Only about a week ago an annoucement finally came from Super Aguri. The unofficial Honda B-team has been acquired by the Magma group. No details have been made public yet but the news emerged that major staff reshuffle and change of the name for the team is planned shortly.

Today Dietrich Mateschitz confirmed what newspapers have been speculating about for months - the Scuderia Toro Rosso, the Red Bull’s junior team is up for sale.

“It is not a big secret that we have put Toro Rosso on the market. For the start of 2010 there will be a rule change and there will be no more synergy regarding design and construction of cars between Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso. There I see the necessity that we continue with one team only. We will not sell Toro Rosso during the 2008 season, but it will be before 2010.”

Other than saying that he would sell only to a quality buyer he did not reveal much. In the past the team was linked to A1 chairman Tony Teixeira and even Michael Schumacher . The sightings of Roustam Tariko and Gerhard Berger in Melbourne sparked rumours the Russian businessman may be the one looking to buy.

This along with the Prodrive fiasco means the end of customer cars and the B-teams era in Formula 1 is near.

F1Wolf

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Super Aguri confirmed their 2008 drivers line up just in time to make the final chapter of the 2008 F1 Team Mates series. So at least early on in the season we will again see both Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson racing for the freshly sold team.

Takuma Sato - Japan
Born: 28 January 1977
In F1 since 2002 - Jordan, 2003 - 2005 BAR Honda, 2006 - 2008 Super Aguri
Best Result: 8th (2004)
Career wins: 0
Pole positions: 0
Podium Finishes: 1

Sato is the reason this team exists and so it is no surprise Super Aguri keeps him for another season. Unless he decides to leave himself I can’t imagine him not racing for Super Aguri, as long as it remains Super Aguri. He had rather good season last year. He scored the first points for the tiny Japanese team. His overtaking maneuvre on Fernando Alonso in Canada was one of the highlights of the 2007 season. Sato did perform some interesting racing stunts during his F1 career even with traction control and other electronics. It will be interesting to watch him without the driver aids especially with so little winter testing.

Anthony Davidson - Great Britain
Born:18 April 1979
In F1 since 2002 - Minardi, 2005 - BAR Honda (1 race), 2007 - 2008 Super Aguri (he tested for BAR and Honda from 2001 to 2006)
Best result: 23th (2007)
Career wins: 0
Pole positions: 0
Podium finishes: 0
Best race finish: 11th

After several years as Honda test driver Anthony Davidson finally graduated to F1 racing seat last year. His F1 race debut came in 2002 for Minardi, when he took over from not exactly quick Alex Yoong for 2 races. His next chance came when Sato called in sick in Sepang in 2005 but Davidson’s race lasted only for about 2 laps. While a test driver he was always quick during the Friday free practice sessions back in the days when team could run 3 drivers on Friday, regularly topping the time sheets. He did not do too bad in his first full racing season. He had few decent qualfying sessions. He even had a good chance to score some points in the mad race in Canada until his car hit some small animal crossing the track. Last year his goal were some points, this year his only realistic target will be beating Sato.

F1Wolf’s prediction for Super Aguri drivers in 2008:
Sato and Davidson will be pretty evenly matched and no team orders will be tying them up while fighting for 21st and 22nd place. Sato’s stats will be a bit better at the end of the season, but none of these drivers will score points in 2008. This all of course only in case Sato and Davidson remain with the team for the entire season.

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
2008 F1 Season - Team Mates - Honda
2008 F1 Season - Team Mates - Toro Rosso
2008 F1 Season - Team Mates - Force India

F1Wolf

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The waiting is over. Super Aguri team announced today they concluded acquisition talks with the Magma Group. At the same time the team confirmed Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson as their race drivers for the 2008 season.

Aguri Suzuki, team principal:

“I am pleased to announce our new partner and drivers finally at this late stage. I am looking forward to a successful and long lasting collaboration with Magma Group. About Drivers, as I have wanted them to continue their work in our team, I was not worried at all about our drivers for 2008. It will be a big advantage for us that we can continue working with them this year. For Anthony, as this season will be his second as a racing driver, I am expecting him to achieve some points. For Takuma, I would like him to repeat the excellent work he did last season. It will be an interesting season and we will try our best to help them achieve these goals.”

Well, securing the finances is one thing, but scoring points with only 3 days of winter testing may only happen in their dreams… But hey, they are still around and that counts at the moment.

