I will close this series with a look at Kazuki Nakajima (almost rookie), Rubens Barrichello and Giancarlo Fisichella.

Rookie no 3 - Kazuki Nakajima

Still can consider him a rookie after only one race in 2007 season What to say … Can be quick in free practice but can’t get the best out of the car in qualifying. He pretty much ruins his races on Saturdays already. Kind of like Alex Wurz last year or kind of like Kazuki Nakajima in Brazil 2007 … It may be way too early to judge him, remember Kovalainen and 2007 season. But if he does not want Williams to keep him only because of his Toyota connection, he needs to start thinking more about how to get his car into Q3 rather than how to get his helmet paint job on AirAsia plane …

Veteran no 3 - Rubens Barrichello

Rubens Barrichello is on track to become the most experienced F1 driver later this year (number of races he participated in). No one, even he himself does not know what race exactly will be the record breaking one, but some time this season he will break the 256 races mark set by Riccardo Patrese.

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Honda team is setting their sights on season 2009, but before that they have to survive the season 2008, and if possible, not as the weakest team … They might not have the best car at the moment, but they do have 2 good drivers - Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello.

Jenson Button - Great Britain
Born: 19 January 1980
In F1 since 2000 Williams, 2001 Benetton, 2002 Renault, 2003 - 2008 Honda (BAR)
Best Result: 3rd in 2004
Career wins: 1
Pole positions: 3
Podium Finishes: 15

Jenson Button starts his 6th year with the Honda team, after joining them in 2003 while the team still raced as BAR. His best ever season came in 2004, when he was a regular on podium. He was kind of unlucky that the best car the team built in their history came in the season that so dominated by Ferrari. Third place overall was the best he could hope for. In 2006 he went to win his first and so far the only race in the wet conditions in Hungary. He was kind of right to expect better things to come. Instead the horrible 2006 RA107 appeared and the RA108 does not look to be any better so far. He has to pin his hopes on some wet races when many of the differences between cars are erased and drivers skills count more. Some of Button’s best results came in rain - the race win in Hungary in 2006, 5th place in China last year. His smooth driving style may also come handy in the new era without the traction control and other driver aids.

Rubens Barrichello - Brazil
Born: 23 May 1972
In F1 since 1993, 1993 - 1996 Jordan, 1997 - 1999 Stewart, 2000 - 2005 Ferrari, 2006 - 2008 Honda
Best Result: 2nd in 2002, 2004
Career wins: 9
Pole positions: 13
Podium Finishes: 61

Looking back 2 years it seems like Rubens Barrichello did not pick the right moment to leave Ferrari. A year after Barrichelo had left Schumacher retired. In the first post Schumacher year Ferrari won both titles while Barrichello in Honda failed to score a single point. He can’t expect much better showing this year so the only realistic goal for Barrichello in 2008 is to break the F1 longevity record of 256 races set by Riccardo Patrese. But if he plans to keep racing in F1 beyond 2008, he will need to raise his game. There were voices coming from inside the Honda camp after 2007 season questioning Barrichello’s form and racing attitude. His future with the team did not seem to be that sure. Only after arrival of Ross Brawn did the team make it clear they will retain Barrichello for 2008.

F1Wolf’s prediction for Honda drivers in 2008:
There will not be number 1 and number 2 driver in this team as it does not make much sense that far down the grid. But expect Button to outperform Barrichello. If the team finds some speed later on during the season and they fight for points, it will Button who bring them home. Barrichello may end up again with no points to his name and this may be his last season in Formula 1.

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
2008 F1 Season - Team Mates - Red Bull
2008 F1 Season - Team Mates - Toyota

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After raking up some mileage for Honda back in 2007 part of this winter, not exactly perfect test in Jerez in Januray and then missing out on several previous F1 tests, the financially troubled Super Aguri finally made it to the track again. Takuma Sato did 90 laps in Jerez yesterday in SA07B interim car and the team seems to be satisfied with the way the test went. The SA07B was less than 3 tenths slower than Barrichello’s new Honda RA108.

