And the time has come for the final post of the Season Countdown series. When I began at the 100 days mark back in December, we still did not know where Alonso will end up racing. Now we are only 10 days from the start of the Australian GP.

There is only one unknown left when it comes to teams and drivers - the Super Aguri. Things seem to happening behind the scenes but nothing is official yet. The teams self imposed deadline for some sort of solution has passed. March 5th was the latest day for them to start shipping stuff to Australia. Anyway, we will know who or if anybody all races for Super Aguri latest by next weekend :-).

Super Aguri’s is also the last 2008 livery we have yet to see after Williams finally revealed theirs few days ago.

So what are the general views on the season with 10 days to go ?

- Kimi Raikkonen is the guy most fans expect to win the title, Hamilton usually comes second, unless you ask Felipe Massa
- Ferrari are expected to be the best team
- Raikkonen himself expects McLaren and especially Hamilton to be very dangerous and does not see himself as a clear favourite
- Alonso tips Hamilton for glory
- BMW Sauber, Williams, Renault and Red Bull look to be set to form very strong midfield with any of these team potentialy able to attack podium. F1Wolf readers are split between BMW Sauber and Williams when voting for the 3rd best team
- It does not look like this is going to be season to remember for the Japanese teams, although in Toyota they are quite optimistic
- Watch out for Toro Rosso and Force India !

And rememember, you have only till March 13 to enter or change your previous entry for the 2008 World Champion ! The correct guess of the champ means 25 bonus points in the F1Wolf’s 2008 Formula 1 Prediction Game ! Join the prediction game now, the round one - Australian Grand Prix - is just around the corner ! I will be back with updates on prizes over the weekend.

The 2008 Season Countdown will not return

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Welcome to the penultimate edition of the 2008 Formula 1 season countdown. Yes, there is only one more to go, and no, I will not start counting down day by day after we hit the 10 days mark .

For the past month I have been running a poll here. You voted for the 2008 F1 Driver Champ. It looks like Kimi Raikkonen is the overwhelming favourite, at least among the F1Wolf readers. (click on the thumbnail to see the votes). There is a new poll running now, I expect the results to be closer .

We are only 20 days from the start of the season and there are still 2 unconfirmed seats - although both Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson testes when the team last time made it to the test track, none of them has been officially confirmed yet. The team itself is in troubles. They cancelled their plans to test in Barcelona last week and Aguri Suzuki is in Japan as we speak talking his team’s future with the Honda brass. A year ago this time the only empty seat was in Toro Rosso, where the team waited till the last moment to confirm Scott Speed, only to let him go few months later. By the way, when talking about a year ago this time - check my 2007 Formula 1 predictions and please do not laugh too much .

In Singapore the tickets for the first F1 night race went up for sale with a bang… perhaps with a crash is more accurate. At about the same time the Singaporean public got the first taste of an F1 car on the streets. Red Bull car show was a part of the annual Chingay parade. It was driven by Robert Wickens, a young driver racing A1 this weekend in Durban.

The winter testing season is coming to a close. Since the last summary the teams tested in Jerez, in Barcelona and in Valencia. Valencia was pretty much a private test for BMW Sauber. We were all hoping to see where Ferrari and McLaren stand, unfortunately the Barcelona test was affected by wet weather and it is rather difficult to make anything from the times. Still, the general view of the situation is Ferrari on top of the game right now, with McLaren behind them. After that it is anybody’s guess. Some see Renault much stronger than they are willing to show (Gene). Fernando Alonso has totally different opinion and sees BMW Sauber in very strong position. Jarno Trulli is quite upbeat about the Toyota car. And surprisingly even boys, despite the poor winter performances, seem to be feeling quite good about their package… It looks like the only guarantee we have for this year is 11th for Super Aguri, that is if they make it to Melbourne.

Unfortunately the racism issues are not going away. Last 10 days the talk was about reactions of Bernie Ecclestone and Fernando Alonso. I am quite willing to believe that Bernie meant what he is said to have said. But as far as Fernando Alonso goes, I would like to see the full interview or speach where his remarks were taken from before making any opninion on that. All I had chance to read were excerpts only.

Outside of F1 there were some interesting developments too. Ralf Schumacher found his ride in DTM with Mercedes. He also admitted that he made up his earlier claims about being sure to remain in Formula 1 after leaving Toyota. Jacques Villeneuve lost his drive in NASCAR after his crash at qualifying race for Daytona 500.

