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Hello and welcome to Grandprix’s preview of the new F1 season. It’s that time of the year again when all will be revealed after a lot of potentially misleading testing results. In this preview, I will run through some changes for the new season, have a look at the teams and drivers for 2008, make some predictions and see how I did with my predictions for last year. Beware: IT’S LONG!!
Let’s begin by looking at where the teams will be travelling to in the 2008 season.
Australia – 16th March
Malaysia – 23rd March
Bahrain – 6th April
Spain – 27th April
Turkey – 11th May
Monaco – 25th May
Canada – 8th June
France – 22nd June
Britain – 8th July
Germany – 20th July
Hungary – 3rd August
Europe – 24th August
Belgium – 7th September
Italy – 14th September
Singapore – 28th September
Japan –12th October
China – 19th October
Brazil – 2nd November
There are 18 races this year, up from the 17 last year. The big omission is the USA Grand Prix, which didn’t get its contract renewed. It does leave Canada a bit exposed in the middle of the European rounds and I, personally, am not a fan of the track and even less so after the tarmac fiasco. It’s a late end to the season with Brazil being the last round in November.
After San Marino was dropped, a big gap needed to be filled. Spain has moved to fill the gap with Turkey moving from August to May to complete the filling process. Turkey’s place in August has been filled with a new venue, Valencia, which has now taken the European Grand Prix label.
Another new venue on the F1 scene is Singapore, which will see the first ever F1 night race. If everything goes well, we could see more night races in the future, with Malaysia one of the countries interested.
In the circuit rotation, Hockenheim is now the German Grand Prix for 2008 with the Nurburgring getting it back in 2009 and Fuji is still the Japanese Grand Prix with Suzuka still waiting in the wings.
I’m looking forward to being at Silverstone for all 3 days this year and if you are lucky ducks, maybe I’ll let you all know what it was like.
One of the rules for 2008 has been a major discussion of many drivers in Formula 1. It would be the removal of traction control and its sister electronic, launch control. The major talking point has been keeping the car on the road during wet conditions. Coulthard has been the most vocal when it comes to wet weather racing without traction control. The drivers will certainly be earning their money in wet conditions.
Along with the removal of traction control and launch control, the cars have now got standard ECU so the FIA can monitor all the teams’ electronics. Engines still have to last 2 races and the teams will be penalised if they are changed before they have fulfilled their 2 races. It will be 10 places if it has to be changed before qualifying or to the back of the grid if changed after qualifying. However, each driver gets 1 free change for the season but they aren’t allowed to do that at the final round.
Gearboxes have to last 4 races with every unscheduled change results in a loss of 5 places on the grid. If it fails in a race, they can change without penalty. The cockpit sides are slightly more padded and are higher to give better protection. Each team will also be biofuel compliant. Almost 6% of the fuel will contain biomatter. Interesting, no?
There has also been a change to the qualifying arrangement. The first part of qualifying is now 20 minutes long and the final part is now only 10 minutes. The reason for the drop in time in the final part is that the cars will have to race with what they have in their cars at the end of qualifying so there will be no more fuel burning phase upsetting environmentalists.
It’s not really a rule change but the full wet tyres will now have a white stripe on it so that everyone knows what type of wet tyre is being used.
That’s the background for the new season and it’s now time to look at the teams and drivers competing for the Championships this season and a brief description of how well they’ll do in my opinion. If you want to look at the cars before the new season starts, I’ve posted links to pictures in the 2008 F1 Season thread.
Ferrari
Ferrari were gifted the Constructors Championship after the exclusion of McLaren in the whole Stepneygate affair. I’m not going to go in a description of that whole mess, unless you really want me to.
Ferrari had the best car in 2007 at the majority of the events but McLaren pushed them hard. All the talk seems to be that Ferrari will walk to the title but I think McLaren are fairly close. I do believe that Ferrari will have to make mistakes to lose the title.
Raikkonen
He is going to be the man to beat for the new season. He pinched the title last season as the perfect scenario happened and won by a point. I won’t go into the whole fuel freezing thing as it’s pointless.
Anyway, Raikkonen had the better of Massa in most of the races although Massa seemed to have the edge in qualifying. Whether that is because Raikkonen had more fuel doesn’t matter. Raikkonen will have to work hard to keep the title as Massa should only get better for the new season. Raikkonen will be the favourite to make it back to back titles.
Massa
Massa was the only one of the top 4 that couldn’t win the title heading into the final round in 2007 and he’ll be looking to go better this season. He’ll have to beat his team-mate to do it and that could be his toughest challenge of all.
He’s been the most vocal about his chances in 2008 and he obviously feels that Ferrari have a significant advantage to fulfil his ambitions of becoming World Champion.
McLaren
2007 was a year to forget for McLaren. On the track, they should have won both titles. They walked away with none. There was a very public spat between Hamilton and Alonso, which led to Alonso’s departure after just 1 season.
Off the track, things aren’t great. They have to deal with a massive fine, speculation around Ron Dennis and his future and investigations by Italian police. The fine, in particular, could have an effect on team performance whether it is at the start of the season or during development as the season progresses.
During testing, they looked pretty good. McLaren feel that they can rival Ferrari this season and make it a 4 way fight for the title. I would say they would have to do something seriously wrong to not be at least within a tenth or two behind Ferrari.
Hamilton
I must admit, as you’ll see at the end of the preview, I didn’t rate Hamilton’s chances of fighting for the title last season. I even questioned whether he’d win a race. He proved me wrong and despite some inexperience in a few races and at the end of the season, he has proved himself a race winner and a serious Championship contender.
He does have to be wary of 2nd season syndrome. He has worked very hard in preseason and he may have to work harder to win races as I believe Ferrari will have an advantage, however slight it may be.
Kovalainen
As I predicted, he showed Fisichella up and was Renault’s main threat last season. That form has not gone unnoticed and with Alonso vacating a spot, Kovalainen has been snapped up by McLaren.
It might be a tough season for Kovalainen. Beating Fisichella was fairly simple but beating Hamilton may be a trickier task. The first few races may be more of an acclimatisation period but he’ll have to start getting near Hamilton around the middle to show he really deserves to be at the front. I think he’ll need something to go his way to win a race or two this season.
BMW
BMW were a solid 3rd place (2nd if you count McLaren’s points loss) but my main issue with them last season was that they never really got close to closing the gap between them, Ferrari and McLaren. That indicates to me that they are making similar gains or that they aren’t developing well enough.
For the new season, they claim to have designed a car with forgiving handling but all signs out of testing have been that have struggled for pace and talk of needing time to unlock potential. This doesn’t sit well with me and I can see the teams behind them swallowing them up instead of them breaking out for race wins.
Heidfeld
Despite doing a good job for the majority of last season, his place was not as safe as Kubica. They seemed to be linked to a number of drivers to replace him but he managed to secure a place for 2008.
His job for the new season is the same as last season. Improve this BMW car and beat Kubica. It’s going to be a tougher job as Kubica gets more experience and with the teams below improving seemingly more than BMW, getting a potential 5th place in the Drivers Championship is going to be a real scrap.
Kubica
Put simply, he has to start getting closer to Heidfeld. It was a difficult 2007 for Kubica as he crashed heavily in Canada resulting in him missing the US Grand Prix. His race form was up and down all season despite qualifying fairly consistently. The races are where you earn your money and this is where he has to raise his game. I don’t think he’ll survive if he has another season where Heidfeld out points him almost 2 to 1.
Renault
Renault is very much like Benetton and Ferrari in the Schumacher era. Without someone to build a car around, they don’t look like much of a force. Last season, they should have been challenging BMW at least but, on the whole, they didn’t do it. Fisichella looked well and truly beaten and only Kovalainen looked any kind of threat.
Renault seem reasonably happy with their car but Alonso keeps claiming that they need almost half a second to challenge. Renault just needs to get back up to 3rd in the Constructors before they start thinking about winning again but they are well known for working within a budget that does not compare to the big spenders.
Alonso
Renault’s prodigal son returns after a rather torrid year where he did end up getting beaten by his rookie team-mate. He also showed his true colours and it has tarnished his reputation. He wants to be the team leader and he doesn’t want anyone to stand in his way. McLaren have always had a no team leader policy but Renault are more than happy to bend over backwards to accommodate Alonso’s ego.
What can we expect from Alonso this season? I think he’ll have an easier ride as I don’t think Piquet Jnr will give him too much to worry about. He’ll definitely be racing for 5th place but Kovalainen may be a target he can reach. He should just knuckle down and start showing once again why he’s a 2 time World Champion.
Piquet Jnr
Piquet Jnr, I think, has benefited from Alonso’s arrival. Renault wants a fairly cheap driver who will do a solid job. He’s not there to rock the boat. He’s obviously seen as less of a risk of upsetting Alonso than Kovalainen is and if he can get close to Alonso without beating him, I think Renault will be pleased. He’ll be racing a number of drivers to be best of the rest and could get lost in the shuffle.
Williams
It looks like Williams are finally starting to get it right. They’ve had a torrid time since they lost Renault engines back in 1998. It picked up a bit with the BMW partnership but when they split, it was back to the doldrums. They didn’t have a great deal of pace and kept making statements of them throwing hundreds of pieces at the car in the hope they find some pace.
By the end of the 2007 season, they looked threatening, particularly to BMW. The noises out of the team are hugely positive. They feel they’ve made a big step and are delighted to have kept hold of Rosberg, who is their prize asset at the moment. They should be the biggest improvers of 2008 and should be battling for the 3rd best team along with a lot of other teams.
Rosberg
Rosberg has really showed why he is so highly rated by a number of teams. His qualifying performances were of the highest order and constantly showed up Wurz for pace. There isn’t really a great deal of pressure on Rosberg’s shoulders and I think qualifying pace will equal race pace in this new Williams, so he could be in for a great year.
Nakajima
I must admit, I was slightly concerned when Nakajima was thrust into the Williams car at the end of the season but he kept his nose relatively clean and did a solid job. Now he gets a chance for a whole season and I’m interested to see where he’ll end up. Theoretically, he should be at the back of a big group but I don’t mind being proved wrong.
For those not sure what Nakajima’s pedigree is, he is a former Formula Toyota Champion, 2 seasons of Japanese Formula 3 with a best finish of 2nd, 1 season of European Formula 3 finishing 7th and 1 season of GP2 where he finished 5th and got rookie of the year.
Red Bull
2007 was a tough season for Red Bull. Newey cars are notoriously quick but fragile. Good qualifying performances usually resulted in non finishes and despite improvements with reliability in the 2nd half of the season, it was all a little too late and they couldn’t get above Williams.
Red Bull’s season will be defined in the first third of the season. If they have cars dropping off the track on a regular basis because of reliability issues, they could find themselves stuck in the position they finished in 2007. The potential speed of the car is enough to get excited about but it could mean nothing if they can’t get to the chequered flag.
