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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After some Monaco drizzle we had the first proper wet to extreme wet race this year. It has provided us with all that can be expected - lots of spins, pit stop and strategy dilemas and some surprising faces on the podium.

It is not easy to review this race without missing something. A lot was happening on the track, the commercial breaks on ESPN Star came always in the wrong moment and Steve Slater did again his best to confuse us all with mixing up the driver names and talking bull while important things were happening on the track. How can someone like this guy keep the job with a TV station that broadcasts all over Asia is a mystery to me. But back to racing …

When we look back at the end of the season for the start of the year then Lewis Hamilton’s start to British GP will be high on the list of candidates. Starting from 4th but almost in the lead after few corners. Only very sharp defensive driving from his team mate kept him in second position. I am not sure McLaren pit wall enjoyed those few opening corners watching both their drivers getting way too close for comfort on the wet and slippery track. Both McLarens pulled away with Kimi Raikkonen in 3rd safely behind (safely for McLarens but safely for Kimi too). Hamilton kept pushing and Kovalainen kept defending. But then on lap 4 all of a sudden Kovalainen let Hamilton pass … TV applauded that as a great overtaking maneuvre from Hamilton, to me it looked like team orders in place …

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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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I believe that by now Max Mosley is not the only person with serious doubts about the future of the smallest team on the Formula 1 grid. These are the latest words of Aguri Suzuki, the team owner:

“Super Aguri will not take part in testing in Barcelona this week because of elements out of our control. We plan however to particpate in tests from next week on the Catalunya circuit with two cars.”

It has been only a week ago that Super Aguri postponed their car launch planned for today. However team boss Aguri Suzuki and technical director Mark Preston were to be at the circuit to answer media questions. This is apparently not going to happen today…

There was a bit of good news last week for the team when they finally made it to the test track, although with one car only. Both Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson felt confident they would secure their race seat cotract with the team. Moreover Sato sounded quite sure the team will weather their current financial troubles. That feel good mood did not last for long …

There has been a lot of Superi Aguri rumours in the news - the rumours of team sale to Alejandro Agag, the plans from Indian consortium Spice Group to invest (or purchase the team) and place Narain Karthikeyan into the cockpit. Most recently Russian investment was mentioned in connection with Super Aguri. Nothing however have worked out yet and does not look like it is going to anytime soon …

The time is running out for Super Aguri and if no new money comes buy soon, the team’s future will solely depend on the mercy from Honda, Nick Fry late in January:

The intent for 2008 is that Aguri will be on the grid but clearly what Ross (Brawn) and I need to do, and are doing, is ensure that doesn’t detract from our primary job. At this stage, the intent is that they will be on the grid with Honda engines and support. Exactly how much of that support comes from here is being worked on at the moment.

The last thing the troubled Honda team now needs is a distraction and diversion of resources towards Super Aguri. I am afraid that unless there is some development benefit (more test mileage) from having baby B team on the grid, Honda may want to pull the plug on Super Aguri sooner than later. They do not need 2 teams at the back of the grid …

Let’s see how this develops further. The plans (to show up at the next test and run 2 cars) are just the plans, as was the car launch, as was the appearance of Suzuki and Preston for the media. Once the “elements out of our control” enter the picture, the future is rarely bright and rarely orange. Arrows could talk …

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This week has been mostly about Honda, thanks to their car launch. Super Aguri also made it to the news thanks to Max Mosley’s doubts about their future. Now the strong words from Honda, namely from Nick Fry (to Reuters) only add to Super Aguri woes:

“The intent for 2008 is that Aguri will be on the grid but clearly what Ross (Brawn) and I need to do, and are doing, is ensure that doesn’t detract from our primary job. At this stage, the intent is that they will be on the grid with Honda engines and support. Exactly how much of that support comes from here is being worked on at the moment. I would not personally be convinced that the driver you mentioned would be of an acceptable standard for us.”

Nick Fry went on to point out that Anthony Davidson is the driver of the appropriate standard.

The driver Reuters mentioned is Narain Karthikeyan. His name came up in connection with Indian telecom company Spice Group. Spice Group is said to be one of the parties in talks with Super Aguri over funding or investment.

Now this is not an easy situation for Super Aguri. Paid drivers have been source of funds for the cash strapped teams for years. And the race seat may be the only thing thatSuper Aguri has to offer at the moment. On the other hand, while they may struggle without new funds coming in, they would surely go down and under and out of business should Honda pull the plug. Super Aguri simply can’t afford to go against Honda’s wishes…

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The new Honda did some track mileage last week in Valencia. Today the official unveiling took part in Honda’s F1 headquarters in Brackley. Altgough no longer carrying the weight of the entire globe, the new mostly white Honda RA108 is also “green” with myearthdream message all over the chassis.

The new Honda livery is what kept the fans guessing for a while, but for Honda the performance of their 2008 challenger is what matters the most. Especially after the dismal 2007 season with their dog of a car (poor retired RA107). This is what Ross Brawn had to say about the car the team unveiled today:

“The difficulty with last year’s car was that it produced a lot of downforce but it was in a very aggressive way. The focus on this car has been to make sure we produce the aero downforce in a more friendly way, a more usable way. We have also slimmed down the chassis, changed some of the layout for the car to give it more potential, particularly with aero development in the future, because it is going to be a very intensive season of development for us. There are a lot of new ideas, and we wanted a car that could accept a wide variety of changes through the season.
The car you see here is very much a base spec, which was established back in October/November and you will see over the next few months before we get to Melbourne some quite dramatic changes in the car - a new engine cover, new floor, new wings, new bargeboards and area around there. So this is very much a starting spec and there is a good programme before Melbourne.”

Here are some more photos of the new Honda RA108, courtesy of Honda Racing F1:

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The pursue of Ross Brawn by Nick Fry has been talked about for months but the news still comes as a bit of a surprise. The Telegraph reports that former Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn will be unveiled as Honda’s new team principal later today. Nick Fry will continue as chief executive.

Talks with Ferrari about his return after a sabbatical year apparently broke down in October. Brawn made no secret of his desire to become a team principal, but with Jean Todt not planning to leave anytime soon he had to look elsewhere. The downfall of his former colleague Nigel Stepney may also have played some part… Looks like Fry jumped in the moment Brawn’s talks with Ferrari ended and he became available. Fry and Brawn reportedly travelled to Japan for talks with Honda and finally signed the deal last week.

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