However unlikely it might have looked few weeks ago there may be some (not much but some) Honda logic behind Alonso to Honda move. But as it has become Fernando’s habit, he keeps sending out very conflicting signals or whatever he says is twisted and edited by the media. As a result his mind is very difficult to read. On Monday it looked like the Honda move is very possible, after but then I read his latest comments to Cadena Ser radio on Renault and their chances in 2009:

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F1Wolf

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The shark fins spread like a virus. Only Williams and BMW Sauber haven’t tried them yet. McLaren are the only team who tested them but does not run them in the races. All the other seven Formula 1 teams are sporting this rather weird looking structure.

The shark fin fashion was brought to us by Red Bull Racing, probably courtesy of their design guru Adrian Newey. The aero benefits are not very clear. Some teams running the fin say it helps to clean up the air flow over the rear wing, some others say it helps the balance of the car, some say it does not bring as much benefit as some other not that visible updates. One thing most people agree on however is that the fin shaped engine cover provides nice advertising space. Let’s have a look at the fins and how the ad space is used by the teams (you can enlarge the photos by clicking on the thumbnail):

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F1Wolf

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My prediction for 2009 drivers line up does not expect many changes except some shuffle in Red Bull / Toro Rosso following Coulthard’s retirement and Vettel’s move to Red Bull proper and perhaps some refreshment over in Force India.

After McLaren confirmed Heikki Kovalainen last week Toyota guys also seem to agree with me . Following Timo Glock’s maiden podium the team has announced they intend to keep both their drivers for 2009 season. This does not come as a big surprise. This move by Toyota would very likely also mean that Kazuki Nakajima will continue at Williams.

It however looks like Honda and Renault may be out to spoil my 2009 drivers prediction. Honda are either desperate to get Alonso on board no matter what or confident that their 2009 package will be so good that Alonso will stop dreaming his 2010 Ferrari dream. Ross Brawn gave Honda’s intentions revealing answer to Autosport when asked about the Alonso situation:

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F1Wolf

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Teams do have their good years and their bad years. Seeing McLaren winning races and fighting for titles in 2007 and 2008 it is easy to forget that they haven’t won any titles since the days of Mika Hakkinen, haven’t won a single race in 2006 and finished distant 5th in constructors table in 2005.

The last 2 posts - the video preview of Hungarian GP where Button won in 2006 and Briatore’s engine cries - reminded me of the fall from grace of 2 other mighty teams - Renault and Honda.

2004
- BAR Honda 2nd, 11 podiums, 119 pts
- Renault 3rd, 5 podiums, 105 pts

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F1Wolf

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Flavio Briatore spoke with Gazzetta dello Sport. Quite a bit of the talk was about the current state of Formula 1. But he also said this:

“The problem is that us, Renault, have stuck to the letter of the current regulations on frozen engines, and we’ve been buggered: others didn’t do that and are far ahead, while we suffer. It’s not fair.”

Is he suggesting the others are cheating ? Or is he admitting that Renault engine guys simply haven’t bothered to exploit all the loopholes in the engine freeze rules ?

Does he know something we don’t or is he simply being pathetic ?

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F1Wolf

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To make it even more difficult to keep the engine statistics up-to-date Red Bull team has decided to keep David Coulthard on the same Renault engine for the third race in a row in Hungary this weekend. Well on paper it is third race in a row but his British GP barely lasted a lap . Here are the reasons behind the unusual decision - Fabrice Lom, Renault, in charge of Red Bull engine supply:

“This is the first time we have taken this decision. First of all his V8 has not done too much running. Plus, having our two drivers out of synch on the engine cycle means that we won’t be putting all our eggs in the same basket. This decision will also help us in the second half of the season in terms of the logistical challenge. And finally, it means that David will not have to use the same engine in Spa and Monza, which are two of the toughest challenges on the calendar.”

In the early days of two race rule there were worries the teams may choose deliberately not to finish the race to be able to run with fresh engine in next one. It actually happened in 2005 when BAR retired both cars (Button and Sato) on the final lap of Australian GP and again in Australia in 2006 when Button stopped his smoking car meters from the finish line. Now we have a team choosing to use the same engine for third time .

Photo: Red Bull/GEPA

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I do not want to say this was the best race of the season but it sure was entertaining. We could see some serious racing with overtaking up and down the grid, we had a safety car following a crash (luckily without any serious injury), we could see a serious strategy blunder and impressive recovery from it and 2 Brazilians on podium, one of them being Piquet jr. !

McLaren dominated the weekend from Friday but the close fight between Massa and Hamilton in qualifying promised some possibility of a fight for the race win. At the end we had a fight but more thanks to McLaren getting it wrong than Ferrari getting it right. Lewis Hamilton pulled away right from the start and Massa never looked like a serious opposition. Early on even Kovalainen was a threat but after few laps Massa pulled away from him. Not sure why because Heikki was not that much more heavy than Massa. In the meantime Hamilton managed to build a decent lead in front.

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F1Wolf

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It is obvious now that Adrian Newey has started a trend to follow. First it was the Red Bull during the Barcelona test back in February. In April, again in Barcelona, Renault came up with their version of finned engine cover and Toro Rosso introduced the Red Bull clone.

Force India were next to follow. Hoping to close the gap to the midfield they tested several aero updates 2 weeks ago at Silverstone. The fin was one of them. And yesterday we could see the first “finned” McLaren in action at the Hockenheim test… Half the grid has the fin now.

I am not sure how much advantage this thingy actually brings. But all the teams that have tested the weird looking engine cover went on racing with it. None of the teams has dropped it since. It looks like the shark fin is here to stay, at least till the end of the 2008 season.

Who will try it next ?

The “shark fin gallery” inside the post.

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F1Wolf

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I am not sure if the team has been distracted by Flavio Briatore’s wedding or his pictures (may be disturbing to some people) or what, but it looks to me like they are loosing their direction. If I were in Renault’s current position I would have two basic (and very interconnected) things on my mind:

1) 2008 or 2009 ?
2) Fernando Alonso - will he stay or will he go ?

It has been an open secret since the moment he re-joined Renault that this team may be just a stopover for him. Neither the team nor Alonso are hiding the fact that there is some sort of car performance related escape clause in Alonso’s contract. Alonso himself (at least publicly) has accepted the reality. He was well aware even before the season has started that the Renault car will be no match for the top this year. The reality is perhaps worse than he has expected but he keeps on doing the job. It is probably fair to say that he gets the car to the places it does not really belong to - front row start in Barcelona, very competive race pace in Canada (as long as it lasted). It is also fair to say that Renault are should be benefiting from having Alonso with them. Although I have never been a huge fan of Alonso, it looks to me to be the only one in Renault talking some sense these days …

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F1Wolf

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With all the attention focused on the June 3 Mosley vote the other FIA related news went almost unnoticed. According to Autosport it looks like FIA told the teams that the popular bridge wings mus be secured to the nose or a support must now be fitted to stop it from flexing (as seen on the above photo of Renault taken in Monaco GP). Renault seem to have fixed their wings in Monaco, McLaren, Toyota, Williams, Red Bull and Toro Rosso will have to follow the suit in Montreal.

Whether flexing of these wings have made any difference in performance that I do not know. But the flexing front wings have been obviously visible on TV and this was often mentioned also during some of the live blogs. FIA seems to have brought an end to it now as they did with flexing rear wings back in 2006.

Photos: Renault / LAT, Red Bull / GEPA

F1Wolf

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