Webber
Webber had to endure a horrible season. He qualified a lot of times in the top 10, only to get 3 points finishes and 7 retirements. Anyone watching the live show at the Japanese Grand Prix will remember his hilarious outburst at Vettel. A high point was a 3rd place in the rain affected race at the Nurburgring.
Webber has nothing to prove really. He was beating Coulthard in qualifying on a regular basis and really suffered with non finishes. He somehow managed to finish with fewer points than Coulthard. All Webber has to do is keep qualifying ahead of Coulthard and hope the car stays together to score some points.
Coulthard
Coulthard is very nearly at the end of his career. He makes his money in the races where he does a solid job and scores points regularly when his car survives. It’s difficult to guess what his season’s expectations are. Is he competing to beat Webber or is he there to improve the team and score points? Maybe a combination of all 3? Whatever his ambitions are, he’ll need all his racing ability as qualifying has been an Achilles heel for him for a number of years now.
Toyota
Toyota are well and truly in the doldrums. Trulli and Ralf Schumacher did little to inspire confidence and a series of poor performances have had to lead to a major rethink. Ralf Schumacher is gone and about time too as he looked more interesting in collecting his pay check than fighting and clawing to be the best.
The management aren’t happy either. With the powers that be unhappy with major underachieving, they have threatened to pull the plug on the Toyota F1 project. Rumours abound about maybe 2009 being their last season and if 2008 is the same as 2007, it could be the end for them sooner.
Testing has been encouraging though. They topped the timesheets at a recent test to the surprise of many, including the driver who did the time, Trulli. One thing is for certain, improvement must come and it must come now.
Trulli
Trulli has survived the changes and I would think it’s down to his qualifying form. It can’t keep going on like that though. Sooner or later, Trulli has to step up and show his true race pace on a more regular basis. Time after time, Trulli gets a good qualifying spot only to give it all up in the race.
With F1 bubble boy Glock in the 2nd seat at Toyota, Trulli has to step up and show who is number 1. It’s a crucial season, as I can’t see poor performances being tolerated as the pressure steps up.
Glock
Glock hasn’t been seen in F1 since 2004 where he drove 4 races for Jordan and got a couple of points for his efforts. After a season in Champ Car, he spent 2 seasons in GP2 where he won the title last season. He’s got his chance but he has a lot more pressure on his shoulders than some of the other first full timers on the grid. That could be a telling factor on whether he succeeds or not.
Toro Rosso
Red Bull’s second team have decided to run a revised 2007 car (the 2007 Red Bull to be exact) early in the season with the new car coming later. Teams that do that, particularly those at the back, usually struggle and with the new rules, reliability could be a major problem. It all depends on how good the revised 2007 car is. If the 2007 car exceeds expectations, they may run it for the whole season if the new car doesn’t work as well.
Toro Rosso, although they won’t say it, is a proving ground for the Red Bull team and it would seem that a seat in the Red Bull could very well be up for grabs for 2009. It will probably be the one who can make the most of a bad situation. Toro Rosso shouldn’t be anywhere near its big brother.
Vettel
Vettel is young, has talent and has driven one of the better cars on the grid after driving the BMW for a few races. It’s a key season as he is racing alongside an open wheel champion who doesn’t have a lot of experience in Formula 1. I think this battle could be one of the more interesting on the grid but Toro Rosso really need some help to score points.
Bourdais
This has been what Bourdais has been waiting a while for, a chance to drive in Formula 1. What I didn’t know but found out recently was that Bourdais was going to drive for Arrows and then they went bust.
Bourdais has impressive open wheel pedigree. He’s a former Formula 3 Champion, an F3000 Champion and a 4 time Champ Car Champion in only 5 seasons of racing in that series. This is going to be an experience though. He’s racing a fast young driver and has a weighty reputation to uphold. I would like to see him do well but this could be a really hard season.
Honda
Honda couldn’t have had 2 totally contrasting seasons. 2006 was a really high point as they start showing some real pace and even get a race win and then 2007 was just the worst thing that could possibly have happened. In 2007, they weren’t just bad, they were horrific. Everyone was baffled by the poor pace, they were making setup changes and the changes didn’t make sense. They threw new bits and even a whole new chassis for only minor gains. They finally discovered that their wind tunnel was the problem (a long time after I said the wind tunnel was a problem) and they’ll now have to make the slow progression back into contention again.
The biggest move for Honda was the capture of Ross Brawn. It really is a big boost to a team low on confidence and they can see light at the end of a long dark tunnel. The one thing you can’t expect is immediate results. In theory, it could be 2 or 3 years before Honda are a potential race winning team again. 2008 looks like being at the back of the midfield runners and should be a good race with Toro Rosso.
Button
You can’t help but feel sorry for Button. Honda finally looked like making it a 3 way fight for wins and then mess it up with a 2007 car that left Button at the back of the grid, noticeably angry and disappointed. The appointment of Brawn has given him hope that he may fulfil his World Championship dream at Honda but he will have to be patient.
Button has got the measure of his team mate after an interesting early battle between them. Now he has to drive this team forward, show some form and maybe pick off some points if they become available. The removal of traction control should play right into his hands because he is one of the smoothest drivers on the grid.
Barrichello
Some Honda personnel were beginning to question whether Barrichello still had any fight left in him. He will be the most experienced driver ever to have driven in Formula 1 this season and he says he plans to race in 2009. I would personally be very surprised if he does drive in 2009 because, although I don’t want to be rude, I think 2007 was the beginning of a decline which is only going to get worse. I would love to be proved wrong.
Super Aguri
2007 was an amazing season for the team. They benefited from using a revised 2006 Honda and outperformed the Honda team on a number of occasions, scoring some points. However, they drifted out towards the back as teams started overtaking them in development.
The real reason became clear. Reports came out that their finances were not good. They had enough money to complete the 2007 season but the 2008 season would be a struggle. They got a new car together but had to abort a number of test sessions to save money and things were looking very bleak.
Their place on the grid is now secure after they bought out by the Magma Group, a British company. I had a quick look but I couldn’t find out much about what they did so if anyone out there knows, I’d be interested. The problem will be that Super Aguri have had limited testing. There will be a lot of gremlins and problems ahead and could spend most, if not all, the season at the back.
Sato
Sato had the better of his team mate for most of the season in 2007. All he can do is try to beat him more convincingly. I can’t see the team having a good season and they should be the worst team on the grid by perhaps a distance. If both cars finish, it will be a good battle, if anyone can be bothered to look at the back of the field.
Davidson
Davidson did okay in his first full season and with the experience now in the bag, he has to start challenging Sato on a regular basis. His testing experience will no doubt help the Super Aguri team progress but it will be his race performances that will be analysed.
Force India
When the Jordan team were sold, did anyone expect they would be bought out 2 more times? Jordan became Midland. Midland became Spyker. Spyker is now Force India. The funny thing is, despite all the changes, I like the look of this team. The team looks much more secure financially; they have a good team, particularly Mike Gascoyne. They have a mixture of youth and experience in their driver line up and I think this team are now on the up. They won’t be able to break into that congested battle for points but picking off a Honda or Toro Rosso should be well in sight.
Fisichella
I’m going to be really brutal here and ask ‘Why is this guy still in F1?’ I can’t understand it. In the last 2 seasons, he was brutally beaten by Alonso at Renault in his title winning season in which he got constantly berated over the radio by Flavio Briatore to speed up. He then gets beaten by rookie Kovalainen in 2007. He then has the audacity to claim that Renault should have signed him up for 2008!
I’m going to continue to be really nasty and say that I hope Sutil blows him away on the track. I can’t tolerate drivers that don’t cut it and don’t look like they are trying. I was very cruel about Ralf Schumacher as well last season and I’ll continue to be cruel about Fisichella until he shows me to wrong.
Sutil
To say he is rough around the edges would be an understatement but there is a diamond here. Sutil has talent and he was linked to a few drives, even some high profile ones. I hope he succeeds at Force India and I hope Sutil beats Fisichella and eliminates his mistakes. He could be one for the future.
So, there are the drivers and teams competing this season. Before I get to my predictions for 2008, here are my 2007 predictions:
2007 Constructors Championship
1st Ferrari – finished 1st
2nd McLaren – deducted all their points
3rd BMW – finished 2nd
4th Renault – finished 3rd
5th Red Bull – finished 5th
6th Honda – finished 8th
7th Toyota – finished 6th
8th Williams – finished 4th
9th Super Aguri – finished 9th
10th Toro Rosso – finished 7th
11th Spyker – finished 10th
There is no way I could have foreseen McLaren losing all their points, so take them out of the equation. Without the points deduction McLaren would have won the Constructors Championship. I had Williams and Toro Rosso too low and Honda too high but other than that, I did quite well.
2007 Drivers top 5
1st Raikkonen – finished 1st
2nd Alonso – finished 3rd
3rd Massa – finished 4th
4th Hamilton – finished 2nd
5th Heidfeld – finished 5th
I underestimated the Hamilton factor and I just couldn’t see him beating Massa, let alone Alonso and missing the title by a point.
Here are my predictions for the 2008 season. Feel free to make your own.
Constructors Championship
1st Ferrari
2nd McLaren
3rd BMW
4th Renault
5th Red Bull
6th Williams
7th Toyota
8th Honda
9th Toro Rosso
10th Force India
11th Super Aguri
With my midfield congestion theory, I’ve played it safe and gone with BMW in 3rd and Renault 4th but Red Bull, Williams or even Toyota could have a shot.
Drivers top 5
1st Raikkonen
2nd Massa
3rd Hamilton
4th Kovalainen
5th Alonso
I’m going boring with my top 5. I think Raikkonen will get the better of Massa and I think Hamilton will have a tougher time. Alonso will beat Heidfeld for 5th I think.
I’m looking forward to a fantastic season of F1 racing and I hope you’ve enjoyed my preview to the new season.
Thanks for reading
Grandprix
Let’s begin by looking at where the teams will be travelling to in the 2008 season.
Australia – 16th March
Malaysia – 23rd March
Bahrain – 6th April
Spain – 27th April
Turkey – 11th May
Monaco – 25th May
Canada – 8th June
France – 22nd June
Britain – 8th July
Germany – 20th July
Hungary – 3rd August
Europe – 24th August
Belgium – 7th September
Italy – 14th September
Singapore – 28th September
Japan –12th October
China – 19th October
Brazil – 2nd November
There are 18 races this year, up from the 17 last year. The big omission is the USA Grand Prix, which didn’t get its contract renewed. It does leave Canada a bit exposed in the middle of the European rounds and I, personally, am not a fan of the track and even less so after the tarmac fiasco. It’s a late end to the season with Brazil being the last round in November.