On the same day however the team also announced postponing their new car launch (originally planned for February 19, 2008). Instead the team boss Aguri Suzuki and technical director Mark Preston will be at the circuit to answer media questions. Their new car is still due to run for the first time in Barcelona next week but withoit the official launch. That means no confirmation on the drivers line up, no new livery yet. It looks like we may have to wait perhaps until he season opener in Australia to see how the Super Aguri new car, the SA08, will look like and who will be driving it.

Now this may mean bad news (no deal in sight) or good news (ongoing talks looking good) for the team. One thing is obvious - no sponsorship or investment deals have been finalized yet.

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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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A week ahead of the official launch Honda’s 2008 car, RA108 made the track debut. Rubens Barrichello took the car around the Valencia test track today.

As the new livery is expected to be revealed only at the official launch next week, all we can see is the all white car (last year they used all black livery during winter). A quick look reveals several similarities - the engine cover, sidepods … Hopefully the car is different from its predecessor, the doomed RA107, where it needs to be. Unlike many other teams, new Honda does not feature the front wing bridge (yet).

Rubens seems to be sticking to his traditional helmet design …

Here is the 2007 Honda F1 Screensaver to remind you of the 2007 Honda car with the Earth livery.

What will the new Honda livery be like ?

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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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There are only days to go till the 2007 year is gone and over for good. Let’s have a look at some interesting things that came by during this year in Formula 1.

I start with the helmet of Rubens Barrichello. His usual red and white helmet is what all of us have known for years. So I was quite surprised to see him wearing a black one during the free practice in Monaco, during the 2007 Grand Prix.

But then I saw him an hour or so later during the qualifying and he was back wearing his usual white and red one

Well, it was the same helmet all the time, but painted with the thermochromic pigment. The cooler the weather (or Rubens’ head ), the darker the helmet. Here are few shots of Rubens I made during the 2007 season with different color of his thermochromic helmet:

In a cold temperature during wet Monaco practice the helmet color turned almost black. The red parts are visible only as shadows.

Warm sunshine in Shanghai - crisp white colour.

And something in between. The winds that brought the rain later on in Shanghai cooled the air and Rubens’ helmet darkened a bit.

Nick Heidfeld also used similar temperature sensitive paint on the top of his helmet this year.

To see all the 2007 Formula 1 Driver Helmets, click here or check the helmet tag on more helmet articles.

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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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Honda

Oh my…. What a season. This is a team that under its old identity BAR Honda finished 2nd in the constructors table in 2004. This is the team that recorded its first race win in 2006. This the team who’s driver Jenson Button finished 3rd in driver’s table in 2004 and scored more points than any other driver in the second half of 2006 season… They hoped for further step up in 2007, if not for a title fight than at least few more race wins… To promote enviromental issues they entered the season with an unique Earth livery, with no sponsors messages on the car. The weight of the whole Earth was apparently too much for them to carry …

The Australian Grand Prix was an eye opener. The Honda cars were solid midfield cars, far behind the leading Ferraris and McLarens. Both cars finished lap down, barely getting out of Q1. The pattern for the rest of the season has been set. The 3 week break before Malaysian GP did not help them much, more the opposite. By the Malaysian GP the main competion for Honda began to appear - Toro Rosso, Spyker, Super Aguri and Ralf Schumacher. Getting to top ten in 2007 meant to the team about the same as getting on podium in 2006. Scoring points in 2007 was on par with race win a year ago. Podiums and wins were totally out the reach for Honda. On several ocassion Honda was outperformed by their baby team Super Aguri, racing more less the 2006 Honda car. That was the clear indication of how bad the 2007 Honda car, the RA107 was.

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I went through my picture archive and found this one from Monaco.

Photo: Copyright MP
Rubens and his helmet in cold weather.

You can download the picture here: Rubens Barrichello, Monaco 2007

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