F1Wolf

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My shout on Twitter earlier today calling for some news from Super Aguri was answered . The team broke the radio silence the team’s co-owner Mr. Akita has some news to share with us through Reuters. Unfortunately the only thing that seems to sure (or does it ? ) is Super Aguri’s presence in Melbourne.

“The cancellation was because some parts hadn’t arrived in time. We are usually scrambling to be ready for the start of the season. It was very tight last year and this year is following the same pattern. But we will be on the grid for Melbourne. We’re not worried at all about missing out.”

However there is not much news yet on the takeover or investment news, only statement of the fact that the talks are still going on:

“Talks are still going on and I’m told there are three potential investors. Obviously, we have to think of the future and what’s best for the team.”

This remark however suggests that even total sale (or buyout) of the team would be considered:

“It might be 100 percent. But obviously any sponsors or investors who leave the infrastructure there and back the team to improve results would be ideal. How much any potential stake in the team would be does depend on the conditions the investor has. But even if it’s a 100 percent stake you can’t sensibly get rid of the team per se.”

Well, and this is an intersting hint… Does this describe something that actually is on the table ?

“If you have no Aguri (Suzuki) you probably lose Honda as engine suppliers. If investors come in and say they can bring in BMW engines that’s a different story. But even if we give up 100 percent share it doesn’t necessarily mean the owner or the team name goes with it.”

No word on the drivers yet … Sato and Davidson still have to wait …

F1Wolf

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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.”

Read the rest of this entry »

F1Wolf

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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

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Make or break - is the nature of the trip to Japan Aguri Suzuki embarked on ? Perhaps not. According to the news reports Aguri Suzuki travelled to Japan to hold talks with Honda the future of his financially troubled team. The latest reports coming from Japan suggest some news on the short term future of Super Aguri may be out during this weekend.

There are 2 possible reasons for these talks:

a) Despite all the efforts from Aguri Suzuki there are no new backers, sponsors or investors in sight and therefore Honda may have to foot most of the Super Aguri bill. Suzuki needs to find out how much of financial support and for how long he may count on.

b) More likely scenario is that Suzuki has several bids for the team on the table but they are either not very acceptable to him (perhaps asking for more he is prepared to offer) or the conditions of the investors may not be acceptable to Honda (like the demand for race seat for Narain Karthikeyan from Spice Group).

I expect some solution that will keep Super Aguri on the grid this year to come out of these talks. What kind of solution it will be likely depends on how much can Honda compromise and how they see the long term future of Super Aguri. If Honda’s plans with Aguri do not extend beyond 2008, they may simply pay the bills this year and give Suzuki free hand in making any deals with any investors, buyers or sponsors from 2009 onwards. If their plans are long term but do not include paying all the bills, they may have to compromise right now. This would mean accepting some of the conditions the prospective backers may have even if Honda is not too comfortable with them.

I however already feel sorry for Super Aguri in 2008. No matter what will come out of the talks it looks like they will end up stuck with Honda RA107 car …

UPDATE - No deal has been concluded yet in Japan and Super Aguri will miss the final round of tests in Japan. The talks between Aguri Suzuki, Honda and apparently also some potential investors still continue. Despite missing the final test the team seems to continue the preparations for the Australian GP.

F1Wolf

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If you expect this post to talk about Fernando Alonso’s views on the racism in F1 and the Lewis Hamilton abuse in Spain that made it to the media today, then you are wrong. I am going to talk about how Fernando Alonso sees the form of the teams ahead of the 2008 Formula 1 season .

Mark Gene, the Ferrari test driver, raised his suspicion few days ago, that Renault may be deliberately hiding their true performance. When reading what Alonso had to say, one either has to fully agree or fully disagree with Mark Gene… Make your pick:

“We are very far, very far. I think it’s looking like at the end of last year: two Ferraris, two McLarens and two BMWs, and if everything goes like that, you can almost only fight for seventh place. Thinking about the podium would be too optimistic right now, but then you arrive in the first grand prix, you start warming up in practice, your morale starts going up and you think you can be on the podium. But right now, thinking coldly, reaching the podium is a dream. In our current shape it will be hard to make it into Q3.”

He was also quoted saying:

“We are not in a position to do anything about McLaren, Ferrari or BMW. Ferrari are favourites but they’re not in a different world. We however belong more to the group including Williams and Red Bull.”