After San Marino was dropped, a big gap needed to be filled. Spain has moved to fill the gap with Turkey moving from August to May to complete the filling process. Turkey’s place in August has been filled with a new venue, Valencia, which has now taken the European Grand Prix label.
Another new venue on the F1 scene is Singapore, which will see the first ever F1 night race. If everything goes well, we could see more night races in the future, with Malaysia one of the countries interested.
In the circuit rotation, Hockenheim is now the German Grand Prix for 2008 with the Nurburgring getting it back in 2009 and Fuji is still the Japanese Grand Prix with Suzuka still waiting in the wings.
I’m looking forward to being at Silverstone for all 3 days this year and if you are lucky ducks, maybe I’ll let you all know what it was like.
One of the rules for 2008 has been a major discussion of many drivers in Formula 1. It would be the removal of traction control and its sister electronic, launch control. The major talking point has been keeping the car on the road during wet conditions. Coulthard has been the most vocal when it comes to wet weather racing without traction control. The drivers will certainly be earning their money in wet conditions.
Along with the removal of traction control and launch control, the cars have now got standard ECU so the FIA can monitor all the teams’ electronics. Engines still have to last 2 races and the teams will be penalised if they are changed before they have fulfilled their 2 races. It will be 10 places if it has to be changed before qualifying or to the back of the grid if changed after qualifying. However, each driver gets 1 free change for the season but they aren’t allowed to do that at the final round.
Gearboxes have to last 4 races with every unscheduled change results in a loss of 5 places on the grid. If it fails in a race, they can change without penalty. The cockpit sides are slightly more padded and are higher to give better protection. Each team will also be biofuel compliant. Almost 6% of the fuel will contain biomatter. Interesting, no?
There has also been a change to the qualifying arrangement. The first part of qualifying is now 20 minutes long and the final part is now only 10 minutes. The reason for the drop in time in the final part is that the cars will have to race with what they have in their cars at the end of qualifying so there will be no more fuel burning phase upsetting environmentalists.
It’s not really a rule change but the full wet tyres will now have a white stripe on it so that everyone knows what type of wet tyre is being used.
That’s the background for the new season and it’s now time to look at the teams and drivers competing for the Championships this season and a brief description of how well they’ll do in my opinion. If you want to look at the cars before the new season starts, I’ve posted links to pictures in the 2008 F1 Season thread.
Ferrari
Ferrari were gifted the Constructors Championship after the exclusion of McLaren in the whole Stepneygate affair. I’m not going to go in a description of that whole mess, unless you really want me to.
Ferrari had the best car in 2007 at the majority of the events but McLaren pushed them hard. All the talk seems to be that Ferrari will walk to the title but I think McLaren are fairly close. I do believe that Ferrari will have to make mistakes to lose the title.
Raikkonen
He is going to be the man to beat for the new season. He pinched the title last season as the perfect scenario happened and won by a point. I won’t go into the whole fuel freezing thing as it’s pointless.
Anyway, Raikkonen had the better of Massa in most of the races although Massa seemed to have the edge in qualifying. Whether that is because Raikkonen had more fuel doesn’t matter. Raikkonen will have to work hard to keep the title as Massa should only get better for the new season. Raikkonen will be the favourite to make it back to back titles.
Massa
Massa was the only one of the top 4 that couldn’t win the title heading into the final round in 2007 and he’ll be looking to go better this season. He’ll have to beat his team-mate to do it and that could be his toughest challenge of all.
He’s been the most vocal about his chances in 2008 and he obviously feels that Ferrari have a significant advantage to fulfil his ambitions of becoming World Champion.
McLaren
2007 was a year to forget for McLaren. On the track, they should have won both titles. They walked away with none. There was a very public spat between Hamilton and Alonso, which led to Alonso’s departure after just 1 season.
Off the track, things aren’t great. They have to deal with a massive fine, speculation around Ron Dennis and his future and investigations by Italian police. The fine, in particular, could have an effect on team performance whether it is at the start of the season or during development as the season progresses.
During testing, they looked pretty good. McLaren feel that they can rival Ferrari this season and make it a 4 way fight for the title. I would say they would have to do something seriously wrong to not be at least within a tenth or two behind Ferrari.
Hamilton
I must admit, as you’ll see at the end of the preview, I didn’t rate Hamilton’s chances of fighting for the title last season. I even questioned whether he’d win a race. He proved me wrong and despite some inexperience in a few races and at the end of the season, he has proved himself a race winner and a serious Championship contender.
He does have to be wary of 2nd season syndrome. He has worked very hard in preseason and he may have to work harder to win races as I believe Ferrari will have an advantage, however slight it may be.
Kovalainen
As I predicted, he showed Fisichella up and was Renault’s main threat last season. That form has not gone unnoticed and with Alonso vacating a spot, Kovalainen has been snapped up by McLaren.
It might be a tough season for Kovalainen. Beating Fisichella was fairly simple but beating Hamilton may be a trickier task. The first few races may be more of an acclimatisation period but he’ll have to start getting near Hamilton around the middle to show he really deserves to be at the front. I think he’ll need something to go his way to win a race or two this season.
BMW
BMW were a solid 3rd place (2nd if you count McLaren’s points loss) but my main issue with them last season was that they never really got close to closing the gap between them, Ferrari and McLaren. That indicates to me that they are making similar gains or that they aren’t developing well enough.
For the new season, they claim to have designed a car with forgiving handling but all signs out of testing have been that have struggled for pace and talk of needing time to unlock potential. This doesn’t sit well with me and I can see the teams behind them swallowing them up instead of them breaking out for race wins.
Heidfeld
Despite doing a good job for the majority of last season, his place was not as safe as Kubica. They seemed to be linked to a number of drivers to replace him but he managed to secure a place for 2008.
His job for the new season is the same as last season. Improve this BMW car and beat Kubica. It’s going to be a tougher job as Kubica gets more experience and with the teams below improving seemingly more than BMW, getting a potential 5th place in the Drivers Championship is going to be a real scrap.
Kubica
Put simply, he has to start getting closer to Heidfeld. It was a difficult 2007 for Kubica as he crashed heavily in Canada resulting in him missing the US Grand Prix. His race form was up and down all season despite qualifying fairly consistently. The races are where you earn your money and this is where he has to raise his game. I don’t think he’ll survive if he has another season where Heidfeld out points him almost 2 to 1.
Renault
Renault is very much like Benetton and Ferrari in the Schumacher era. Without someone to build a car around, they don’t look like much of a force. Last season, they should have been challenging BMW at least but, on the whole, they didn’t do it. Fisichella looked well and truly beaten and only Kovalainen looked any kind of threat.
Renault seem reasonably happy with their car but Alonso keeps claiming that they need almost half a second to challenge. Renault just needs to get back up to 3rd in the Constructors before they start thinking about winning again but they are well known for working within a budget that does not compare to the big spenders.
Alonso
Renault’s prodigal son returns after a rather torrid year where he did end up getting beaten by his rookie team-mate. He also showed his true colours and it has tarnished his reputation. He wants to be the team leader and he doesn’t want anyone to stand in his way. McLaren have always had a no team leader policy but Renault are more than happy to bend over backwards to accommodate Alonso’s ego.
What can we expect from Alonso this season? I think he’ll have an easier ride as I don’t think Piquet Jnr will give him too much to worry about. He’ll definitely be racing for 5th place but Kovalainen may be a target he can reach. He should just knuckle down and start showing once again why he’s a 2 time World Champion.
Piquet Jnr
Piquet Jnr, I think, has benefited from Alonso’s arrival. Renault wants a fairly cheap driver who will do a solid job. He’s not there to rock the boat. He’s obviously seen as less of a risk of upsetting Alonso than Kovalainen is and if he can get close to Alonso without beating him, I think Renault will be pleased. He’ll be racing a number of drivers to be best of the rest and could get lost in the shuffle.
Williams
It looks like Williams are finally starting to get it right. They’ve had a torrid time since they lost Renault engines back in 1998. It picked up a bit with the BMW partnership but when they split, it was back to the doldrums. They didn’t have a great deal of pace and kept making statements of them throwing hundreds of pieces at the car in the hope they find some pace.
By the end of the 2007 season, they looked threatening, particularly to BMW. The noises out of the team are hugely positive. They feel they’ve made a big step and are delighted to have kept hold of Rosberg, who is their prize asset at the moment. They should be the biggest improvers of 2008 and should be battling for the 3rd best team along with a lot of other teams.
Rosberg
Rosberg has really showed why he is so highly rated by a number of teams. His qualifying performances were of the highest order and constantly showed up Wurz for pace. There isn’t really a great deal of pressure on Rosberg’s shoulders and I think qualifying pace will equal race pace in this new Williams, so he could be in for a great year.
Nakajima
I must admit, I was slightly concerned when Nakajima was thrust into the Williams car at the end of the season but he kept his nose relatively clean and did a solid job. Now he gets a chance for a whole season and I’m interested to see where he’ll end up. Theoretically, he should be at the back of a big group but I don’t mind being proved wrong.
For those not sure what Nakajima’s pedigree is, he is a former Formula Toyota Champion, 2 seasons of Japanese Formula 3 with a best finish of 2nd, 1 season of European Formula 3 finishing 7th and 1 season of GP2 where he finished 5th and got rookie of the year.
Red Bull
2007 was a tough season for Red Bull. Newey cars are notoriously quick but fragile. Good qualifying performances usually resulted in non finishes and despite improvements with reliability in the 2nd half of the season, it was all a little too late and they couldn’t get above Williams.
Red Bull’s season will be defined in the first third of the season. If they have cars dropping off the track on a regular basis because of reliability issues, they could find themselves stuck in the position they finished in 2007. The potential speed of the car is enough to get excited about but it could mean nothing if they can’t get to the chequered flag.
Webber
Webber had to endure a horrible season. He qualified a lot of times in the top 10, only to get 3 points finishes and 7 retirements. Anyone watching the live show at the Japanese Grand Prix will remember his hilarious outburst at Vettel. A high point was a 3rd place in the rain affected race at the Nurburgring.
Webber has nothing to prove really. He was beating Coulthard in qualifying on a regular basis and really suffered with non finishes. He somehow managed to finish with fewer points than Coulthard. All Webber has to do is keep qualifying ahead of Coulthard and hope the car stays together to score some points.
Coulthard
Coulthard is very nearly at the end of his career. He makes his money in the races where he does a solid job and scores points regularly when his car survives. It’s difficult to guess what his season’s expectations are. Is he competing to beat Webber or is he there to improve the team and score points? Maybe a combination of all 3? Whatever his ambitions are, he’ll need all his racing ability as qualifying has been an Achilles heel for him for a number of years now.
