news sources that it’s to make people fight for wins as opposed to settling for points.

So here’s a better idea! Dump the 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 point’s system and return to the 10-6-4-3-2-1 system. If there is a great gap between points then you will put more emphasis on going for the win. An added bonus is that it won’t allow championship leaders who gain a massive margin to sit on their laurels and instead make them race from the beginning to the season to the end.

Let's Go Racing!

A 3.30am start, a race filled with thrills and spills and a number of curse-filled rants at the ineptitude of the commentary of James Allen. It only means one thing, Formula One is back!

I hate Melbourne starts. The time was supposedly changed to suit people getting up but I didn’t feel it all. The start been mired in the middle of the night calls on fans to make a difficult decision – whether to stay up or to catch a couple of hours and wake up for it. I chose the latter and paid for it later on in the evening with falling asleep trying to watch NASCAR.

Was it worth the hardship? Definitely. We were treated to a race that had everything with the exception of a rain shower. The race drew many parallels to Montreal last year. Hamilton avoids all the mayhem and produces a mature assured display that saw him pick up the win. The McLaren driver controlled the race and rarely found himself under pressure. Heidfeld again drove a steady race whilst all the talk was about his front-row winning team-mate Kubica to collect second, followed by a stellar drive from Rosberg. Behind that we got treated to crashes, passes and blow-ups.
Ferrari once more find themselves on the back foot and with the exception of Raikkonen’s win last year, they have not been impressive at the Albert Park circuit over the past few years. There is no point having a fast car if it won’t last the race distance. With only a week between Melbourne and Sepang there is little opportunity to rectify the problem. However Raikkonen did pick up a point following the disqualification of Barrichello and if last year is anything to go by, every point counts. Massa’s performance will be of more concern. We saw the Felipe of old out on track leading to suggestions that the loss of traction control will affect him most.

Toro Rosso looks like a team capable of springing a surprise or two. While Bourdais was quiet, he showed the maturity of a champion to keep himself out of trouble and was on the way to 4^th when his car broke down. The abnormal amount of retirements meant he picked up two points allowing the Frenchman some reward for his drive. We can only speculate what Vettel could’ve of done had he not been eliminated in the first corner scuffle.

Renault was a massive disappointment in qualifying. Piquet’s debut was the stuff of horrors, drawing some parallel’s to Kovalainen’s last year. There’s only one way up he will be thinking! Alonso drove a determined race after a poor qualifying and was involved in a great scrap with the man he traded seats with. Would’ve been interesting to see Ron’s face after Alonso re-passed the young Finn after seeing his absolute delight with Heikki getting past the former champion. Haven’t seen Ron that happy in ages!

One must feel for poor Barrichello. The most experienced driver on the grid put a torrid 2007 behind him and showed the sort of race craft that saw him drive a Ferrari. It all went wrong in the end but his performance shows a beleaguered Honda operation that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

It was great to see the embrace between Rosberg and Hamilton heading up to the podium. Usually when we are talking about emotions in Formula One, the positive stuff remains within the team and any emotions showed to another competitor is negative. For a change it’s great to see two of the sports brightest young talents so happy for each other. The result for Rosberg is the accumulation of two years of hard work by the starlet and the first of many. Of course, many can say that when you put the Ferrari’s into the equation he wouldn’t get there, but Rosberg more than had the pace to stick with the BMW’s who themselves were hardly shabby on pace.

PC’s Driver of the Day: Nico Rosberg. The young German drove flawlessly all day keeping the BMW of the vastly experienced Heidfeld honest. With the Williams lacking the financial clout of the works team it only goes to put his performance into perspective. His reward was his first podium.

Busch Wins; Smoke Burns Rubber and Open Wheel Refugees Struggle

I’ve been a bit slack in my attempts to get the F 1 season preview out of the way. Now that is done and dusted it’s time to catch up following the races at Vegas and Atlanta. Both were enjoyable races to watch. Have to see I’m loving my Sunday nights now with Nascar back on the box!

Busch wins at last!

