Viewing Thread:
"The 2007 Formula 1 season"

I want somewhere to stick my thoughts on the Formula 1 season as it progresses so I'm going to do that here. Feel free to join me if you want.

It does seem, on the face of it, that Ferrari will walk to the 2008 title. With McLaren in a state of flux, they could be struggling to hold on to 2nd best.

I see no reason why BMW can't get a bit closer to the top. My main concern is that they don't seem to make big leaps. It was very much maintaining the difference last season.

Red Bull with 24 extra points would be above Williams but 3 points behind Renault. It's not too bad for Red Bull as McLaren have been thrown down to the other end of the pit lane so they are about where they are. Newey cars have always been unreliable but if they can cure it, they are damn quick.

I think Alonso is right to say Renault won't be chasing any titles in 2008 but Renault might go back to building an Alonso type car, which might creep them up a bit.

Williams will continue to be where they are and will continue to chuck bits at the car in the hope something works.

I think Honda will be back in the pack behind Ferrari. With the findings not so long ago (which I had said when the car rolled out and underperformed) that the wind tunnel was giving misleading results and with a reshaped team, I think they can move up.

The interest will be for the last podium place next season and hoping a Ferrari or 2 have problems with reliability. Unless some team tries something radical, I can't see Ferrari being challenged.

Seems they have halted development on three areas of the car, presumably in an effort to prove that no Ferrari info will go into the design.

Now that they're clear to compete next season I don't think sponsorship will be a problem. I can see them dropping back from Ferrari and possibly even fighting with BMW & Renault for second best behind the reds.

Can BMW keep up their rate of improvement? They've taken big steps in each of their previous two years, but they can sustain that rate of improvement, can they? Perhaps next year will be more of a plateau - continuing with podiums but remaining winless?

Red Bull have said that they have to work on reliability. It cost them about 24 points this year, which would have put them ahead of Williams I think (off the top of my head).

Could be a Ferrari runaway with a tight fight between McLaren/BMW/Renault/Red Bull/Williams(?) for the best of the rest.

Things are looking bleak at McLaren. Their recent internal investigation has led to McLaren issuing an apology, basically admitting that the McLaren car did contain Ferrari technology and that the 2008 car also contains Ferrari technology. An FIA report really nails them to the wall.

The apology looks to have saved McLaren more punishment but there are more problems. Ron Dennis' position is under threat and his position may be untenable. McLaren will have to redesign the Ferrari affected areas and it seems investment money is hard to find. Pressure from the Spanish sponsors may have forced McLaren to put De La Rosa in the 2nd car. Thankfully, Kovalainen has got the 2nd seat at McLaren.

This could make McLaren less of a force in 2008 and could see them slip behind a couple of teams.

It's 2007 until my calendar says otherwise. :)

I'll sort something out in a few weeks. Got a few ideas.

Looks likely he'll be off to McLaren then.

I reckon it'd make more sense to have a thread for the 2008 season now, no? :)

Predictably, with Renault's future secure (for now), Alonso is at Renault for 2008. He's alongside Piquet Jnr. I've heard that Kovalainen didn't get the drive because Renault felt he'd be a match for Alonso and didn't want to rock the boat.

A similar punishment for Renault that was given to McLaren. Guilty but not enough evidence so if anything comes out, they go down. They don't really need that much evidence if the McLaren/Ferrari case is anything to go by.

McLaren find out whether they get punished for Ferrari data on their 2008 car in February, which could really mess them up.

More fittingly, he's to test for Force India, along with Fisichella. Looks like they've both come to the ends of their F1 careers, then... though it'd be interesting to see how Fisi performs, I always had him down as a very tenacious racer, but he hasn't done so well recently, maybe it's game over after his often surprising performances for Jordan and Benetton, and some adequate racing at Renault!

Montagy, Liuzzi, Klien and van der Garde are also apparently up for the second seat. I reckon Liuzzi's most likely to get it.

The funniest story today was Ralf Schumacher throwing his name into the hat for the McLaren drive. Just do us all a favour and leave F1. I don't think my sides can take any more.

McLaren have fueled the fire in their case against Renault before the December 6th case.

Prodrive won't be on the grid for the 2008 season because of the customer car problems.