Toyota
Toyota are well and truly in the doldrums. Trulli and Ralf Schumacher did little to inspire confidence and a series of poor performances have had to lead to a major rethink. Ralf Schumacher is gone and about time too as he looked more interesting in collecting his pay check than fighting and clawing to be the best.
The management aren’t happy either. With the powers that be unhappy with major underachieving, they have threatened to pull the plug on the Toyota F1 project. Rumours abound about maybe 2009 being their last season and if 2008 is the same as 2007, it could be the end for them sooner.
Testing has been encouraging though. They topped the timesheets at a recent test to the surprise of many, including the driver who did the time, Trulli. One thing is for certain, improvement must come and it must come now.
Trulli
Trulli has survived the changes and I would think it’s down to his qualifying form. It can’t keep going on like that though. Sooner or later, Trulli has to step up and show his true race pace on a more regular basis. Time after time, Trulli gets a good qualifying spot only to give it all up in the race.
With F1 bubble boy Glock in the 2nd seat at Toyota, Trulli has to step up and show who is number 1. It’s a crucial season, as I can’t see poor performances being tolerated as the pressure steps up.
Glock
Glock hasn’t been seen in F1 since 2004 where he drove 4 races for Jordan and got a couple of points for his efforts. After a season in Champ Car, he spent 2 seasons in GP2 where he won the title last season. He’s got his chance but he has a lot more pressure on his shoulders than some of the other first full timers on the grid. That could be a telling factor on whether he succeeds or not.
Toro Rosso
Red Bull’s second team have decided to run a revised 2007 car (the 2007 Red Bull to be exact) early in the season with the new car coming later. Teams that do that, particularly those at the back, usually struggle and with the new rules, reliability could be a major problem. It all depends on how good the revised 2007 car is. If the 2007 car exceeds expectations, they may run it for the whole season if the new car doesn’t work as well.
Toro Rosso, although they won’t say it, is a proving ground for the Red Bull team and it would seem that a seat in the Red Bull could very well be up for grabs for 2009. It will probably be the one who can make the most of a bad situation. Toro Rosso shouldn’t be anywhere near its big brother.
Vettel
Vettel is young, has talent and has driven one of the better cars on the grid after driving the BMW for a few races. It’s a key season as he is racing alongside an open wheel champion who doesn’t have a lot of experience in Formula 1. I think this battle could be one of the more interesting on the grid but Toro Rosso really need some help to score points.
Bourdais
This has been what Bourdais has been waiting a while for, a chance to drive in Formula 1. What I didn’t know but found out recently was that Bourdais was going to drive for Arrows and then they went bust.
Bourdais has impressive open wheel pedigree. He’s a former Formula 3 Champion, an F3000 Champion and a 4 time Champ Car Champion in only 5 seasons of racing in that series. This is going to be an experience though. He’s racing a fast young driver and has a weighty reputation to uphold. I would like to see him do well but this could be a really hard season.
Honda
Honda couldn’t have had 2 totally contrasting seasons. 2006 was a really high point as they start showing some real pace and even get a race win and then 2007 was just the worst thing that could possibly have happened. In 2007, they weren’t just bad, they were horrific. Everyone was baffled by the poor pace, they were making setup changes and the changes didn’t make sense. They threw new bits and even a whole new chassis for only minor gains. They finally discovered that their wind tunnel was the problem (a long time after I said the wind tunnel was a problem) and they’ll now have to make the slow progression back into contention again.
The biggest move for Honda was the capture of Ross Brawn. It really is a big boost to a team low on confidence and they can see light at the end of a long dark tunnel. The one thing you can’t expect is immediate results. In theory, it could be 2 or 3 years before Honda are a potential race winning team again. 2008 looks like being at the back of the midfield runners and should be a good race with Toro Rosso.
Button
You can’t help but feel sorry for Button. Honda finally looked like making it a 3 way fight for wins and then mess it up with a 2007 car that left Button at the back of the grid, noticeably angry and disappointed. The appointment of Brawn has given him hope that he may fulfil his World Championship dream at Honda but he will have to be patient.
Button has got the measure of his team mate after an interesting early battle between them. Now he has to drive this team forward, show some form and maybe pick off some points if they become available. The removal of traction control should play right into his hands because he is one of the smoothest drivers on the grid.
Barrichello
Some Honda personnel were beginning to question whether Barrichello still had any fight left in him. He will be the most experienced driver ever to have driven in Formula 1 this season and he says he plans to race in 2009. I would personally be very surprised if he does drive in 2009 because, although I don’t want to be rude, I think 2007 was the beginning of a decline which is only going to get worse. I would love to be proved wrong.
Super Aguri
2007 was an amazing season for the team. They benefited from using a revised 2006 Honda and outperformed the Honda team on a number of occasions, scoring some points. However, they drifted out towards the back as teams started overtaking them in development.
The real reason became clear. Reports came out that their finances were not good. They had enough money to complete the 2007 season but the 2008 season would be a struggle. They got a new car together but had to abort a number of test sessions to save money and things were looking very bleak.
Their place on the grid is now secure after they bought out by the Magma Group, a British company. I had a quick look but I couldn’t find out much about what they did so if anyone out there knows, I’d be interested. The problem will be that Super Aguri have had limited testing. There will be a lot of gremlins and problems ahead and could spend most, if not all, the season at the back.
Sato
Sato had the better of his team mate for most of the season in 2007. All he can do is try to beat him more convincingly. I can’t see the team having a good season and they should be the worst team on the grid by perhaps a distance. If both cars finish, it will be a good battle, if anyone can be bothered to look at the back of the field.
Davidson
Davidson did okay in his first full season and with the experience now in the bag, he has to start challenging Sato on a regular basis. His testing experience will no doubt help the Super Aguri team progress but it will be his race performances that will be analysed.
Force India
When the Jordan team were sold, did anyone expect they would be bought out 2 more times? Jordan became Midland. Midland became Spyker. Spyker is now Force India. The funny thing is, despite all the changes, I like the look of this team. The team looks much more secure financially; they have a good team, particularly Mike Gascoyne. They have a mixture of youth and experience in their driver line up and I think this team are now on the up. They won’t be able to break into that congested battle for points but picking off a Honda or Toro Rosso should be well in sight.
Fisichella
I’m going to be really brutal here and ask ‘Why is this guy still in F1?’ I can’t understand it. In the last 2 seasons, he was brutally beaten by Alonso at Renault in his title winning season in which he got constantly berated over the radio by Flavio Briatore to speed up. He then gets beaten by rookie Kovalainen in 2007. He then has the audacity to claim that Renault should have signed him up for 2008!
I’m going to continue to be really nasty and say that I hope Sutil blows him away on the track. I can’t tolerate drivers that don’t cut it and don’t look like they are trying. I was very cruel about Ralf Schumacher as well last season and I’ll continue to be cruel about Fisichella until he shows me to wrong.
Sutil
To say he is rough around the edges would be an understatement but there is a diamond here. Sutil has talent and he was linked to a few drives, even some high profile ones. I hope he succeeds at Force India and I hope Sutil beats Fisichella and eliminates his mistakes. He could be one for the future.
So, there are the drivers and teams competing this season. Before I get to my predictions for 2008, here are my 2007 predictions:
2007 Constructors Championship
1st Ferrari – finished 1st
2nd McLaren – deducted all their points
3rd BMW – finished 2nd
4th Renault – finished 3rd
5th Red Bull – finished 5th
6th Honda – finished 8th
7th Toyota – finished 6th
8th Williams – finished 4th
9th Super Aguri – finished 9th
10th Toro Rosso – finished 7th
11th Spyker – finished 10th
There is no way I could have foreseen McLaren losing all their points, so take them out of the equation. Without the points deduction McLaren would have won the Constructors Championship. I had Williams and Toro Rosso too low and Honda too high but other than that, I did quite well.
2007 Drivers top 5
1st Raikkonen – finished 1st
2nd Alonso – finished 3rd
3rd Massa – finished 4th
4th Hamilton – finished 2nd
5th Heidfeld – finished 5th
I underestimated the Hamilton factor and I just couldn’t see him beating Massa, let alone Alonso and missing the title by a point.
Here are my predictions for the 2008 season. Feel free to make your own.
Constructors Championship
1st Ferrari
2nd McLaren
3rd BMW
4th Renault
5th Red Bull
6th Williams
7th Toyota
8th Honda
9th Toro Rosso
10th Force India
11th Super Aguri
With my midfield congestion theory, I’ve played it safe and gone with BMW in 3rd and Renault 4th but Red Bull, Williams or even Toyota could have a shot.
Drivers top 5
1st Raikkonen
2nd Massa
3rd Hamilton
4th Kovalainen
5th Alonso
I’m going boring with my top 5. I think Raikkonen will get the better of Massa and I think Hamilton will have a tougher time. Alonso will beat Heidfeld for 5th I think.
I’m looking forward to a fantastic season of F1 racing and I hope you’ve enjoyed my preview to the new season.
Thanks for reading
Grandprix
Hello and welcome to Grandprix’s preview of the new F1 season. It’s that time of the year again when all will be revealed after a lot of potentially misleading testing results. In this preview, I will run through some changes for the new season, have a look at the teams and drivers for 2008, make some predictions and see how I did with my predictions for last year. Beware: IT’S LONG!!
Let’s begin by looking at where the teams will be travelling to in the 2008 season.
Australia – 16th March
Malaysia – 23rd March
Bahrain – 6th April
Spain – 27th April
Turkey – 11th May
Monaco – 25th May
Canada – 8th June
France – 22nd June
Britain – 8th July
Germany – 20th July
Hungary – 3rd August
Europe – 24th August
Belgium – 7th September
Italy – 14th September
Singapore – 28th September
Japan –12th October
China – 19th October
Brazil – 2nd November
There are 18 races this year, up from the 17 last year. The big omission is the USA Grand Prix, which didn’t get its contract renewed. It does leave Canada a bit exposed in the middle of the European rounds and I, personally, am not a fan of the track and even less so after the tarmac fiasco. It’s a late end to the season with Brazil being the last round in November.
After San Marino was dropped, a big gap needed to be filled. Spain has moved to fill the gap with Turkey moving from August to May to complete the filling process. Turkey’s place in August has been filled with a new venue, Valencia, which has now taken the European Grand Prix label.
Another new venue on the F1 scene is Singapore, which will see the first ever F1 night race. If everything goes well, we could see more night races in the future, with Malaysia one of the countries interested.
In the circuit rotation, Hockenheim is now the German Grand Prix for 2008 with the Nurburgring getting it back in 2009 and Fuji is still the Japanese Grand Prix with Suzuka still waiting in the wings.
I’m looking forward to being at Silverstone for all 3 days this year and if you are lucky ducks, maybe I’ll let you all know what it was like.