It’s taken him four races but the evitable happened on Sunday with Kyle Busch winning his first of the season and Toyota’s first Cup series win. This is the first time since 1954 that a foreign manufacture has won at the top level of stock cars. Since Daytona, Busch has been a man on a mission and has been feisty in every race. I love the attitude and his race craft. He’s grown so much since last year, which was marred with the immature leaving of circuit early when the car was in the garage. Anyone would criticize him for that. Since his arrival at Joe Gibbs he looks a different driver. He is exciting to watch. According to the commentators he is the only man who can go 3-wide all by himself. His ability to use any part of the race track at any time is uncanny. High, low, heck even using below the apron – Busch can do it all! With Mark Martin now into a part-time schedule I find myself in need of a new guy to back and Busch’s approach to the track appeals to me. Off the track the guy is extremely likeable and his pre-race stuff at the rain-delayed Fontana was brilliant. Not to mention he’s worked the last few events doing Nationwide and Craftsman Truck over the weekend which is amazing running three races. I’m looking forward to watching ‘Rowdy’ at work at Bristol this Sunday. He won the event last year and with the form he is on – watch out.

Smoke’s Tire-ade

Tony Stewart finished second at Atlanta after a DNF in Vegas. First thing he said to the reporter was a harsh bashing of tire supplier Goodyear. I don’t think anyone would get away with such critical wordings over here in Formula One. Tony really was a tiger in his opinion over the type of tire brought to Atlanta. He wasn’t the only who were critical of the tire type, although others failed to live up to the colourful quote Smoke gave us.

I'm really excited that I didn't crash. That was half the battle in itself. Been racing 28 years and been a part of a lot of different professional series and never seen a quality of racing tire like I've seen this weekend.

If Goodyear thinks that was their best effort today, I'm really disappointed because, you know, these teams spent so much money to come here and the competition is so close.

I guess I can't say it's surprising because, I mean, they got run out of Formula One, they got run out of CART, the IRL, they got run out of World Outlaw Sprint cars, they got run out of USAC divisions because they couldn't keep up and make a quality enough product. You know, this weekend shows their true colors and what they're about. You know, they've done some great things over the years. But, you know, as technology has gone on and as the technology of these cars has gone on, they can't keep up. That's what puts us in positions like we were in this weekend as drivers and teams. It makes for a miserable day out there.

It's hard enough just to get the balance of your car from stop to stop making the changes, but then when you put tires on and don't know what they're going to do when you put them on, it makes it that much more disappointing. You know, it makes also days like today, when you get lucky enough to finish, you know, second and have your teammate win, it makes days like that great. But, man, I mean, if the rest of the year, if that's what we got to look forward to, is weekends like this, there will be a lot of drivers going into retirement a lot earlier because nobody's going to want to keep doing this like this.

It's not up to us. It's up to Goodyear. The bad thing is they've got an exclusive deal. They have no reason to have to push and make their product better because they have no competition. So I don't know what it's going to take to get them to give us a quality tire that this series and NASCAR deserves. But they obviously aren't capable of doing it right now.

Single-Seater Woes

This year saw a wave of former open-wheelers join the sport in an attempt to follow the path blazed by Montoya. They put decent stock car drivers like David Streeme, Johnny Sauter and Jeff Green, guys who put their cars in the top-35 out of drives for this season. The invasion had begun! Was this to be the start of a new era?

By the looks of it, nope. Right now with only one more race before the top-35, which guarantees drivers a race start, takes from the current standings and not the previous years, none of them are inside of it. Sam Hornish is 36^th, Franchitti lies, 38^th and Carpentier is 44^th after only making two of the first four races. The former two are locked into Bristol and need a good score to break into the top 35 or their seasons could end as quickly as it did for Villeneuve. Remember him? He failed to qualify for Daytona and the lack of dollar bills have seen him gone. To return, we’re told, but to be fair, it’s not that likely.

Of the three remaining, Hornish has looked more likely to make it. He’s shown pace and good race craft when he’s been up near the top. Atlanta was the first time he really seemed off the boil. His DNF’s haven’t been helpful to his cause.

