Shaun left this comment yesterday under one of the Barcelona test posts:

Why is Schumacher testing for Ferrari instead of Raikkonen or Massa ? sorry if this is an obvious question.

Well, good question and I do not think it is obvious. Ferrari has Raikkonen and Massa plus test drivers proper Gene and Badoer. But they still use Michael Schumacher and used him again in Barcelona this week. Schumacher did one day of testing. This was half of what Massa did, but about a day more than Kimi (thanks to rain on Thursday). Why is he still testing ? And why do they keep two other test drivers on payroll when they do not use them (almost) at all?

He still probably gives the team valuable input but is his input more valuable than input from one of the race drivers would be ? How does Kimi like the fact that he gets less running ? Perhaps he likes it and is actually thankful to Schumi for stepping in . But as far as I remember Kimi was never too excited about having Schumacher around.

Perhaps it is only publicity stunt as no matter what people may think about Michael Schumacher, he is a phenomenon that still attracts lots of attention.

Or perhaps it is just something that Jean Todt cooked up before leaving the team and Domenicali has to live with it now …

Well, who knows. The fact remains, Schumi is still around and he is definitely not slow.

There is another blog post on Michael Schumacher today here …

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It looks like the first day day of Barcelona testing was all about the new Ferrari hole. The fact that the combination of the new hole in the nose part of Ferrari car and the slick tyres resulted in 3 seconds gap between Massa and the second fastest car, Honda of Alex Wurz, is one of the reasons the expected hole got so much attention.

McLaren slow times should not be taken too seriously though. If you look carefully at the pictures from Barcelona, you can see the tiny almost Monza like rear wing on de la Rosa’s car. McLaren obviously spent the day focusing on 2009 season rather than updates for the next race. BMW Sauber did not run on slicks yesterday, so Heidfeld’s times can’t be compared to Massa either …

One thing remains fact nevertheless, the Ferrari was scary quick on Monday in Barcelona.

While browsing the pictures from yesterday’s test, the only other ineteresting thing I spotted were the front wheel covers on Renault. If I am not wrong, that is new.

There is a nice picture gallery from Barcelona here. The site is in Spanish.

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And now it is time for a very biased post

Remember this ?

3 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 1 – 1 – 3 – 3

These are the first nine races of 2007 season (and Hamilton’s F1 career) - 9 podiums, 70 points

Now compare with this:

5 – 2 – 4 – 1 – DNF – 7 – 1 – 5 – 13

These are the results of Lewis Hamilton in last 9 F1 races - 3 podiums, 43 points.

The F1 Racing magazine had an article with title like this in their last issue:

“Lewis set to be champ after Australia win”

I could not believe they actually wrote that. To sum up the article, because most of the Australian GP winners in past years went on to win the title, Hamilton now must win the title. If this is the fact I do not see why we need 18 races, but whatever …

Now compare Hamilton’s stats with this:

1 – DNF – 2 – 6 – 3 – 2 – DNF – DNF – 1

Last 9 races, 5 podiums, 45 points

Not great either, but better than Hamilton’s last 9. Who is that? Well, Felipe Massa… More podiums and more points in last 9 races than Hamilton.

Hamilton has been already crowned 2008 F1 champion by some, Massa has been already replaced by Vettel or Alonso in Ferrari by many … Well different drivers get different treatment …

I admit these stats are rather twisted but if others can fool around with numbers why can’t I . I decided to use 9 races statistics for 2 reasons:

a) The 9 consecutive podiums for Hamilton would make a nice benchmark
b) Nine races makes pretty much half of a season …

Just for the record, no, I do not think Hamilton should be dropped …

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First win (and first points) of the season for Felipe Massa, first 1-2 finish for Ferarri (and for anybody) this season, second consecutive podium for Robert Kubica. Race to forget for McLaren …

2008 Bahrain Formula 1 GP Result:

1. F. Massa - Ferrari - 1:31:06.970
2. K. Räikkönen - Ferrari + 3.339
3. R. Kubica - BMW Sauber + 4.998
4. N. Heidfeld - BMW Sauber + 8.409
5. H. Kovalainen - McLaren + 26.789
6. J. Trulli - Toyota + 41.314
7. M. Webber - Red Bull + 45.473
8. N. Rosberg - Williams + 55.889

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First two races, more than 10% of the season are behind us. Ron Dennis may claim that only Spanish GP will show the true form of the teams but why wait. Let’s look at who has been good and who has not so far.

The Good

BMW Sauber – They had worrying start to their winter tests with their new car but how they turned things around. Fernando Alonso considered them to be the dark horses of the 2008 season and it looks like he has been right. The team may not be yet ready to mount the title challenge. But they are surprisingly close to the pace of McLarens. It may not be impossible to score a race win on merit later on this season. And with the current reliability and Massa woes Ferrari are experiencing, the maiden win may not be too far.

Toyota – Surprise surprise. But looking back to team’s performance in the last winter test it perhaps should not be that unexpected. Jarno Trulli claims they are now 4th best team (same claim Rosberg has about Williams). I would not probably say that. But Toyota firmly claimed their place in stronger end of the midfield, along with Williams and Red Bull.