One of the rules for 2008 has been a major discussion of many drivers in Formula 1. It would be the removal of traction control and its sister electronic, launch control. The major talking point has been keeping the car on the road during wet conditions. Coulthard has been the most vocal when it comes to wet weather racing without traction control. The drivers will certainly be earning their money in wet conditions.
Along with the removal of traction control and launch control, the cars have now got standard ECU so the FIA can monitor all the teams’ electronics. Engines still have to last 2 races and the teams will be penalised if they are changed before they have fulfilled their 2 races. It will be 10 places if it has to be changed before qualifying or to the back of the grid if changed after qualifying. However, each driver gets 1 free change for the season but they aren’t allowed to do that at the final round.
Gearboxes have to last 4 races with every unscheduled change results in a loss of 5 places on the grid. If it fails in a race, they can change without penalty. The cockpit sides are slightly more padded and are higher to give better protection. Each team will also be biofuel compliant. Almost 6% of the fuel will contain biomatter. Interesting, no?
There has also been a change to the qualifying arrangement. The first part of qualifying is now 20 minutes long and the final part is now only 10 minutes. The reason for the drop in time in the final part is that the cars will have to race with what they have in their cars at the end of qualifying so there will be no more fuel burning phase upsetting environmentalists.
It’s not really a rule change but the full wet tyres will now have a white stripe on it so that everyone knows what type of wet tyre is being used.
That’s the background for the new season and it’s now time to look at the teams and drivers competing for the Championships this season and a brief description of how well they’ll do in my opinion. If you want to look at the cars before the new season starts, I’ve posted links to pictures in the 2008 F1 Season thread.
Ferrari
Ferrari were gifted the Constructors Championship after the exclusion of McLaren in the whole Stepneygate affair. I’m not going to go in a description of that whole mess, unless you really want me to.
Ferrari had the best car in 2007 at the majority of the events but McLaren pushed them hard. All the talk seems to be that Ferrari will walk to the title but I think McLaren are fairly close. I do believe that Ferrari will have to make mistakes to lose the title.
Raikkonen
He is going to be the man to beat for the new season. He pinched the title last season as the perfect scenario happened and won by a point. I won’t go into the whole fuel freezing thing as it’s pointless.
Anyway, Raikkonen had the better of Massa in most of the races although Massa seemed to have the edge in qualifying. Whether that is because Raikkonen had more fuel doesn’t matter. Raikkonen will have to work hard to keep the title as Massa should only get better for the new season. Raikkonen will be the favourite to make it back to back titles.
Massa
Massa was the only one of the top 4 that couldn’t win the title heading into the final round in 2007 and he’ll be looking to go better this season. He’ll have to beat his team-mate to do it and that could be his toughest challenge of all.
He’s been the most vocal about his chances in 2008 and he obviously feels that Ferrari have a significant advantage to fulfil his ambitions of becoming World Champion.
McLaren
2007 was a year to forget for McLaren. On the track, they should have won both titles. They walked away with none. There was a very public spat between Hamilton and Alonso, which led to Alonso’s departure after just 1 season.
Off the track, things aren’t great. They have to deal with a massive fine, speculation around Ron Dennis and his future and investigations by Italian police. The fine, in particular, could have an effect on team performance whether it is at the start of the season or during development as the season progresses.
During testing, they looked pretty good. McLaren feel that they can rival Ferrari this season and make it a 4 way fight for the title. I would say they would have to do something seriously wrong to not be at least within a tenth or two behind Ferrari.
Hamilton
I must admit, as you’ll see at the end of the preview, I didn’t rate Hamilton’s chances of fighting for the title last season. I even questioned whether he’d win a race. He proved me wrong and despite some inexperience in a few races and at the end of the season, he has proved himself a race winner and a serious Championship contender.
He does have to be wary of 2nd season syndrome. He has worked very hard in preseason and he may have to work harder to win races as I believe Ferrari will have an advantage, however slight it may be.
Kovalainen
As I predicted, he showed Fisichella up and was Renault’s main threat last season. That form has not gone unnoticed and with Alonso vacating a spot, Kovalainen has been snapped up by McLaren.
It might be a tough season for Kovalainen. Beating Fisichella was fairly simple but beating Hamilton may be a trickier task. The first few races may be more of an acclimatisation period but he’ll have to start getting near Hamilton around the middle to show he really deserves to be at the front. I think he’ll need something to go his way to win a race or two this season.
BMW
BMW were a solid 3rd place (2nd if you count McLaren’s points loss) but my main issue with them last season was that they never really got close to closing the gap between them, Ferrari and McLaren. That indicates to me that they are making similar gains or that they aren’t developing well enough.
For the new season, they claim to have designed a car with forgiving handling but all signs out of testing have been that have struggled for pace and talk of needing time to unlock potential. This doesn’t sit well with me and I can see the teams behind them swallowing them up instead of them breaking out for race wins.
Heidfeld
Despite doing a good job for the majority of last season, his place was not as safe as Kubica. They seemed to be linked to a number of drivers to replace him but he managed to secure a place for 2008.
His job for the new season is the same as last season. Improve this BMW car and beat Kubica. It’s going to be a tougher job as Kubica gets more experience and with the teams below improving seemingly more than BMW, getting a potential 5th place in the Drivers Championship is going to be a real scrap.
Kubica
Put simply, he has to start getting closer to Heidfeld. It was a difficult 2007 for Kubica as he crashed heavily in Canada resulting in him missing the US Grand Prix. His race form was up and down all season despite qualifying fairly consistently. The races are where you earn your money and this is where he has to raise his game. I don’t think he’ll survive if he has another season where Heidfeld out points him almost 2 to 1.
Renault
Renault is very much like Benetton and Ferrari in the Schumacher era. Without someone to build a car around, they don’t look like much of a force. Last season, they should have been challenging BMW at least but, on the whole, they didn’t do it. Fisichella looked well and truly beaten and only Kovalainen looked any kind of threat.
Renault seem reasonably happy with their car but Alonso keeps claiming that they need almost half a second to challenge. Renault just needs to get back up to 3rd in the Constructors before they start thinking about winning again but they are well known for working within a budget that does not compare to the big spenders.
Alonso
Renault’s prodigal son returns after a rather torrid year where he did end up getting beaten by his rookie team-mate. He also showed his true colours and it has tarnished his reputation. He wants to be the team leader and he doesn’t want anyone to stand in his way. McLaren have always had a no team leader policy but Renault are more than happy to bend over backwards to accommodate Alonso’s ego.
What can we expect from Alonso this season? I think he’ll have an easier ride as I don’t think Piquet Jnr will give him too much to worry about. He’ll definitely be racing for 5th place but Kovalainen may be a target he can reach. He should just knuckle down and start showing once again why he’s a 2 time World Champion.
Piquet Jnr
Piquet Jnr, I think, has benefited from Alonso’s arrival. Renault wants a fairly cheap driver who will do a solid job. He’s not there to rock the boat. He’s obviously seen as less of a risk of upsetting Alonso than Kovalainen is and if he can get close to Alonso without beating him, I think Renault will be pleased. He’ll be racing a number of drivers to be best of the rest and could get lost in the shuffle.
Williams
It looks like Williams are finally starting to get it right. They’ve had a torrid time since they lost Renault engines back in 1998. It picked up a bit with the BMW partnership but when they split, it was back to the doldrums. They didn’t have a great deal of pace and kept making statements of them throwing hundreds of pieces at the car in the hope they find some pace.
By the end of the 2007 season, they looked threatening, particularly to BMW. The noises out of the team are hugely positive. They feel they’ve made a big step and are delighted to have kept hold of Rosberg, who is their prize asset at the moment. They should be the biggest improvers of 2008 and should be battling for the 3rd best team along with a lot of other teams.
Rosberg
Rosberg has really showed why he is so highly rated by a number of teams. His qualifying performances were of the highest order and constantly showed up Wurz for pace. There isn’t really a great deal of pressure on Rosberg’s shoulders and I think qualifying pace will equal race pace in this new Williams, so he could be in for a great year.
Nakajima
I must admit, I was slightly concerned when Nakajima was thrust into the Williams car at the end of the season but he kept his nose relatively clean and did a solid job. Now he gets a chance for a whole season and I’m interested to see where he’ll end up. Theoretically, he should be at the back of a big group but I don’t mind being proved wrong.
For those not sure what Nakajima’s pedigree is, he is a former Formula Toyota Champion, 2 seasons of Japanese Formula 3 with a best finish of 2nd, 1 season of European Formula 3 finishing 7th and 1 season of GP2 where he finished 5th and got rookie of the year.
Red Bull
2007 was a tough season for Red Bull. Newey cars are notoriously quick but fragile. Good qualifying performances usually resulted in non finishes and despite improvements with reliability in the 2nd half of the season, it was all a little too late and they couldn’t get above Williams.
Red Bull’s season will be defined in the first third of the season. If they have cars dropping off the track on a regular basis because of reliability issues, they could find themselves stuck in the position they finished in 2007. The potential speed of the car is enough to get excited about but it could mean nothing if they can’t get to the chequered flag.
Webber
Webber had to endure a horrible season. He qualified a lot of times in the top 10, only to get 3 points finishes and 7 retirements. Anyone watching the live show at the Japanese Grand Prix will remember his hilarious outburst at Vettel. A high point was a 3rd place in the rain affected race at the Nurburgring.
Webber has nothing to prove really. He was beating Coulthard in qualifying on a regular basis and really suffered with non finishes. He somehow managed to finish with fewer points than Coulthard. All Webber has to do is keep qualifying ahead of Coulthard and hope the car stays together to score some points.
Coulthard
Coulthard is very nearly at the end of his career. He makes his money in the races where he does a solid job and scores points regularly when his car survives. It’s difficult to guess what his season’s expectations are. Is he competing to beat Webber or is he there to improve the team and score points? Maybe a combination of all 3? Whatever his ambitions are, he’ll need all his racing ability as qualifying has been an Achilles heel for him for a number of years now.
Toyota
Toyota are well and truly in the doldrums. Trulli and Ralf Schumacher did little to inspire confidence and a series of poor performances have had to lead to a major rethink. Ralf Schumacher is gone and about time too as he looked more interesting in collecting his pay check than fighting and clawing to be the best.
The management aren’t happy either. With the powers that be unhappy with major underachieving, they have threatened to pull the plug on the Toyota F1 project. Rumours abound about maybe 2009 being their last season and if 2008 is the same as 2007, it could be the end for them sooner.
Testing has been encouraging though. They topped the timesheets at a recent test to the surprise of many, including the driver who did the time, Trulli. One thing is for certain, improvement must come and it must come now.
Trulli
Trulli has survived the changes and I would think it’s down to his qualifying form. It can’t keep going on like that though. Sooner or later, Trulli has to step up and show his true race pace on a more regular basis. Time after time, Trulli gets a good qualifying spot only to give it all up in the race.