Franchitti has been woeful. I’m sorry to fans of the Scot but he has. He’s made zero impression and has struggled in the number 40 Dodge. Lightning hasn’t hit twice for Chip Ganassi. I wouldn’t be in anyway surprised if a more experienced driver was slotted in to get that car into the top-35 this weekend, even if it is unlikely. It will happen, sooner rather than later. Dario is too green at this stage. He needs a year in the second-tier Nationwide series to cut his teeth. Not everyone can do what Montoya did and that is what they are learning.

Another single-seater refugee, A.J. Allmendinger has found himself out of his ride. After making only 15 races last year and missing the three at the start of the year, Red Bull chose to replace him with veteran Mike Skinner. The response? The number 84 made the race for the first time this year. This should’ve been the case from day one really and A.J. will be under the wing of Skinner and must take the opportunity to learn from the series veteran as he works to put the car inside the top-35. Scott Speed seems to be doing it the right way. The former Toro Rosso driver is starting off near the bottom of the ladder and working his way up to gain experience this year. The right way about it!

The perils remind me so much of Formula One when Villeneuve made the move to Europe. After his success was followed by Alex Zanardi and Cristiano da Matta. Both champions in the CART series but failed to make a impact. Even Montoya who picked up race victories failed to win the F1 title. Now the idea of plucking drivers from the US open-wheel series is more careful, with Bourdais taking a number of tests over a year before finally making the jump.

Jumping into the deep end and hoping you learn how to swim doesn’t always work. Trust me, I know from experience!

2008 Season Preview - Part III

Two for the price of one today! Here are parts two and three of the season preview today! Enjoy! Only seven days till the start of the season!

Ferrari

Can the Reds stay on top?
Ferrari is under new management with Jean Todt moving upstairs. Slowly the team is been cycled from the Schumacher days to this new era. Last year Ferrari suffered an abnormal amount of reliability issues, something that during the Schumacher era was rarely seen. Pre-season has seen a number of niggling issues in the same department. With today's near bullet-proof reliability in Formula One they can ill afford to have cars falling off the road. The addition of Schumi to the testing team can only aid them in their quest to have the car sorted for Melbourne. There are no excuses for Ferrari not winning this year, with the exception of the immense talent of Hamilton.

Kimi Raikkonen – World champion. Well deserved and this year he will be more dangerous. He spent the best part of a year in the shadows, according to most pundits like Alonso and Kubica working on adapting to the new Bridgestone’s. This year, like Ferrari, there are no excuses. I expect a dominant and hungry Raikkonen to hit the track and never look back this year. Looking forward to seeing him dice with Hamilton this year. One word – epic.

I said last year that 2007 was Massa’s chance while Raikkonen settled. For the first part of the year Massa was working as planned. For the most part of the year Massa looked like a genuine title contender before it all became to fall away with too many reliability issues putting him to the back of the grid. Overall, Massa looked more like a proper Ferrari driver than those erratic crazy drives a thing of the past. Will he be anything more than a Ferrari number two now? That’s the question. The Brazilian is good, but now that Raikkonen is settled I don’t see him breaking the Finn’s lead.

McLaren

Will Spygate affect them?
It’s still hard to say. Pre-season testing pace would seem that the financial dent isn’t causing a problem to the team. Perhaps Mercedes dipped into the savings to make up the balance! Of course if results don’t go their way, spygate is a perfect scapegoat should the year go away from them. Talk leading up to the first race has been about Ron Dennis’s future. It will be interesting to see how McLaren are over the long distance runs. The team has struggled in recent years to be able to develop race contending cars two years in a row. Usually if the car is bad they’ll be quick to dismiss the year and work on next year’s car which inevitably is a contender. This year they have two young drivers in charge of the development. Let’s see if McLaren can break that cycle.

How Lewis handles this year could define his career. He’s no longer the rookie, the unknown quantity. While Formula One doesn’t have the football equivalent of ‘second season syndrome’ that doesn’t mean it can’t happen. Lewis is a fantastic talent and no doubt he will push the outside troubles out of his mind and just get on with the job. Providing what McLaren offer him he will no doubt run the Ferrari’s for the championship.