Another interesting observation for double world champ that I haven’t hear from anybody else yet refers to BMW Sauber:

“They are very fast with a lot of fuel. Sometimes you look at their times, and you see what they’ve done in stints of 25 or 30 laps. That is, with 60 or 70 kilos of fuel. They have surprised me the most in the last two or three tests.”

Now this needs some translation to fanspeak:

- Ferarri are the quickest but not as far ahead as it may seem
- McLaren and BMW Sauber are not far behind and it may actually be BMW Sauber sandbagging and not showing their true form yet.
- Alonso does not consider Williams to be the 3rd best as lots of fans do and many hope for.
- Renault, Red Bull and Williams form the strong midfield of six cars fighting for 4 spare places in Q3
- Without mentioning Honda and Toyota he sends them where most fans, bloggers and insiders send them too
- Toro Rosso, Force India and Super Aguri are not on his radar

I must say, that his predictions (translated by me) are almost identical to mine. Just it looks like I have more confidence in Renault than Fernando Alonso has . Or are the Renault guys really making these “we are very far” claims up ?

F1Wolf

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Few days back I spotted the predictions for the 2008 Formula 1 season made by the Swiss paper Blick based on the winter testing form of the teams. Here is how they predict the form of all 11 F1 teams for the coming season:

Blick has Ferrari and McLaren at the top followed by … Williams. Then follow Renault and BMW Sauber. Red Bull and Toro Rosso next, ahead of Toyota and Honda. Force India is closing the Blick’s top ten. The in-the-trouble Super Aguri is expected to be at the tail of the order.

Now let’s see how it compares with my 2008 F1 team form prediction

• F1 Wolf / Blick

1. Ferrari / Ferrari
2. Mclaren / McLaren
3. Renault / Williams
4. BMW Sauber / Renault
5. Williams / BMW Sauber
6. Red Bull / Red Bull
7. Toyota / Toro Rosso
8. Honda / Toyota
9. Toro Rosso / Honda
10. Force India / Force India
11. Super Aguri / Super Aguri

Blick’s prediction is not bad, but I am for the moment sticking with mine

F1Wolf

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All the teams except Toyota and Ferrari, but finally including Super Aguri, tested in Jerez last week. Williams and Red Bull tested for 4 days, the rest for 3 days only.

As usual it is hard to read into the times. But there are few things that are becoming obvious:

McLarens did look like the fastest cars out of the Jerez pack, although on Wednesday Mark Webber, Nico Rosberg, Kazuki Nakajima, Fernando Alonso and Robert Kubica all managed better times than quickest of McLaren’s - Lewis Hamilton. A day later however it was Heikki Kovalainen on top, and around 1.5 second faster than Lewis Hamilton. This big difference suggests that each driver was on different program… They also tried out some weird looking wheel covers.

How close to or ahead of Ferrari they are is everybody’s guess…

Red Bull and Williams did very well. The ugly fin on Red Bull seems to be working and looks set to stay … Nakajima is quite impressive in Williams and I would lie if I say I expected him to be pretty much on par with Nico Rosberg. The races may be different story, but so far so good for Williams and for Nakajima. BMW and Renault are 2 other teams that form the very strong upper midfield group. These four may be a bit behind McLaren at the moment, but it looks like the days of top 6 pre-booked for Ferrari, McLaren and BMW drivers are over. The Q2s are going to be very intense with 12 cars at least fighting it out for 10 places in Q3 …

Then there is Toro Rosso somehow standing alone between the top and the bottom. Vettel seems to be a tenth or two faster than Bourdais. They are still running the old car, the new one not expected before the beginning of the European F1 season. But judging from their current form, starting the season with an old car is not going to hurt them.

Force India car, despite getting a facelift, remains firmly among the backmarkers. There however seems to be quite a difference between performances of Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil (and Tonio Liuzzi). Looks like Fisi is out to prove his critics wrong …

Honda still lacks the speed and the three second gap between Button and Kovalainen on Thursday looks scary. But the guys at Honda seem to be happy and quite upbeat after the Jerez test. Clearly clocking quick times was not why they went to Jerez. The updates expected for the final test in Barcelona are supposed to address all the issues with the car the team has identified, so let’s wait and see …

Super Aguri made it clear to the world they still exist. Both Sato and Davidson (although still without contract for 2008) took the car around the Jerez track. They were slower than Honda proper, but the gaps were just around a tenth of a second. Unfortunately these days being a tenth slower than Honda is not a exactly good news.

F1Wolf

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