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The new season is just around the corner and so after earlier post predicting form of all the teams in 2008 Formula 1 season, it is time to look at the drivers. Let’s start with Ferrari.

Kimi Raikkonen - Finland
Born: 17 October 1979
In F1 since 2001 (2001 Sauber, 2002 - 2006 McLaren, from 2007 Ferrari)
Best Result: 2007 Formula 1 Champion
Career wins: 15
Pole positions: 14

This is the first time Raikkonen goes into a new F1 season as a defending champion. And it looks like the title is there for him to take. He has the top car. He has comfortably settled in the team. He seems to have no problems at all driving the car without the electronic driver aids. Unless he is unlucky and gets more than a fair share of mechanical troubles or accidents, I expect him to claim the number one spot in Ferrari much earlier in the season than in 2007. Kimi is probably the hottest candidate for the F1 crown in 2008 but it sure will not be as easy as many tend to think. Massa will not let go that easy and then there is the McLaren duo…

Felipe Massa - Brazil
Born: 25 April 1981
In F1 since 2002 (2002 Sauber, 2003 Ferrari test driver, 2004-2005 Sauber, from 2006 Ferrari)
Best Result: 3rd in 2005
Career wins: 5
Pole positions: 9

With Jean Todt’s move away from the spotlight Massa may find himself in very different environment. He will have to prove again he deserves his place in the Maranello team. He is a very good qualifier and decent race driver. But one has to remember that all his career wins came after starting from pole position - Turkey and Brazil 2006, Bahrain, Spain, Turkey 2007. His best chance to get better of Kimi is to try to outqualify him as often as possible. He has enough speed to do that, but there may be questions about his driving style. He seems to have had more difficult time than Kimi adjusting to car without all the electronic aids. If he is to beat Kimi, first he has to be quick in qualifying while staying on the track … Most people expect Raikkonen to dominate the battle of Ferrari team mates this year. This may take some pressure away from Massa. But the never ending rumours of Alonso being enroute to Ferrari in the near future may do exactly the opposite…

F1Wolf’s prediction for Ferrari drivers in 2008:
No. 1 - Kimi Raikkonen and fighting for the 2008 F1 title
No. 2 - Felipe Massa - his overall position depends on how dominant Ferrari car will be. If McLarens are close, he will have hard time to stay ahead of one of their drivers.

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Some teams will continue testing in private tests next week. Barcelona however was the last major test involving most of the teams. The results and times do not tell much. Few would conclude that Toyota is the fastest car just because Trulli clocked the the fastest lap yesterday . So what Formula 1 drivers and team bosses think after the last test of the season:

Ferrari:
Jean Todt:

“We have two excellent drivers and it looks like the car is good too. We are satisfied and the situation is encouraging. But we need to wait for the races, let’s hope for the best.”

Kimi Raikkonen:

“I think we have a strong package, but we don’t know how fast the others are. We will only see that in the race. We are quite happy with what we have done over the winter so we will see in Melbourne. I think we have good reliability. We had some small things last year that unfortunately stopped the car in the race but it can always happen. We have done everything we can and it will be nice to get back racing again. In Melbourne we will see who is fast or not, because you cannot say from the tests. The times look close. Somebody goes fast one day and another guy another day. We will wait for a couple of weeks and we will know in qualifying. But I think McLaren are for sure strong, so we need to see how good they are in the race.”

Felipe Massa:

“I feel really powerful this year. If we are lucky, we will have a stronger start of the season than last year’s. This year we aim for the same situation we had in 2007, Ferrari was the best team and both drivers were in equal positive conditions. I feel strong to fight for the championship.”

Sam Michael (Williams):

“Ferrari are about three of four tenths ahead of them (McLaren), and seven or eight tenths before the group including BMW, Renault, Red Bull and us.”

Fernando Alonso (Renault) on Kimi Raikkonen

“He has the self confidence and he is obviously very quick, so he has put himself in a very strong position.”

McLaren:
Lewis Hamilton:

“Winter testing has gone really smoothly. We have had steady reliability and the car is feeling good. We have had some great testing days, easily covering the mileage and getting confidence in the car. It has been a good week, in addition to the test development programme we have been working with the race team on getting back up to speed with activities such as pitstops. As I just said, the car is feeling good, but as always we still have work to do. A Formula One car is under continuous evolution, and when you look back at how far we have come since the MP4-23 first hit the track in January, it is encouraging. The work doesn’t stop for anyone just because testing has concluded.”

Heikki Kovalainen:

“We have improved the car, I have improved myself and I have gotten to know the team better. Everything has just very positive; there haven’t been any negative moments. Of course some days are more difficult than others but we are making progress all the time. So overall a very good winter and we have the pace to have a strong year.”

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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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After Kimi Raikkonen screensaver here comes the one with both Ferrari drivers -  Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa.

2007 Ferrari Screensaver

Enjoy!

More 2007 F1 screensavers with all the remaining 2007 F1 teams will follow. If you do not want to miss out on the new stuff subscribe to F1Wolf. To subscribe to F1Wolf in RSS reader, click here, to get F1Wolf delivered by email click here.

Related:
2007 McLaren Screensaver

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