And finally the over a decade long rift in North America is over. Champ Car and IRL series are merging:

“Indy Racing League founder and CEO Tony George and owners of the Champ Car World Series have completed an agreement in principle that will unify the sport for 2008. Gerald Forsythe, co-owner of Champ Car, signed an agreement in principle Feb. 22 in Chicago, joining his partner, Kevin Kalkhoven. George signed the agreement Feb. 21. Details of a news conference about the agreement will be forthcoming.”

The 2008 Formula 1 Season Countdown will be back for one more time in 10 days.

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It is getting close. We are now only 30 days from the Australian GP.

Athough we did not have chance to see Ferrari side be side with McLaren during the tests for quite some time, it looks at the moment that Ferrari is the team beat. They were comprehensively faster than Toyota in Bahrain and the gap in the early days was scary …

Force India revealed their car in Mumbai in a grand ceremony. Their livery sure does look different. We haven’t had so much gold colour on a F1 car for a long time.

Bernie Ecclestone fired some shots in the direction of Australia and the future of the race in Melbourne does not look too good. There were track related news coming from all over the place, good news for places, bad news for others, Silverstone being the other one in Bernie’s firing range.

Super Aguri is the last team to launch a new car, the team however cancelled the planned February 19 launch. All the other Formula 1 teams have already revealed their 2008 liveries, except for Williams, unless the leaked one is the one.

The tickets for Singapore Grand Prix went on sale today, but better do not get me started on this one. I will make a post on that once I calm down … All I can say now is I hope that they do better job with the lighting of the track than they did with mess they dare to call ticketing …

Back to track action. The tests in Spain suggest that a strong group is forming behind Ferrari and McLaren. BMW Sauber seem to have overcome their initial balance issues, Williams front wing problems look to be solved, Renault is right there with these 2 and Red Bull and their ugly finned car is doing quite OK.

Toyota struggled a bit early on in Bahrain but they did pick up some pace. Honda still struggles and is not picking up any pace …

McLaren took up on the challenge from Red Bull and submitted their own entry into the “Ugly and Uglier” contest with their newest wheel cover design (on show in Jerez right now).

And rumours surfaced that McLaren may not have to spend the 2008 in the last pit garage …

If you are on Facebook, join the F1Wolf group and help me to figure out what to do with it .

The season countdown will be back in 10 days.

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The time passes so fast… I can’t believe 60 days has already passed since the launch of these countdown posts. Well, we are 40 days from Melbourne and things are slowly starting to shape up.

Max Mosley aired his concerns about the future of Super Aguri. At the same time news of an Indian consortium lead by Spice Group CEO Andaleeb Sehgal talking to Super Aguri also surfaced. Investment in return for a seat for Narain Karthikeyan was the message that Super Aguri’s elder cousins at Honda did not like that much … Takuma Sato at last revealed some car and testing related information today:

“We were supposed to go to Valencia last week with the SA07B with some upgrades, but that was cancelled. Next week we’ll go to Jerez and then after that we should have two consecutive three-day tests at Barcelona, so that will be a total of nine days testing. We’ll be using an interim car to start with, and we probably won’t have the fully updated car until the last Barcelona test. Then I hope we can bring along the whole new package to Melbourne for the first race, the Australian Grand Prix.”

Singapore GP schedule has been released and as all the F1 sessions are in the late afternoon and evening on all 3 days, the program is set - beach in the morning, grandstands in the afternoons, party time in the night. Can’t wait

Honda had their 2008 car launch in Brackley. The livery looks better than in 2007, the car, despite being completely new, seems to a complete dog of a car again, at least at this stage of the development. The initial optimism quickly disapeared after the Barcelona test…

Renault also held their launch in Paris. Their livery, unlike Honda, does not look better than in 2007. The car however, unlike Honda, does seem to be progressing quite well, maybe we are seeing the famous 6 tenths from Fernando Alonso in action again

Eight teams spent their weekend in Barcelona testing and Red Bull cars were given a fin. Some people spent the weekend abusing Lewis Hamilton and should have had their backsides kicked hard.

With the Australian GP getting closer, Bernie Ecclestone sent strong message down under, that F1 may not want to go to Australia in the future.

Christian Klien and Marko Asmer were hired as testers by BMW Sauber, Sakon Yamamoto by Renault.

