Before the season resumes in Spain in about 3 weeks time I want to look at how the 2008 rookies and the F1 veterans have been doing so far this season.

Rookie no 1 - Nelson Piquet Jr.

Many people say that Piquet has yet to prove he deserves a seat in F1. Well, he did not show much in F1 so far, but to be fair to him he did not have much chance yet …

The season did not start very well for him. The Melbourne opener was just a disaster. While Alonso scored points, Piquet had difficulties to keep the car on the track. It would not however be fair to compare his performances with those of Fernando Alonso … Yes, Hamilton was also a rookie last year and managed to regularly beat Alonso from the beginning of the season. But the big difference was, the 2007 McLaren was a good car. Renault 2008 car seems to be a real dog so far. Even Alonso himself considers the R28 to be only 8th best on the grid at the moment.

One can understand that Alonso with his experience can get more out of the bad car than a F1 rookie. Piquet hasn’t set F1 on fire yet but when comparing his times to Alonso’s during Bahrain practice sessions it is quite clear that his pace is not that bad. What he is lacking is the F1 racing experience and that is situation similar to Heikki Kovalainen in 2007. The attitude of Renault towards him seems to be very different then their attitude towards Heikki last year. Piquet Jr has full suport from the team (at least it looks that way). Pat Symonds even goes as far as saying “he has had a damn good start“. Hmm… I can understand if he argues that it “is nothing to be ashamed of” if Alonso outqualifies him. But rating his F1 start as “damn good” is bit too much. Sounds like words Piquet’s sponsors would like to hear … I would say that so far he hasn’t been disapointing but he did not impress either. Let’s see what next few races will bring.

Veteran no 1 - David Coulthard

David Coulthard is one of the most experienced drivers in Formula 1 history. As of today (after 2008 Bahrain GP) he has 231 race starts to his name (source Forix). Only Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and Riccardo Patrese are above him in this table. But when wacthing and listening to him this season sometimes it looks like he is the rookie …

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The eBay auction of David Coulthard’s RB3 with the ‘Faces for Charity’ livery used at Silversone 2007 has been announced quite a while ago. The online auction was held by Red Bull on Sunday night.

It does not happen that often that barely a year old F1 car is auctioned on eBay. There were bids and the lucky winner has bought himself a neat piece of F1 memorabilia for 210,050 Euro. It did not come cheap but it is money spent for a good cause. The proceeds are to go to the Wings for Life charity that funds research into spinal injuries. The identity of the new owner has not been made public, yet. I can exclusively reveal that it is not me .

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Red Bull is a team with probably the most experienced drivers line up on the grid (compare Red Bull with McLaren for example…). Here is the quick look at the Red Bull team mates, David Coulthad and Mark Webber.

David Coulthard - Great Britain (Scotland)
Born: 27 March 1971
In F1 since 1994, 1994 - 1995 - Williams, 1996 - 2004 McLaren, 2005 - 2008 Red Bull
Best Result: 2nd in 2001
Career wins: 13
Pole positions: 12
Podium Finishes: 61

DC is one of the most experienced drivers on the grid and an important part of the Red Bull team and not only as a driver. He managed to collect 52 points in the three season with Red Bull. This year with what finally looks like a competitive Red Bull car he should be able to score more, in theory. What may play against him is not so sharp qualifying. And with another 4 teams on similar performance level with Red Bull the qualifying results will be crucial for good race result. It will be big difference between starting as a midfield frontman from 6th or 7th and as a midfield backmarker down at 15th …

Mark Webber - Australia
Born: 27 August 1976
In F1 since 2002 with Minardi, 2003 - 2004 Jaguar, 2005 Williams, 2006 - 2008 Red Bull
Best Result: 10th in 2003, 2005
Career wins: 0
Pole positions: 0
Podium Finishes: 2

Mark Webber is still waiting for his maiden Formula 1 win. He had a shot at it last year in Japan, until Sebastian Vettel took him out. Red Bull still does not look like race winning car, but it looks like this year their car may actually be reliable. The very strong midfield and Webber’s usual strong qualifying performance (he outqualified Coulthard 15 times in 2007) may result in some podiums for him. Race win is not impossible, but to achieve that, he would need lots of luck on his side.

F1Wolf’s prediction for Red Bull drivers in 2008:
Their final point tally may be quite similar, but I see Webber with better chances to get to the podium this season. Coulthard hopefuly will not decapitate anybody this year.

2008 F1 Season - Team Mates - Ferrari
2008 F1 Season - Team Mates - McLaren
2008 F1 Season - Team Mates - BMW Sauber
2008 F1 Season - Team Mates - Renault
2008 F1 Season - Team Mates - Williams

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Fernando Alonso casted some fresh doubts over his long term commitment to Renault in an interview for Motorsport Aktuell. This is what he said when asked whether he can guarantee he will still be at the same seat next season:

“No. My decision will depend on a combination of three factors: the competitiveness of the car, the atmosphere and the financial element.”

So let’s look at these 3 factors:

a) Competitivness of the car

“The title is more a medium-term goal. It is going to be very difficult to fight with the fast ones; the objective is to fight for the podium.”