With F1 bubble boy Glock in the 2nd seat at Toyota, Trulli has to step up and show who is number 1. It’s a crucial season, as I can’t see poor performances being tolerated as the pressure steps up.
Glock
Glock hasn’t been seen in F1 since 2004 where he drove 4 races for Jordan and got a couple of points for his efforts. After a season in Champ Car, he spent 2 seasons in GP2 where he won the title last season. He’s got his chance but he has a lot more pressure on his shoulders than some of the other first full timers on the grid. That could be a telling factor on whether he succeeds or not.
Toro Rosso
Red Bull’s second team have decided to run a revised 2007 car (the 2007 Red Bull to be exact) early in the season with the new car coming later. Teams that do that, particularly those at the back, usually struggle and with the new rules, reliability could be a major problem. It all depends on how good the revised 2007 car is. If the 2007 car exceeds expectations, they may run it for the whole season if the new car doesn’t work as well.
Toro Rosso, although they won’t say it, is a proving ground for the Red Bull team and it would seem that a seat in the Red Bull could very well be up for grabs for 2009. It will probably be the one who can make the most of a bad situation. Toro Rosso shouldn’t be anywhere near its big brother.
Vettel
Vettel is young, has talent and has driven one of the better cars on the grid after driving the BMW for a few races. It’s a key season as he is racing alongside an open wheel champion who doesn’t have a lot of experience in Formula 1. I think this battle could be one of the more interesting on the grid but Toro Rosso really need some help to score points.
Bourdais
This has been what Bourdais has been waiting a while for, a chance to drive in Formula 1. What I didn’t know but found out recently was that Bourdais was going to drive for Arrows and then they went bust.
Bourdais has impressive open wheel pedigree. He’s a former Formula 3 Champion, an F3000 Champion and a 4 time Champ Car Champion in only 5 seasons of racing in that series. This is going to be an experience though. He’s racing a fast young driver and has a weighty reputation to uphold. I would like to see him do well but this could be a really hard season.
Honda
Honda couldn’t have had 2 totally contrasting seasons. 2006 was a really high point as they start showing some real pace and even get a race win and then 2007 was just the worst thing that could possibly have happened. In 2007, they weren’t just bad, they were horrific. Everyone was baffled by the poor pace, they were making setup changes and the changes didn’t make sense. They threw new bits and even a whole new chassis for only minor gains. They finally discovered that their wind tunnel was the problem (a long time after I said the wind tunnel was a problem) and they’ll now have to make the slow progression back into contention again.
The biggest move for Honda was the capture of Ross Brawn. It really is a big boost to a team low on confidence and they can see light at the end of a long dark tunnel. The one thing you can’t expect is immediate results. In theory, it could be 2 or 3 years before Honda are a potential race winning team again. 2008 looks like being at the back of the midfield runners and should be a good race with Toro Rosso.
Button
You can’t help but feel sorry for Button. Honda finally looked like making it a 3 way fight for wins and then mess it up with a 2007 car that left Button at the back of the grid, noticeably angry and disappointed. The appointment of Brawn has given him hope that he may fulfil his World Championship dream at Honda but he will have to be patient.
Button has got the measure of his team mate after an interesting early battle between them. Now he has to drive this team forward, show some form and maybe pick off some points if they become available. The removal of traction control should play right into his hands because he is one of the smoothest drivers on the grid.
Barrichello
Some Honda personnel were beginning to question whether Barrichello still had any fight left in him. He will be the most experienced driver ever to have driven in Formula 1 this season and he says he plans to race in 2009. I would personally be very surprised if he does drive in 2009 because, although I don’t want to be rude, I think 2007 was the beginning of a decline which is only going to get worse. I would love to be proved wrong.
Super Aguri
2007 was an amazing season for the team. They benefited from using a revised 2006 Honda and outperformed the Honda team on a number of occasions, scoring some points. However, they drifted out towards the back as teams started overtaking them in development.
The real reason became clear. Reports came out that their finances were not good. They had enough money to complete the 2007 season but the 2008 season would be a struggle. They got a new car together but had to abort a number of test sessions to save money and things were looking very bleak.
Their place on the grid is now secure after they bought out by the Magma Group, a British company. I had a quick look but I couldn’t find out much about what they did so if anyone out there knows, I’d be interested. The problem will be that Super Aguri have had limited testing. There will be a lot of gremlins and problems ahead and could spend most, if not all, the season at the back.
Sato
Sato had the better of his team mate for most of the season in 2007. All he can do is try to beat him more convincingly. I can’t see the team having a good season and they should be the worst team on the grid by perhaps a distance. If both cars finish, it will be a good battle, if anyone can be bothered to look at the back of the field.
Davidson
Davidson did okay in his first full season and with the experience now in the bag, he has to start challenging Sato on a regular basis. His testing experience will no doubt help the Super Aguri team progress but it will be his race performances that will be analysed.
Force India
When the Jordan team were sold, did anyone expect they would be bought out 2 more times? Jordan became Midland. Midland became Spyker. Spyker is now Force India. The funny thing is, despite all the changes, I like the look of this team. The team looks much more secure financially; they have a good team, particularly Mike Gascoyne. They have a mixture of youth and experience in their driver line up and I think this team are now on the up. They won’t be able to break into that congested battle for points but picking off a Honda or Toro Rosso should be well in sight.
Fisichella
I’m going to be really brutal here and ask ‘Why is this guy still in F1?’ I can’t understand it. In the last 2 seasons, he was brutally beaten by Alonso at Renault in his title winning season in which he got constantly berated over the radio by Flavio Briatore to speed up. He then gets beaten by rookie Kovalainen in 2007. He then has the audacity to claim that Renault should have signed him up for 2008!
I’m going to continue to be really nasty and say that I hope Sutil blows him away on the track. I can’t tolerate drivers that don’t cut it and don’t look like they are trying. I was very cruel about Ralf Schumacher as well last season and I’ll continue to be cruel about Fisichella until he shows me to wrong.
Sutil
To say he is rough around the edges would be an understatement but there is a diamond here. Sutil has talent and he was linked to a few drives, even some high profile ones. I hope he succeeds at Force India and I hope Sutil beats Fisichella and eliminates his mistakes. He could be one for the future.
So, there are the drivers and teams competing this season. Before I get to my predictions for 2008, here are my 2007 predictions:
2007 Constructors Championship
1st Ferrari – finished 1st
2nd McLaren – deducted all their points
3rd BMW – finished 2nd
4th Renault – finished 3rd
5th Red Bull – finished 5th
6th Honda – finished 8th
7th Toyota – finished 6th
8th Williams – finished 4th
9th Super Aguri – finished 9th
10th Toro Rosso – finished 7th
11th Spyker – finished 10th
There is no way I could have foreseen McLaren losing all their points, so take them out of the equation. Without the points deduction McLaren would have won the Constructors Championship. I had Williams and Toro Rosso too low and Honda too high but other than that, I did quite well.
2007 Drivers top 5
1st Raikkonen – finished 1st
2nd Alonso – finished 3rd
3rd Massa – finished 4th
4th Hamilton – finished 2nd
5th Heidfeld – finished 5th
I underestimated the Hamilton factor and I just couldn’t see him beating Massa, let alone Alonso and missing the title by a point.
Here are my predictions for the 2008 season. Feel free to make your own.
Constructors Championship
1st Ferrari
2nd McLaren
3rd BMW
4th Renault
5th Red Bull
6th Williams
7th Toyota
8th Honda
9th Toro Rosso
10th Force India
11th Super Aguri
With my midfield congestion theory, I’ve played it safe and gone with BMW in 3rd and Renault 4th but Red Bull, Williams or even Toyota could have a shot.
Drivers top 5
1st Raikkonen
2nd Massa
3rd Hamilton
4th Kovalainen
5th Alonso
I’m going boring with my top 5. I think Raikkonen will get the better of Massa and I think Hamilton will have a tougher time. Alonso will beat Heidfeld for 5th I think.
I’m looking forward to a fantastic season of F1 racing and I hope you’ve enjoyed my preview to the new season.
Thanks for reading
Grandprix
Let’s begin by looking at where the teams will be travelling to in the 2008 season.
Australia – 16th March
Malaysia – 23rd March
Bahrain – 6th April
Spain – 27th April
Turkey – 11th May
Monaco – 25th May
Canada – 8th June
France – 22nd June
Britain – 8th July
Germany – 20th July
Hungary – 3rd August
Europe – 24th August
Belgium – 7th September
Italy – 14th September
Singapore – 28th September
Japan –12th October
China – 19th October
Brazil – 2nd November
There are 18 races this year, up from the 17 last year. The big omission is the USA Grand Prix, which didn’t get its contract renewed. It does leave Canada a bit exposed in the middle of the European rounds and I, personally, am not a fan of the track and even less so after the tarmac fiasco. It’s a late end to the season with Brazil being the last round in November.
After San Marino was dropped, a big gap needed to be filled. Spain has moved to fill the gap with Turkey moving from August to May to complete the filling process. Turkey’s place in August has been filled with a new venue, Valencia, which has now taken the European Grand Prix label.
Another new venue on the F1 scene is Singapore, which will see the first ever F1 night race. If everything goes well, we could see more night races in the future, with Malaysia one of the countries interested.
In the circuit rotation, Hockenheim is now the German Grand Prix for 2008 with the Nurburgring getting it back in 2009 and Fuji is still the Japanese Grand Prix with Suzuka still waiting in the wings.
I’m looking forward to being at Silverstone for all 3 days this year and if you are lucky ducks, maybe I’ll let you all know what it was like.
One of the rules for 2008 has been a major discussion of many drivers in Formula 1. It would be the removal of traction control and its sister electronic, launch control. The major talking point has been keeping the car on the road during wet conditions. Coulthard has been the most vocal when it comes to wet weather racing without traction control. The drivers will certainly be earning their money in wet conditions.
Along with the removal of traction control and launch control, the cars have now got standard ECU so the FIA can monitor all the teams’ electronics. Engines still have to last 2 races and the teams will be penalised if they are changed before they have fulfilled their 2 races. It will be 10 places if it has to be changed before qualifying or to the back of the grid if changed after qualifying. However, each driver gets 1 free change for the season but they aren’t allowed to do that at the final round.
Gearboxes have to last 4 races with every unscheduled change results in a loss of 5 places on the grid. If it fails in a race, they can change without penalty. The cockpit sides are slightly more padded and are higher to give better protection. Each team will also be biofuel compliant. Almost 6% of the fuel will contain biomatter. Interesting, no?
There has also been a change to the qualifying arrangement. The first part of qualifying is now 20 minutes long and the final part is now only 10 minutes. The reason for the drop in time in the final part is that the cars will have to race with what they have in their cars at the end of qualifying so there will be no more fuel burning phase upsetting environmentalists.