The 2008 Formula 1 Season Countdown will be back in 10 days.

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Only 50 days left and the Aussie GP will be on the way. To mark the occassion I started a poll on the left sidebar - vote for your 2008 F1 Champion. If you haven’t done so, make sure you also join the 2008 F1 Wolf Prediction Game.

In the past 10 days we had some official and some unoficial car launches. First Red Bull launched in a low key way their RB4 in Jerez. Williams and Renault rolled out their new F1 cars in Valencia, with Renault planning the official launch for next week. Right after them Rubens Barrichello took the new Honda RA108 for a spin.

Drivers are slowly beginning to show they new lids, you can follow the new 2008 driver helmets here. Fernando Alonso is settling in Renault again, and seems to be reminding himslef of the good old times with his new helmet too.

There were Super Aguri sale rumours circulating, but if anything has been sold to Alejandro Agag, Super Aguri team is not aware of it. The team is the last one yet to officially confirm both drivers and the only one that did not test in Valencia.

The Valencia test attracted most of the F1 attention this week, Ferrari, McLaren and Williams doing pretty well. Heikki Kovalainen seems to have get used to McLaren car very quickly and very well.

The season haven’t even started and there are already claims that some teams may have found a way around the TC ban. FIA was also in action. Max Mosley is ready to introduce and confident to police a budget cap as early as from 2009 season. Slight change in the rules is on the way for 2008 season - teams will be allowed one penalty free engine change per car per season.

Max Mosley can’t seem to able to stop mumbling about the spy gate. He warned that the next team caught spying faces exclusion.

F1 Racing magazine finally devoted the cover to Kimi Raikkonen, few months after he won his F1 title. ING signed up as a sponsor of the beloved Hungarian GP. Lewis Hamilton signed up with McLaren until the end of 2012 season, and no doubt Ron Dennis added something to Hamilton’s paycheck too.

Nigel Stepney came out and said he never thougt that him passing Ferrari data to McLaren will result in McLaren using them, or something along those lines.

And finally, Lewis Hamilton revealed he knows how not to behave, and it was no one other than Fernando Alonso who taught him the lesson:

“He showed me just how not to behave as an F1 driver. He was (the leader) at the beginning, wasn’t he, but it changed. Well, he thought he was at the beginning,. But I don’t think that should be the case, we should be a team. It should be equal.”

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And another 10 days gone, we are now only 2 months from the start of the 2008 Formula 1 season. Since the 70 days mark 4 teams launched their 2008 cars. First came Ferrari followed by McLaren only a day later. Toyota did not wait too long and introduced another boring red and white car. The last ones so far to unveil the 2008 challenger were BMW Sauber. They also announced their new partner - T-Systems.

Super Aguri did not launch yet but will do so on February 19, at least that is what they say. What car will it be remains to be seen.

The driver’s line up is close to being complete. Giancarlo Fisichella was confirmed by Force India on January 10. Vitantonio Liuzzi is staying in F1 but as a third driver only. The only team that has not officially confirmed the drivers is Super Aguri.

There are still some test drivers jobs available. Villa and Asmer are tipped for BMW Sauber, Kiwi A1 driver Jonny Reid says he is close the a testing deal in F1.

Prodrive team announced they are shelving their F1 plans for now. Who knows where the 12th team will come from …

Williams team will be commemorating their several anniversaries with 6 different interim liveries during the winter testing season - the company’s 30th year of racing, its 500th entry in a Formula One Grand Prix (2008 Turkish Grand Prix). Williams team will also record its 50,000 racing lap during the 2008 season. On top of it some Frank Williams personal specials - The Monaco Grand Prix will be his 600th Formula One Grand Prix as a F1 entrant, and he will become F1’s longest serving entrant with 39 years in F1. Williams may also be celebrating a new investor with Icelandic money reportedly on the way.

Jenson Button aims for the title, but in 2009. Martin Blundell thinks Massa will win it, and he has a support of one of the competitors in the F1Wolf.com Prediction Game too. Yes, there is first vote for a driver other than Raikkonen or Hamilton.

Ben Evans thinks 2008 will be Ferrari landslide. Kimi Raikkonen said that drivers who think F1 is too dangerous probably shouldn’t be in the sport.