This is Kovalainen’s big break. He’s now got to take it. The Finn can ill afford a similar start as he had with Renault. He’ll be expected at minimum to finished fourth which is a step up for him. I can see him doing it though. After such a torrid start he improved throughout the year. All of that was character building and that can only go to serve him well this year. I could see the Finn winning this year. One thing for sure will be to study the team dynamics compared to last year. See how much fireworks are created in this team!

BMW

Can BMW make the next step?
I’ve seen it before. Honda and Toyota are the two teams foremost in my mind that looked to be on the road to making a breakthrough. Both tried to make that last step too fast and ended up following flat on their faces. Look at how far back into the pack they have fallen. BMW are on the cusp but need to be careful on how they approach this next jump. Regular podiums have to be the priority for the German-Swiss outfit along with fighting McLaren and Ferrari on all tracks. As the season progressed the gap between the top two and BMW seemed to grow, something the team needs to address this year. Depending on who you listen to, a race win is possible this year. This year’s car has caused problems in testing, something I was worried about and at the very least they need to be third best come Melbourne.

After years trudging around in the lower end of the grid, Heidfeld finally had the car to show his talents last year. A podium in the crazy Canadian grand prix and a memorable duel with Alonso at Bahrain were the highlights of ‘Quick Nicks’ year as he solidly came home fifth in the tables. He showed highly rated Kubica the way home more often than not and if either BMW driver is to win this year, my money is on Heidfeld. Depending on the Renault he could be in a fight for fourth, even third depending on Massa’s consistency this year.

Now entering his second full season it’s time for Kubica to start delivering the goods. It took the Polish driver half a season to adapt to the tyres, similar to Raikkonen and Alonso. His return after that massive shunt in Canada showed the drivers through grit. Like Heidfeld, he’ll be looking to fight for podiums on a more consistent basis. He has the ability to win, though like I said I would see Heidfeld getting it because of his experience. That been said, Kubica is more than talented to get the job done if the opportunity presents itself.

2008 Season Preview - Part II

Renault

Will the return of the prodigal son returns the French team to victory lane?
It should, even if pre-season testing and words coming out of the camp say otherwise. Renault has no real excuses. They abandoned the development of their '07 car to focus work on this year’s challenger after the half way mark. The idea that they haven’t been able to put together a car that will be in some way decent would be a massive failure for the team. They could be sandbagging during testing to lull teams into a false sense of security. If they truly are five tenths off the top then someone surely will have their head rolled.

Of course if the car is the five tenths off the top, then Alonso will be asked to provide those tenths that he claimed he brought to McLaren last year. After a torrid year in McLaren he takes the step back into his comfort zone. I mirror it to moving out of home, not having it work and coming back to live with your parents. Not the best move, but the best of a bad situation. His reputation is tarnished and needs to get his head down and do what he is good at – racing. Last year is in the past and he would do well to just get on with it.

Nelson Piquet Junior – well I told you he was going to be here last year and I was spot on! It could be a case of déjà vu for Alonso because Piquet is by no means a slouchier. This is the man who finished second to Hamilton in the GP2 series. Flavio can talk all he wants about having team hierarchy but the son of the former world champion is hardly going to pass up an opportunity to highlight the show. If he can get off to good start there is no stopping him making the same sort of impact that Kovalainen produced last year. A year out of competitive racing may hamper him at the start of the year similar to Heikki but I would expect him to give Alonso a couple of scares during the year.

Williams

High expectations but can they deliver?
I’m sure that’s what Williams’s fans are thinking going into this season. People tend to forget that twelve months ago they were coming off the back of a terrible season and now people are predicting them to fight for podiums! That’s a pretty big step to take and I’m sure they would be happy to just improve on last year. Led by Frank Williams and Patrick Head there was never any doubt in my mind that Williams would eventually turn the boat around. Their biggest enemy this year will be the aforementioned high expectations of the outfit. To the media, anything short of scoring a few podiums is going to be considered a failure for the team.

