In this time zone there are only about 12 hours left for the year 2007, F1 Wolf is all ready for the year 2008. So what is in plans for the next year (besides following the daily F1 developments) ?

Of course the 2008 F1 Prediction Game .

The game started last season only weeks after this blog was launched, so of course only few people noticed and played from the beginning. Few more however joined during the season and all of us had exciting time. By all kinds of coincidences a big bunch of us even happened to be in Hong Kong during the final race and had a blast night together watching Kimi winning the whole thing . It promises to be bigger this year, so do not miss out, join in early, otherwise you may regret like some of those who came on board too late last year !

F1 Wolf will continue the Meet The Motorsport Bloggers series in 2008 as well.

F1 Wolf will keep bringing you the goodies, like the screensavers, high resolution photos and some sounds of F1.

F1 Wolf also hopes to get more interactive and as a result to fill up the wall of Friends of F1 Wolf.

And of course there is the racing ! And there is nothing better than watching and hearing  the races live. After being regular at the Chinese GP since 2004, and Malaysian GP since 2005 and visits to Hockenheim in 2006 and Monaco in 2007 there plans for something new for the 2008 season. This is the planed 2008 schedule for F1 Wolf’s Formula 1 travels:

March - Australian Grand Prix - confirmed
June - Canadian Grand Prix - almost confirmed
August - Valencia or Spa - depends when exactly I will be in Europe during the summer
September - Singapore GP - definitelly do not want to miss that one
October - Shanghai - it is only 2 hours away, so one never knows, last minute temptation may kick in although it is not in my plans right now.

Who knows, perhaps I can meet with some of the F1 Wolf regulars at some of the races !

And finally I want to thank everybody who helped F1 Wolf to grow from nothing in February 2007 to what it is now and wish you all only the best to the year 2008 ! May we have one cracking F1 season !

Happy New Year !

F1Wolf

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Spyker entered Formula 1 in Shanghai 2006 but 2007 was their first full F1 season. Was supposed to be. Before the season came to close, the former Jordan / Midland team was sold again, this time to Vijay Mallya. The 2007 season ended up to be the one and only F1 season for Spyker F1. The orange cars spent most of it at the back of the grid but they had their moments of glory. Sutil was fastest in wet Monaco practice, Winkelhock lead the race during the European GP mayhem and the team even managed to score a point. Here is the screensaver to remember the only F1 season for the Spyker F1 team. In 2008 the team will race as Force India.

You can download it here: 2007 Spyker F1 Screensaver

Please check the screensaver tag for more F1 screensavers.

F1Wolf

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The top speed an F1 car managed to set so far is 397 km/h by Honda at Bonneville - that was for the record. They reached actually reached the 400 km/h mark but in the fashion not eligible for record books. F1 cars on F1 tracks reach top speeds about 300 - 320 km/h, in Monza they get close to 350 km/h mark.

With the above in mind it is kind of unbelievable what the Bugatti Veyron is capable of… This beast is faster than the low aero Bonneville special Honda F1 car… Watch the video below:

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F1Wolf

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Part 1 of The 2007 F1 Cool Things was all about Honda’s Rubens Barrichello and his helmet and there will be bit about Honda in part 2 too.

Season 2007 brought a chance for F1 fans to get on the F1 car livery. First it was Honda with their myearthdream livery. Fans could make an enviromentaly friendly pledge on the myearthdream website, donate some money to a charity and get their name on one of the Honda cars. I made it somewhere on Jenson Button’s car . Here is a photo of the Honda livery with all the names. The tiny white lines all over the Earth are the names of the fans.

Red Bull came with similar idea but went one step further. Fans could get their face on the Ref Bull car for the British GP at Silverstone (although not for the race itself). Donation of 10 pounds to the Wings for Life charity was all that was needed. This is how the Red Bull of David Coulthard looked covered with photos of the fans:

Besides all the politics, spying, team mates wars, something good came out of Formula 1 in 2007 too …

F1Wolf

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There have been many rumours circulating around Formula 1 websites and blogs about the planned changes to the qualifying format for the 2008 season.

Now the 2008 F1 Sporting Regulations have been made available by FIA, so let’s have a look at the articles that affect the qualifying:

First the qualifying format itself (Article 33, page 18):

The qualifying practice session will take place on the day before the race from 14.00 to 15.00.

Not much change here, we still talk about Saturday 2pm to 3pm. But does this mean that in Singapore we will have day time qualifying and night time race (confirmed to start at 8pm) or will there be special provision made for Singapore qualifying ?

The session will be run as follows:

a) From 14.00 to 14.20 (Q1) all cars will be permitted on the track and at the end of this period the slowest seven cars will be prohibited from taking any further part in the session. Lap times achieved by the seventeen remaining cars will then be deleted.