This is what Fernando Alonso said in the same interview. So, does he consider a car that fights for a podium but does not have much chance to get involved in a title fight to be competitive ?

b) The atmosphere

This one I can understand. Even myself I would not want to get in the same situation Alonso found himself in (or got himself into ? ) last year again. But when exactly atmosphere becomes unacceptable for Fernando Alonso ? When Piquet beats him ? Or when he outqualifies him ? Or when Flavio tells him off and refuses a card game in the motorhome because of a headache ? I bet the guys in Renault wish they knew …

c) The financial element.

OK, money talks… He would not be the first nor the last one to move where bigger buck is available. But as he showed this year, the quality of the car is more important for him than money. That’s why he moved to Renault and not to Toyota. So where would they be able to offer him more money and a better car ? As the things are right now only in McLaren , Ferrari or perhaps BMW Sauber. I am kind of sure, that if Ferrari came calling, Alonso would not hesitate for long ( and so would not any other driver).

So what does he think about Ferrari’s current form (also for Motorsport Aktuell):

“At the moment they have the best car and that is why everyone wants to be in the places of Kimi and Massa.”

Well, who would not… Even David Coulthard admitted (despite Red Bull topping the time sheets on last day in Barcelona) that Ferrari and McLaren “have an advantage, yes, a big advantage”.

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The teams keep rolling out their new cars and the F1 drivers are coming up with their 2008 helmet design. Here they are:

Raikkonen, Massa

Hamilton, Kovalainen

Heidfeld, Kubica

Alonso, Piquet

Rosberg, Nakajima

Webber, Coulthard

Glock, Trulli

Barrichello, Button

Bourdais, Vettel

Sutil, Fisichella

Sato, Davidson

Fernando Alonso seems to be getting away from McLaren days and returning to Renault even with his helmet design. Jarno Trulli reduced the shiny silver surface with more red colour over it. Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica keep the designs very close to their 2007 styles.

Kimi Raikkonen’s new 2008 helmet (click here) is very similar to his 2007 one, but the white front has been replaced with some sort of “tribal” drawing. Anyone knows what it means ?

Lewis Hamilton keeps his yellow helmet pretty much unchanged. Heikki Kovalainen had to make changes to accomodate new sponsors the result is Alonso 2007 like helmet. Bourdais keeps his Champ Car yellow and blue with the addition of Red Bull brand.

Both Honda and Red Bull drivers keep the same designs as in 2007. Sutil’s helmet does not look too different from his 2007 one as well. Fisichella is another guy sticking with his traditional colours.

Please check back for updates to this post with more on 2008 F1 driver helmets. It happened before that drivers used different design for the winter testing and came up with brand new one when the season started, so these may not yet be the definite 2008 helmets.

If you come across good pictures of new 2008 F1 driver helmets that are not yet displayed here, let me know. I will add them here !

To see what the drivers were wearing in 2007, check here

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One top Czech expert on sexual and marital problems advises all the men to always “deny, deny, deny” if asked by wives about any other women. Telling the truth in these situations does not help at all, he says.

Looks like the Red Bull guys have been listening to him

First David Coulthard, on Monday:

“I cannot see Fernando Alonso joining Red Bull in 2008, and I am 100 percent certain that I will be racing for them next year. I was never worried about that, even when the rumours first surfaced about Alonso.”

Then Mark Webber, on Tuesday:

“I haven’t gone through my contract in that sort of detail but I’m pretty sure I’ll be driving there. David is obviously looking at it a bit more than I am.”

And finally Dietrich Mateschitz, the Red Bull owner, also on Tuesday:

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During the past month I published series of posts with the high resolution photos of all the teams and all the drivers (well almost, one driver is missing) of 2007 Formula 1 season for download.

For those who missed it, here are all the links:

Kimi Raikkonen
Lewis Hamilton
Fernando Alonso
Felipe Massa
Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica
Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen
Nico Rosberg, Alex Wurz, Kazuki Nakajima
Mark Webber, David Coulthard
Jarno Trulli, Ralf Schumacher
Sebastian Vettel, Scott Speed, Vitantonio Liuzzi
Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello
Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson
Adrian Sutil, Christijan Albers, Sakon Yamamoto

Screensavers are also on the way. If you do not want to miss out, subscribe to F1 Wolf via RSS Feed or E-mail

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Michael Schumacher surprised few including himself with his speed on his return to the Ferrari F1 car after over a year away. He topped the timesheets on both Tuesday and Wednesday tests in Barcelona. This is not a Michael Schumacher fan site, but one has to give it to him, he has the racing in blood. And it seems it does not matter whether it is on 4 or 2 wheels. During his recent run on Ducati MotoGP motorbike, Michael Schumacher recorded a lap only 6 second slower than the current MotoGP champion Casey Stoner… See the video.

As David Coulthard said the other day, making case for himself too:

“It shows that age does not matter - if he was back in Formula One, he would be at the front. If McLaren is still looking for a driver, Michael would be a fantastic solution. Just as Paul McCartney can never unlearn great music, Michael will never forget how to drive a car damn fast.”

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