Getting Rosberg to sign a new contract is probably the signing of the year for me. With McLaren flying like vultures looking for a replacement for Alonso it would’ve been easy for Rosberg to up sticks and move to the Woking outfit. His decision to stick it out with Williams and continue to work on a project he started with them two years ago shows class to me. Sure some people are saying he might have blown his chances but for me, this is a fantastic education for Rosberg for the time when he will be in a top car. There are no ‘ifs’ or ‘buts’ about that fact. He matured greatly last year and with the aid of the experienced Wurz alongside him, looked like a more accomplished driver. This year he will be the out and out team leader in terms of experience as well as talent.

Nakajima had a whacky début at Brazil at the end of last season. The latest export from Japan showed raw pace marred by youthful exuberance. His pre-season testing has shown he is not to be taken lightly so far. Then again, it is only pre-season so his current runs have to be taken with a pinch of salt. When the lights go out and the real racing begins is when we will see what Nakajima is really like. Much like Sato he appears to be a rough diamond and there are few better teams than Williams to help hone his skill. He will have to show his worth if he is to shed the tag that he is simply there on Toyota’s request in an attempt to keep engine costs down at the privateer team.

Red Bull

Will this be the year that Red Bull finally gets their wiings?
Last year’s Red Bull showed great pace at times however their season was undone by poor reliability. As the old adage ‘to finish first, first you must finish’ or in Red Bull’s eyes to ‘finish at all, build a car capable of finishing!’ Towards the end of 2007 they were mixing it up regularly for points and if they can solve the problems any Adrian Newey designed car is going to be competitive. Red Bull have been moving forward each year but the aim this year has to be score points more regularly and pick up a few podiums.

David Coulthard is the grand daddy of the grid and shows no signs of stopping. Always there or thereabouts he’s the perfect driver to help build what still is a growing team. He’s seen off a number of team-mates in the course of his Red Bull career.

I’ve never been a fan of Mark Webber. Often he’s had a mouth bigger than his talents. Many pundits talk him up but the results show that he isn’t really all that. He was pretty even with Coulthard last year and his pokes at Williams for been on the downturn left him red faced as Williams are on the up since his departure. In my books he’s yet to justify the hype surrounding him and I doubt we’ll ever see him achieve anything more than point’s finishes and the odd podium.

Toyota

A new year and a raft of new promises. Haven’t we heard all this before?
Toyota continues to spend big and deliver zero. No wonder the Toyota head chiefs are considering change at the highest level or even abandoning the failed Formula One project. Their main problem is that they believe they can apply the exact same method that works in other sports to F1. The team seems to be run by a committee as opposed to have one man in charge as is seen in most F1 teams. I could rattle off nearly every Formula One boss, except for the Toyota boss. One would think after years of shovelling money into the team and hoping for the best that a lesson would be learned. According to reports the management team has only a few years to turn it around although many people read that statement as one of Toyota’s desire to pull the plug on this money draining operation.

Unless Trulli overcomes his career long problem of switching off during races, I would expect this to be his last year. His saving grace for the seat this year is similar to Fisichella last year at Renault. Having two new young drivers isn’t ideal in a team trying to push forward. So they have gone for the tried and trusted rookie-experienced line-up. If Toyota could just have Jarno qualify the car he would be great. However points aren’t awarded for qualifying and his inability to throw together consistent race pace has always been his downfall. I honestly don’t expect him to step up to the plate his late in his career. He will achieve point’s finishes but nothing more before he heads off into the sunset like Ralf Schumacher did this winter.

Timo Glock has endured a meandering path to his full time Formula One drive. He’s already had his debut with Jordan in 2004. He then headed stateside to race in Champ Cars before a return to Europe and the GP2 series which accumulated with him winning the championship last season. A tug of war between BMW and Toyota ended up in front of the Contracts Recognition Board before he was cleared to sign for Toyota. Over the past few years the GP2 drivers making the step up have shown that they can handle the top level. His ability to shine this year will depend on what sort of car Toyota gives him. Give him half a season to adapt proper and during the second part of the season I would expect him to be putting Trulli to bed if he wants to ensure he’ll be around long term. Similar to Sutil at Force India, failure to beat a team-mate that many consider washed up and past their prime will bring the curtain down early on his Formula One career.

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.