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F1Wolf

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2008 will be the third year in a row when a feeder series champion makes the step up to Formula 1 - In 2005 Vitantonio Liuzzi (2004 F3000 champion) raced few races for Red Bull (alternating with Christian Klien). Frank Williams signed 2005 GP2 champion Nico Rosberg from the 2006 season. The 2006 GP2 champion Lewis Hamilton raced for McLaren in 2007 F1 season. Timo Glock will return to F1 in 2008 after winning the GP2 championship in 2007.

Lewis Hamilton wasted a glorious opportunity to become the first ever champion of one of the F1 feeder series to win the F1 title. Yes, no Formula 2, Formula 3000 or GP2 champion ever won Formula 1 title. Almost all of them however raced in Formula 1. The only four without F1 start are Jörg Müller, Bruno Junqueira, Björn Wirdheim and Sébastien Bourdais.

Several of them will be on the grid in 2008 F1 season - Nick Heidfeld, Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, Timo Glock, Sébastien Bourdais are confirmed. Vitantonio Liuzzi’s chances for 2008 drive are slim, but his F1 career may not be over yet. Will any of this guys be the first one to break the pattern ?

Here is the list of all Formula 2 (from 1967), Formula 3000 and GP2 title winners, with their F1 achievements:

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F1Wolf

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Another 10 days gone, but still 80 to go before the first race of 2008 season. The last 10 days were rather quiet. The most important event was the official end to Stepneygate - FIA canceled the planed February McLaren hearing following the previous apology from the Woking team. FIA also released the transcripts from the Renault hearing.

Some media started to call for Ron Dennis to resign. Several teams announced their 2008 car launch dates. Bridgestone formally signed with FIA the sole tyre supplier contract from 2008 until 2010. Max Mosley spoke a bit about his 2007 season feelings and how he trusts Ron Dennis.

Etihad Airlines signed 3 year deal to become title sponsor of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from 2009.

Some newspapers ran stories confirming Giancarlo Fisichella as a Force India driver for 2008, but no announcement has been made yet. So with 80 days to go there are still 2 teams without confirmed driver line up for the 2008 F1 season. However Super Aguri’s Daniel Audetto said that he hopes the customer car arbitration decision is made early in 2008 so the team can announce thier sponsors and Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson as their drivers.

Lewis Hamilton was caught speeding on highway in France and lost his driving privileges in France for a while. He is lucky the French GP is still far ahead

The 2008 Prediction Game is already on, do not forget to join in !

F1Wolf brought the readers F1 V10 engine noise ringtone and also created the Friends of F1Wolf wall.

The 2008 Formula 1 Season Countdown will be back in 10 days. That will be year 2008 already.

F1Wolf

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There are only days to go till the 2007 year is gone and over for good. Let’s have a look at some interesting things that came by during this year in Formula 1.

I start with the helmet of Rubens Barrichello. His usual red and white helmet is what all of us have known for years. So I was quite surprised to see him wearing a black one during the free practice in Monaco, during the 2007 Grand Prix.

But then I saw him an hour or so later during the qualifying and he was back wearing his usual white and red one

Well, it was the same helmet all the time, but painted with the thermochromic pigment. The cooler the weather (or Rubens’ head ), the darker the helmet. Here are few shots of Rubens I made during the 2007 season with different color of his thermochromic helmet:

In a cold temperature during wet Monaco practice the helmet color turned almost black. The red parts are visible only as shadows.

Warm sunshine in Shanghai - crisp white colour.

And something in between. The winds that brought the rain later on in Shanghai cooled the air and Rubens’ helmet darkened a bit.

Nick Heidfeld also used similar temperature sensitive paint on the top of his helmet this year.

To see all the 2007 Formula 1 Driver Helmets, click here or check the helmet tag on more helmet articles.

F1Wolf

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Merry Christmas (and if you do not visit again before end of the year then also Happy New Year !) from F1 Wolf.

If you continue reading, there is an Entrecard meme :-). Christmas looks like a good time for F1 Wolf to participate in a meme for the first time.

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F1Wolf

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This is the time of year when we usually look at the funnier sides of life and Formula 1. So let’s have a look at the last four Formula 1 Champions.

First the new champion, Kimi Raikkonen, who was a gorilla before he became F1 champ. Check this previous article on F1Wolf on Kimi and his friends dressed in gorilla suits. They were all having fun back in Finland participating in a motorboat race.

Next to the previous champion in Ferrari colors - Michael Schumacher. Here is the poster with Schumi in his brand new role:

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F1Wolf

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