Monaco GP has some history of special helmets and liveries. Here is recap of four special helmets I noticed this year - the diamond helmets of McLaren drivers, Monaco flag and track map helmet of Nelson Piquet and 200 race anniversary helmet of Giancarlo Fisichella.

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F1Wolf

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It is Monaco Grand Prix and the Paddock is buzzing with rumours. This brings out the second edition of this series of posts. (See the first here.)

I am not really surprised to hear that “Fernando Alonso has just inked a deal to drive for Ferrari in 2010″. I do not expect anything bigger than this to come out this weekend. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen. It may be, remember how Kimi Raikkonen signed for Ferrari. It may also be just a purposely started rumour to unsettle the drivers market. Let’s see what happens next, but I do not expect to find out the truth anytime soon.

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F1Wolf

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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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F1Wolf

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Renault unveiled their 2008 F1 car - the R28 - yesterday in Paris. The eyesore of the livery remains but the team says this new car represents a shift in the design philosphy. The predecessor, R27, suffered from the switch to the Bridgestone tyres (and the wrong wind tunnel data reading), so it is no surprise that the R28 main design focus has been on getting the most of the Bridgestone tyres.

The new car features revised weight distribution, new aerodynamic concept and a “zero-keel” front suspension mounting. The new Renault is yet another car featuring the front wing bridge. Under the chassis the biggest changes are the new Standard ECU and new 4 race gearbox.

Technical Director Bob Bell:

“2007 was a very poor year by our standards. For 2008, there are high expectations inside and outside the team, and it is down to us to give the drivers a competitive car. We have put the problems from 2007 behind us and in terms of the car design, we have looked at the problem afresh. The team pushed very hard in all areas, and particularly on the aerodynamics. The front end of the car has come in for special attention with a brand new front wing and the front suspension. The rear end has also been heavily reworked, and we haven’t neglected the basics. The car ran reliably in its first test, and we made encouraging progress on performance development last week. We are confident that the advances we have seen in the wind tunnel will be reflected on track.”

(more photos in the article)
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F1Wolf

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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

F1Wolf

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Finally the confirmation of the expected came - Fernando Alonso is returning to Renault from next season.

Nelson Piquet Jr. will be promoted from testing duties to race driver. Romain Grosjean will be Renault’s 3rd pilot.

This means both 2007 Renault drivers - Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella have to look for his drive elsewhere. Kovalainen has been connected with the McLaren, Fisichella targets Force India.

Flavio Briatore’s words:

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F1Wolf

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