It’s not really a rule change but the full wet tyres will now have a white stripe on it so that everyone knows what type of wet tyre is being used.
That’s the background for the new season and it’s now time to look at the teams and drivers competing for the Championships this season and a brief description of how well they’ll do in my opinion. If you want to look at the cars before the new season starts, I’ve posted links to pictures in the 2008 F1 Season thread.
Ferrari
Ferrari were gifted the Constructors Championship after the exclusion of McLaren in the whole Stepneygate affair. I’m not going to go in a description of that whole mess, unless you really want me to.
Ferrari had the best car in 2007 at the majority of the events but McLaren pushed them hard. All the talk seems to be that Ferrari will walk to the title but I think McLaren are fairly close. I do believe that Ferrari will have to make mistakes to lose the title.
Raikkonen
He is going to be the man to beat for the new season. He pinched the title last season as the perfect scenario happened and won by a point. I won’t go into the whole fuel freezing thing as it’s pointless.
Anyway, Raikkonen had the better of Massa in most of the races although Massa seemed to have the edge in qualifying. Whether that is because Raikkonen had more fuel doesn’t matter. Raikkonen will have to work hard to keep the title as Massa should only get better for the new season. Raikkonen will be the favourite to make it back to back titles.
Massa
Massa was the only one of the top 4 that couldn’t win the title heading into the final round in 2007 and he’ll be looking to go better this season. He’ll have to beat his team-mate to do it and that could be his toughest challenge of all.
He’s been the most vocal about his chances in 2008 and he obviously feels that Ferrari have a significant advantage to fulfil his ambitions of becoming World Champion.
McLaren
2007 was a year to forget for McLaren. On the track, they should have won both titles. They walked away with none. There was a very public spat between Hamilton and Alonso, which led to Alonso’s departure after just 1 season.
Off the track, things aren’t great. They have to deal with a massive fine, speculation around Ron Dennis and his future and investigations by Italian police. The fine, in particular, could have an effect on team performance whether it is at the start of the season or during development as the season progresses.
During testing, they looked pretty good. McLaren feel that they can rival Ferrari this season and make it a 4 way fight for the title. I would say they would have to do something seriously wrong to not be at least within a tenth or two behind Ferrari.
Hamilton
I must admit, as you’ll see at the end of the preview, I didn’t rate Hamilton’s chances of fighting for the title last season. I even questioned whether he’d win a race. He proved me wrong and despite some inexperience in a few races and at the end of the season, he has proved himself a race winner and a serious Championship contender.
He does have to be wary of 2nd season syndrome. He has worked very hard in preseason and he may have to work harder to win races as I believe Ferrari will have an advantage, however slight it may be.
Kovalainen
As I predicted, he showed Fisichella up and was Renault’s main threat last season. That form has not gone unnoticed and with Alonso vacating a spot, Kovalainen has been snapped up by McLaren.
It might be a tough season for Kovalainen. Beating Fisichella was fairly simple but beating Hamilton may be a trickier task. The first few races may be more of an acclimatisation period but he’ll have to start getting near Hamilton around the middle to show he really deserves to be at the front. I think he’ll need something to go his way to win a race or two this season.
BMW
BMW were a solid 3rd place (2nd if you count McLaren’s points loss) but my main issue with them last season was that they never really got close to closing the gap between them, Ferrari and McLaren. That indicates to me that they are making similar gains or that they aren’t developing well enough.
For the new season, they claim to have designed a car with forgiving handling but all signs out of testing have been that have struggled for pace and talk of needing time to unlock potential. This doesn’t sit well with me and I can see the teams behind them swallowing them up instead of them breaking out for race wins.
Heidfeld
Despite doing a good job for the majority of last season, his place was not as safe as Kubica. They seemed to be linked to a number of drivers to replace him but he managed to secure a place for 2008.
His job for the new season is the same as last season. Improve this BMW car and beat Kubica. It’s going to be a tougher job as Kubica gets more experience and with the teams below improving seemingly more than BMW, getting a potential 5th place in the Drivers Championship is going to be a real scrap.
Kubica
Put simply, he has to start getting closer to Heidfeld. It was a difficult 2007 for Kubica as he crashed heavily in Canada resulting in him missing the US Grand Prix. His race form was up and down all season despite qualifying fairly consistently. The races are where you earn your money and this is where he has to raise his game. I don’t think he’ll survive if he has another season where Heidfeld out points him almost 2 to 1.
Renault
Renault is very much like Benetton and Ferrari in the Schumacher era. Without someone to build a car around, they don’t look like much of a force. Last season, they should have been challenging BMW at least but, on the whole, they didn’t do it. Fisichella looked well and truly beaten and only Kovalainen looked any kind of threat.
Renault seem reasonably happy with their car but Alonso keeps claiming that they need almost half a second to challenge. Renault just needs to get back up to 3rd in the Constructors before they start thinking about winning again but they are well known for working within a budget that does not compare to the big spenders.
Alonso
Renault’s prodigal son returns after a rather torrid year where he did end up getting beaten by his rookie team-mate. He also showed his true colours and it has tarnished his reputation. He wants to be the team leader and he doesn’t want anyone to stand in his way. McLaren have always had a no team leader policy but Renault are more than happy to bend over backwards to accommodate Alonso’s ego.
What can we expect from Alonso this season? I think he’ll have an easier ride as I don’t think Piquet Jnr will give him too much to worry about. He’ll definitely be racing for 5th place but Kovalainen may be a target he can reach. He should just knuckle down and start showing once again why he’s a 2 time World Champion.
Piquet Jnr
Piquet Jnr, I think, has benefited from Alonso’s arrival. Renault wants a fairly cheap driver who will do a solid job. He’s not there to rock the boat. He’s obviously seen as less of a risk of upsetting Alonso than Kovalainen is and if he can get close to Alonso without beating him, I think Renault will be pleased. He’ll be racing a number of drivers to be best of the rest and could get lost in the shuffle.
Williams
It looks like Williams are finally starting to get it right. They’ve had a torrid time since they lost Renault engines back in 1998. It picked up a bit with the BMW partnership but when they split, it was back to the doldrums. They didn’t have a great deal of pace and kept making statements of them throwing hundreds of pieces at the car in the hope they find some pace.
By the end of the 2007 season, they looked threatening, particularly to BMW. The noises out of the team are hugely positive. They feel they’ve made a big step and are delighted to have kept hold of Rosberg, who is their prize asset at the moment. They should be the biggest improvers of 2008 and should be battling for the 3rd best team along with a lot of other teams.
Rosberg
Rosberg has really showed why he is so highly rated by a number of teams. His qualifying performances were of the highest order and constantly showed up Wurz for pace. There isn’t really a great deal of pressure on Rosberg’s shoulders and I think qualifying pace will equal race pace in this new Williams, so he could be in for a great year.
Nakajima
I must admit, I was slightly concerned when Nakajima was thrust into the Williams car at the end of the season but he kept his nose relatively clean and did a solid job. Now he gets a chance for a whole season and I’m interested to see where he’ll end up. Theoretically, he should be at the back of a big group but I don’t mind being proved wrong.
For those not sure what Nakajima’s pedigree is, he is a former Formula Toyota Champion, 2 seasons of Japanese Formula 3 with a best finish of 2nd, 1 season of European Formula 3 finishing 7th and 1 season of GP2 where he finished 5th and got rookie of the year.
Red Bull
2007 was a tough season for Red Bull. Newey cars are notoriously quick but fragile. Good qualifying performances usually resulted in non finishes and despite improvements with reliability in the 2nd half of the season, it was all a little too late and they couldn’t get above Williams.
Red Bull’s season will be defined in the first third of the season. If they have cars dropping off the track on a regular basis because of reliability issues, they could find themselves stuck in the position they finished in 2007. The potential speed of the car is enough to get excited about but it could mean nothing if they can’t get to the chequered flag.
Webber
Webber had to endure a horrible season. He qualified a lot of times in the top 10, only to get 3 points finishes and 7 retirements. Anyone watching the live show at the Japanese Grand Prix will remember his hilarious outburst at Vettel. A high point was a 3rd place in the rain affected race at the Nurburgring.
Webber has nothing to prove really. He was beating Coulthard in qualifying on a regular basis and really suffered with non finishes. He somehow managed to finish with fewer points than Coulthard. All Webber has to do is keep qualifying ahead of Coulthard and hope the car stays together to score some points.
Coulthard
Coulthard is very nearly at the end of his career. He makes his money in the races where he does a solid job and scores points regularly when his car survives. It’s difficult to guess what his season’s expectations are. Is he competing to beat Webber or is he there to improve the team and score points? Maybe a combination of all 3? Whatever his ambitions are, he’ll need all his racing ability as qualifying has been an Achilles heel for him for a number of years now.
Toyota
Toyota are well and truly in the doldrums. Trulli and Ralf Schumacher did little to inspire confidence and a series of poor performances have had to lead to a major rethink. Ralf Schumacher is gone and about time too as he looked more interesting in collecting his pay check than fighting and clawing to be the best.
The management aren’t happy either. With the powers that be unhappy with major underachieving, they have threatened to pull the plug on the Toyota F1 project. Rumours abound about maybe 2009 being their last season and if 2008 is the same as 2007, it could be the end for them sooner.
Testing has been encouraging though. They topped the timesheets at a recent test to the surprise of many, including the driver who did the time, Trulli. One thing is for certain, improvement must come and it must come now.
Trulli
Trulli has survived the changes and I would think it’s down to his qualifying form. It can’t keep going on like that though. Sooner or later, Trulli has to step up and show his true race pace on a more regular basis. Time after time, Trulli gets a good qualifying spot only to give it all up in the race.
With F1 bubble boy Glock in the 2nd seat at Toyota, Trulli has to step up and show who is number 1. It’s a crucial season, as I can’t see poor performances being tolerated as the pressure steps up.
Glock
Glock hasn’t been seen in F1 since 2004 where he drove 4 races for Jordan and got a couple of points for his efforts. After a season in Champ Car, he spent 2 seasons in GP2 where he won the title last season. He’s got his chance but he has a lot more pressure on his shoulders than some of the other first full timers on the grid. That could be a telling factor on whether he succeeds or not.
Toro Rosso
Red Bull’s second team have decided to run a revised 2007 car (the 2007 Red Bull to be exact) early in the season with the new car coming later. Teams that do that, particularly those at the back, usually struggle and with the new rules, reliability could be a major problem. It all depends on how good the revised 2007 car is. If the 2007 car exceeds expectations, they may run it for the whole season if the new car doesn’t work as well.
Toro Rosso, although they won’t say it, is a proving ground for the Red Bull team and it would seem that a seat in the Red Bull could very well be up for grabs for 2009. It will probably be the one who can make the most of a bad situation. Toro Rosso shouldn’t be anywhere near its big brother.