Michael Schumacher said he will attend some races in Europe and he also finally found his place in the Ferrari team. He will be developing and testing the cars. Anthony Hamilton will go to all the races.

The teams are calling for budget cap (and probably already looking for ways how to get around it ). The engine freeze period was cut from 10 to 5 years.

The first official test got underway in Jerez, and at the time of the writing (I am now on the plane somewhere over the Pacific ) it was all about Ferrari…

The countdown will return in 10 days.

F1Wolf

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And we are only 70 days from the start of the Australian GP and the 2008 Formula 1 season, my plane bookings for Melbourne are done. We are already in the year 2008 and even F1 Wolf made the plans for the year ahead public . Since the 80 days mark we learned the numbers on the cars of all the teams. But despite having the 2008 F1 FIA entry list, we are still no smarter on the drivers line up than we were 10 days ago. Force India haven’t announced Fisi or anybody else yet. Super Aguri announced there is no contract yet. Fisi said he does not pay for the drive, he gets paid to drive.

The tweaks to qualifying format were made public, F1 will be burning less fuel . Ralf Schumacher is officially out of F1 and no one seems be missing him. Williams decided not to hold an official car launch. The former boss of the Shanghai F1 track was jailed for 4 years, for corruption and embezzlement of course.

Our F1 prima donnas made it loud and clear they are afraid they may slide in the wet without traction control. Nick Heidfeld is excited about the new street tracks and expects the atmosphere in Singapore to be phenomenal.

Franck Montagny became yet another F1 driver to give up waiting and quit to look for a drive elsewhere.

And we are only 1 day away from seeing Kimi’s new No. 1 Ferrari F1 car…

The Season Countdown will be back in 10 days, stay tuned !

F1Wolf

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Another 10 days gone, but still 80 to go before the first race of 2008 season. The last 10 days were rather quiet. The most important event was the official end to Stepneygate - FIA canceled the planed February McLaren hearing following the previous apology from the Woking team. FIA also released the transcripts from the Renault hearing.

Some media started to call for Ron Dennis to resign. Several teams announced their 2008 car launch dates. Bridgestone formally signed with FIA the sole tyre supplier contract from 2008 until 2010. Max Mosley spoke a bit about his 2007 season feelings and how he trusts Ron Dennis.

Etihad Airlines signed 3 year deal to become title sponsor of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from 2009.

Some newspapers ran stories confirming Giancarlo Fisichella as a Force India driver for 2008, but no announcement has been made yet. So with 80 days to go there are still 2 teams without confirmed driver line up for the 2008 F1 season. However Super Aguri’s Daniel Audetto said that he hopes the customer car arbitration decision is made early in 2008 so the team can announce thier sponsors and Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson as their drivers.

Lewis Hamilton was caught speeding on highway in France and lost his driving privileges in France for a while. He is lucky the French GP is still far ahead

The 2008 Prediction Game is already on, do not forget to join in !

F1Wolf brought the readers F1 V10 engine noise ringtone and also created the Friends of F1Wolf wall.

The 2008 Formula 1 Season Countdown will be back in 10 days. That will be year 2008 already.

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We have 90 days to go to the opening race of 2008 season in Australia. Since the 100 days mark few things have cleared up. Renault escaped unpunished (although guilty) and went on to announce signing (and return) of Fernando Alonso and promotion of Nelson Piquet Jr. to the race seat. Heikki Kovalainen did not stay without home for too long, he is now McLaren boy. Fisichella lost his Renault seat and eyes Force India drive.

McLaren’s 2008 car was not cleared by WMSC. Further inspection was to follow in February. But then came shocking admission of guilt by McLaren and Mosley’s proposal to WMSC to end the whole thing.

At this day the only 2 teams without confirmed line up for 2008 are Super Aguri and Force India.

The 2008 F1 Wolf Prediction Game has kicked off as well, so don’t forget to make your mark. The preliminary voting for the 2008 F1 champion has began and at this day only Kimi and Lewis got vote of confidence, with a bit more going Kimi’s way.

The 2008 Formula 1 Season Countdown will be back again in 10 days.

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We have 100 days to go to the opening race of 2008 season in Australia. At this day we still do not know the final outcome of 2007 championship (Renault spy case hearing is on today). The driver line ups are still far from being finalized and Fernando Alonso still does not have a confirmed seat for 2008.

The 2008 Formula 1 Season Countdown will be back in 10 days.

F1Wolf

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