Almost exactly 2 years ago it looked like we will have full grid of 12 teams and 24 cars from 2008 season. On April 28, 2006 Prodrive were given the F1 entry. Max Mosley commented that “Prodrive have the best combination of financial backing, technical capability and motorsport experience.”

Almost exactly a year later, May 13, 2007, the new boys, Super Aguri, scored their first ever championship point after only 1 season and 4 races in Formula 1. Few months later, in August 2007, the news came out that the team’s title sponsor, SS United, does not pay. From then it was all downhill for Super Aguri …

In late November 2007, it became clear that we will not see 24 cars F1 grid in 2008. Prodrive have announced they will not enter Formula 1.

By the end of January 2008 Max Mosley expressed his doubts we will end the 2008 season with 11 teams. There were doubts whether Super Aguri will even make it for Australian GP. They just about made it to Melbourne for the season opener, but only 2 days later Dietrich Mateschitz announced he is putting his share in Toro Rosso up for sale …

Then came May 6, 2008 and the withdrawal of Super Aguri from Formula 1. This is all like the 2002 deja vu. Expectations of full grid for 2002 season thanks to Toyota’s entry to Formula only to see first Prost and then Arrows to disapear. The grid went from 11 teams down to 10 instead of up to 12 before the 2002 season was over …

Read the rest of this entry »

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

The 2008 Formula 1 season is just around a corner, the gap between now and Australian GP is already smaller than the summer break between Hungarian and European Grands Prix.

I have been posting screensavers from 2007 Formula 1 season during the winter break and I just realized that 3 of them still did not make it. So as a final farewel to the last season here are all of the 2007 Formula 1 screensavers, including the missing ones - Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Toyota.

Kimi Raikkonen 2007 Screensaver - 2007 Ferrari Screensaver - 2007 McLaren Screensaver - 2007 BMW Sauber F1 Screensaver - 2007 Renault F1 Screensaver - 2007 Williams F1 Screensaver - 2007 Red Bull F1 Screensaver - 2007 Toyota F1 Screensaver - 2007 Honda F1 Screensaver - 2007 Super Aguri Screensaver - 2007 Toro Rosso F1 Screensaver - 2007 Spyker F1 Screensaver

Bring on the 2008 F1 season !

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

It is just about a month to go and I am going to be silly enough to predict the team’s pecking order for 2008 season . The prediction comes with a preview of all 2008 liveries, as we know them now. Super Aguri is yet to display anything on or off the track…

1) Ferrari - Kimi is having a blast

2) McLaren - They are up there, but they do not have Kimi

3) Renault - The six tenths guy will make a difference

4) BMW - May be closer to Ferrari and McLaren on performance but Renault will re-enter the picture

5) Williams - More competitive than in 2007 but so will be others

Above is the winter livery. Williams will only reveal their racing one before the Aussie GP, but here is a sneak peak.

6) Red Bull - Solid midfielders with a shot at the podium once or twice

7) Toyota - The best of the Japanese brands on the grid (Bridgestone does not count )

8 ) Honda - Will start a further down but will gain few places during the season

9) Toro Rosso - They may have few decent finishes, but their points will not be good for better than 9th

10) Force India - They will be much more competitive than Spyker last year, but 10th will about as much as they can hope for. They would however score some points.

11) Super Aguri - They will probably survive the season despite Mosley’s worries, but at the back of the order and likely without any points.

Feel free to disagree and leave your order in the comments . And do not forget to join the 2008 Prediction Game !

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

Spyker entered Formula 1 in Shanghai 2006 but 2007 was their first full F1 season. Was supposed to be. Before the season came to close, the former Jordan / Midland team was sold again, this time to Vijay Mallya. The 2007 season ended up to be the one and only F1 season for Spyker F1. The orange cars spent most of it at the back of the grid but they had their moments of glory. Sutil was fastest in wet Monaco practice, Winkelhock lead the race during the European GP mayhem and the team even managed to score a point. Here is the screensaver to remember the only F1 season for the Spyker F1 team. In 2008 the team will race as Force India.

You can download it here: 2007 Spyker F1 Screensaver

Please check the screensaver tag for more F1 screensavers.

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

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

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

Part 13, the final part of 2007 Formula 1 high resolution downloads - 14 pictures of Spyker team and their drivers Adrian Sutil, Sakon Yamamoto and Christijan Albers. Unfortunatelly I do not have any shots of Marcus Winkelhock. All the photos are free but for personal use only. Right click on the links below and save. Enjoy ! These are photos from the one and only season of Spyker in Formula 1.

Sutil 1

Sutil 2

Sutil 3

Read the rest of this entry »

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

Ralf Schumacher, Jarno Trulli, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Giancarlo Fisichella, Christian Klien, Roldan Rodriguez, Giedo van der Garde, Sakon Yamamoto, Narain Karthikeyan, Karun Chandhok these are all the names mentioned in connection with the one free race seat Force India (formerly known and Spkyer, Midland, Jordan) has to offer, alongside Adrian Sutil (if he stays).

Some of the names are so far only rumours (Trulli, Fisichella). Ralf Schumacher however has already approached the team and caused some stirr (Mike Gascoigne threatening to leave if Ralf comes). Liuzzi and Klien wil be testing for Force India this week in Barcelona, as will Roldan Rodriguez, Giedo van der Garde and Adrian Sutil. The fact that Liuzzi and Klien are scheduled to test on the same day as Sutil may suggest they are going to be compared with Sutil.

You do not have to the best if what you can offer is in very limited supply …

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

So after wenting my disapointment with the latest issue of the F1 racing magazine I actually flipped the pages and read some stuff. There is an article on the customer cars issue and it is quite surprising that not much of what is said in there surfaced on the web so far.

So  what is it that F1 Racing has learnt ?

There has been a meeting among the team principals on Saturday morning of the Brazilian GP at which Bernie said the following:

“It suited us (Bernie, Max) two years ago to foster and develop the idea  of customer cars. But we don’t like the idea any more so I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

Read the rest of this entry »

F1Wolf

labels: plugin code here

I kind of predicted in my post Test Drivers Helmets from March 11 that we may see some of the test drivers on the grid. Not that I am such a visionary, but this happens more less every season. Winkelhock is the first one of them to get promotion to the race seat, although so far for one race only. This creates all German line up for Spyker. It also means there will be five German drivers on the grid of European GP in Germany.
Read the rest of this entry »

f1wolf

labels: plugin code here