Vettel
Vettel is young, has talent and has driven one of the better cars on the grid after driving the BMW for a few races. It’s a key season as he is racing alongside an open wheel champion who doesn’t have a lot of experience in Formula 1. I think this battle could be one of the more interesting on the grid but Toro Rosso really need some help to score points.
Bourdais
This has been what Bourdais has been waiting a while for, a chance to drive in Formula 1. What I didn’t know but found out recently was that Bourdais was going to drive for Arrows and then they went bust.
Bourdais has impressive open wheel pedigree. He’s a former Formula 3 Champion, an F3000 Champion and a 4 time Champ Car Champion in only 5 seasons of racing in that series. This is going to be an experience though. He’s racing a fast young driver and has a weighty reputation to uphold. I would like to see him do well but this could be a really hard season.
Honda
Honda couldn’t have had 2 totally contrasting seasons. 2006 was a really high point as they start showing some real pace and even get a race win and then 2007 was just the worst thing that could possibly have happened. In 2007, they weren’t just bad, they were horrific. Everyone was baffled by the poor pace, they were making setup changes and the changes didn’t make sense. They threw new bits and even a whole new chassis for only minor gains. They finally discovered that their wind tunnel was the problem (a long time after I said the wind tunnel was a problem) and they’ll now have to make the slow progression back into contention again.
The biggest move for Honda was the capture of Ross Brawn. It really is a big boost to a team low on confidence and they can see light at the end of a long dark tunnel. The one thing you can’t expect is immediate results. In theory, it could be 2 or 3 years before Honda are a potential race winning team again. 2008 looks like being at the back of the midfield runners and should be a good race with Toro Rosso.
Button
You can’t help but feel sorry for Button. Honda finally looked like making it a 3 way fight for wins and then mess it up with a 2007 car that left Button at the back of the grid, noticeably angry and disappointed. The appointment of Brawn has given him hope that he may fulfil his World Championship dream at Honda but he will have to be patient.
Button has got the measure of his team mate after an interesting early battle between them. Now he has to drive this team forward, show some form and maybe pick off some points if they become available. The removal of traction control should play right into his hands because he is one of the smoothest drivers on the grid.
Barrichello
Some Honda personnel were beginning to question whether Barrichello still had any fight left in him. He will be the most experienced driver ever to have driven in Formula 1 this season and he says he plans to race in 2009. I would personally be very surprised if he does drive in 2009 because, although I don’t want to be rude, I think 2007 was the beginning of a decline which is only going to get worse. I would love to be proved wrong.
Super Aguri
2007 was an amazing season for the team. They benefited from using a revised 2006 Honda and outperformed the Honda team on a number of occasions, scoring some points. However, they drifted out towards the back as teams started overtaking them in development.
The real reason became clear. Reports came out that their finances were not good. They had enough money to complete the 2007 season but the 2008 season would be a struggle. They got a new car together but had to abort a number of test sessions to save money and things were looking very bleak.
Their place on the grid is now secure after they bought out by the Magma Group, a British company. I had a quick look but I couldn’t find out much about what they did so if anyone out there knows, I’d be interested. The problem will be that Super Aguri have had limited testing. There will be a lot of gremlins and problems ahead and could spend most, if not all, the season at the back.
Sato
Sato had the better of his team mate for most of the season in 2007. All he can do is try to beat him more convincingly. I can’t see the team having a good season and they should be the worst team on the grid by perhaps a distance. If both cars finish, it will be a good battle, if anyone can be bothered to look at the back of the field.
Davidson
Davidson did okay in his first full season and with the experience now in the bag, he has to start challenging Sato on a regular basis. His testing experience will no doubt help the Super Aguri team progress but it will be his race performances that will be analysed.
Force India
When the Jordan team were sold, did anyone expect they would be bought out 2 more times? Jordan became Midland. Midland became Spyker. Spyker is now Force India. The funny thing is, despite all the changes, I like the look of this team. The team looks much more secure financially; they have a good team, particularly Mike Gascoyne. They have a mixture of youth and experience in their driver line up and I think this team are now on the up. They won’t be able to break into that congested battle for points but picking off a Honda or Toro Rosso should be well in sight.
Fisichella
I’m going to be really brutal here and ask ‘Why is this guy still in F1?’ I can’t understand it. In the last 2 seasons, he was brutally beaten by Alonso at Renault in his title winning season in which he got constantly berated over the radio by Flavio Briatore to speed up. He then gets beaten by rookie Kovalainen in 2007. He then has the audacity to claim that Renault should have signed him up for 2008!
I’m going to continue to be really nasty and say that I hope Sutil blows him away on the track. I can’t tolerate drivers that don’t cut it and don’t look like they are trying. I was very cruel about Ralf Schumacher as well last season and I’ll continue to be cruel about Fisichella until he shows me to wrong.
Sutil
To say he is rough around the edges would be an understatement but there is a diamond here. Sutil has talent and he was linked to a few drives, even some high profile ones. I hope he succeeds at Force India and I hope Sutil beats Fisichella and eliminates his mistakes. He could be one for the future.
So, there are the drivers and teams competing this season. Before I get to my predictions for 2008, here are my 2007 predictions:
2007 Constructors Championship
1st Ferrari – finished 1st
2nd McLaren – deducted all their points
3rd BMW – finished 2nd
4th Renault – finished 3rd
5th Red Bull – finished 5th
6th Honda – finished 8th
7th Toyota – finished 6th
8th Williams – finished 4th
9th Super Aguri – finished 9th
10th Toro Rosso – finished 7th
11th Spyker – finished 10th
There is no way I could have foreseen McLaren losing all their points, so take them out of the equation. Without the points deduction McLaren would have won the Constructors Championship. I had Williams and Toro Rosso too low and Honda too high but other than that, I did quite well.
2007 Drivers top 5
1st Raikkonen – finished 1st
2nd Alonso – finished 3rd
3rd Massa – finished 4th
4th Hamilton – finished 2nd
5th Heidfeld – finished 5th
I underestimated the Hamilton factor and I just couldn’t see him beating Massa, let alone Alonso and missing the title by a point.
Here are my predictions for the 2008 season. Feel free to make your own.
Constructors Championship
1st Ferrari
2nd McLaren
3rd BMW
4th Renault
5th Red Bull
6th Williams
7th Toyota
8th Honda
9th Toro Rosso
10th Force India
11th Super Aguri
With my midfield congestion theory, I’ve played it safe and gone with BMW in 3rd and Renault 4th but Red Bull, Williams or even Toyota could have a shot.
Drivers top 5
1st Raikkonen
2nd Massa
3rd Hamilton
4th Kovalainen
5th Alonso
I’m going boring with my top 5. I think Raikkonen will get the better of Massa and I think Hamilton will have a tougher time. Alonso will beat Heidfeld for 5th I think.
I’m looking forward to a fantastic season of F1 racing and I hope you’ve enjoyed my preview to the new season.
Thanks for reading
Grandprix
I'd say that Davidson was also unlucky; he should have scored very well in Montreal were it not for the groundhog he ended up driving into.
As for Fisichella... maybe he'll get himself into gear this year if he's stuck at the back and wants to prove that he's still got something. Hell, Trulli's going to need to do the same. Sutil and Glock are both going to give them something to think about. Bourdais vs Vettel could be interesting too, both are great drivers and have to wring something out of what'll probably be an unreliable carbon copy of the '07 RBR.
Definitely think Williams will be resurgent this year, but I've not seen large amounts of test times...
As for Fisichella... maybe he'll get himself into gear this year if he's stuck at the back and wants to prove that he's still got something. Hell, Trulli's going to need to do the same. Sutil and Glock are both going to give them something to think about. Bourdais vs Vettel could be interesting too, both are great drivers and have to wring something out of what'll probably be an unreliable carbon copy of the '07 RBR.
Definitely think Williams will be resurgent this year, but I've not seen large amounts of test times...
A lot of people seem very interested in the performance of the Williams. I think the fact that they have a limited budget will affect them probably as the season progresses. I'd like to see them do well.
Thing is, due to their strong end to last season they've apparently had a fair bit of investment over the winter. And I'm sure Toyota will have made it worth their while to have Nakajima in the car, even though he's performed well in testing given his lack of experience.
Grandprix wrote:
> A lot of people seem very interested in the performance of the
> Williams. I think the fact that they have a limited budget will
> affect them probably as the season progresses. I'd like to see
> them do well.
I'm sure they will do ok this season but to be honest all of the focus has gone into the following years car. Apparently it's going to be a real improvement on anything that has been made in the past. The test times over the last few weeks have been pretty fast and should on paper put them at the top of the pack. We all know that it's only going to count when we see what everyone else has accomplished.
> A lot of people seem very interested in the performance of the
> Williams. I think the fact that they have a limited budget will
> affect them probably as the season progresses. I'd like to see
> them do well.
I'm sure they will do ok this season but to be honest all of the focus has gone into the following years car. Apparently it's going to be a real improvement on anything that has been made in the past. The test times over the last few weeks have been pretty fast and should on paper put them at the top of the pack. We all know that it's only going to count when we see what everyone else has accomplished.
It really is just wait and see with Williams. I don't know their finances and how it has changed from the last season. I'm just working on the assumption that Williams have a smaller budget.
I think a fair amount of Williams improvement last season was the fact that the other teams weren't making much gains.
I think a fair amount of Williams improvement last season was the fact that the other teams weren't making much gains.
Well done on the GAD, a deserved win every year without fail!
I only hope next year's move to the BBC means we'll get a choice of camera options on the red button. Pit Cam and maybe Ron Dennis/Lewis Dad Cam for those priceless expressions during the race...
I only hope next year's move to the BBC means we'll get a choice of camera options on the red button. Pit Cam and maybe Ron Dennis/Lewis Dad Cam for those priceless expressions during the race...
Thanks pb and thank you Freeola.
As for the BBC coverage, I personally can't wait. Although ITV's coverage was overall better than the BBC, the BBC has changed and that can only be a good thing, particularly with the Hamilton effect that has happened to F1 in this country.
Obviously, no ad breaks will be fantastic and with red button potential like practice sessions maybe and different camera angles, things could be even better.
We don't need the deadwood coming across, like James Allen and the Hamilton fascination that the ITV coverage has become.
As for the BBC coverage, I personally can't wait. Although ITV's coverage was overall better than the BBC, the BBC has changed and that can only be a good thing, particularly with the Hamilton effect that has happened to F1 in this country.
Obviously, no ad breaks will be fantastic and with red button potential like practice sessions maybe and different camera angles, things could be even better.
We don't need the deadwood coming across, like James Allen and the Hamilton fascination that the ITV coverage has become.