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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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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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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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

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It is a pity we did not have chance to compare the pace of Ferrari with McLaren last weekend in Barcelona. Ferrari chose to test in Bahrain this week and along with them came Toyota.

Without comparison with other teams it is difficult to judge where these 2 teams stand. But the gap between Ferrari and Toyota on day 1 and day 2 of the Bahrain test is scary …

Bahrain - Day 1, February 4, 2008
1) K. Raikkonen - Ferrari - 01:32.079
2) L. Badoer - Ferrari - 01:33.323
3) T. Glock - Toyota - 01:33.418
4) K. Kobayashi - Toyota - 01:33.656

Gap Raikkonen to Glock + 1:339s

Bahrain - Day 2, February 5, 2008
1) K. Raikkonen - Ferrari - 01:30.595
2) L. Badoer - Ferrari - 01:32.230
3) T. Glock - Toyota - 01:32.889
4) J. Trulli - Toyota - 01:33.379

Gap Raikkonen to Glock + 2:294s

Yes, I am comparing Ferrari and Toyota and F1 champion with GP2 champion. Also both teams may be on totally different test programs. But still, almost 2.3 second gap is either sign of seriously slow Toyota or very formidable F2008 …

For comparison, the gap between fastest Mark Webber and slowest Jenson Button on Sunday in Barcelona was 1:423 second (on about 10 sec a lap shorter track).

While Ferrari are clearly set for another year at the sharp end of the grid, Toyota seems to be heading in Honda’s direction …

F1Wolf

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Eight teams have finished their weekend of testing in Barcelona. Three days and three different cars on the top. Hamilton (McLaren) on Friday, Vettel (Toro Rosso) on Saturday and Mark Webber (Red Bull) on Sunday.

In absence of Ferrari it was expected that the McLarens will be topping or be very very close to the top. Hamilton topped the sheets on Friday. On Saturday however Toro Rosso’s were both quicker than both McLarens and on Sunday Mark Webber managed to beat the silver cars. Overall the McLarens look good.

Toro Rosso team will not introduce their new car until few races into the 2008 season, so what they test now is an updated version of their 2007 car. Their Saturday impressive run might a bit misleading, as they an the car very light. However they did not do too bad also on Friday and Sunday. This definitelly was an encouraging weekend for the team.

Red Bull came up with a revolutionary design - implementing an ugly fin on the engine cover. And unfortunatelly it seems to be working Mark Webber’s fastest time on Sunday shows. If other teams get the hint, we may see more cars getting ugly.

BMW seem to have overcome the problems they experienced last week and they seem to be around 0.3 off the McLaren pace now. Renault is also clawing back, either the car has seen quite an improvement from last year or Fernando Alonso brought his famous 0.6 second with him. They do not seem to be 1 second behind McLaren any more. It looks pretty even between them and BMW Sauber.

Giancarlo Fisichella impressed o Friday with the 4th fastest time. Force India only tested with 1 car and neither Liuzzi nor Sutil were able to get anywhere near the time Fisi posted on Friday.

Williams did not do much in Barcelona. After Kazuki Nakajima’s crash the team did not continue on Friday. And when they realized the problems with their front wing mounting need more thorough fix, they decided to abandon the Barcelona test completely. A bit of a turn in their fortunes after the excelent form in Valencia. But one of the purposes of the tests is also to find out what does not work.

Photo: HondaRacingF1

And this leaves the poor Honda. The car simply is not good enough yet and the team has lots of job ahead to move up from the back of the field to midfield at least. According to Jenson Button the car “lacks the driveability” and the new ECU and the fact that the car is brand new are mentioned as the main reasons. The gap between Honda and the top is 1 and half second at the moment. If I was to bet on who will copy the ugly fin from Red Bull first, Honda would be my candidate.

On Sunday there were 7 teams within 1 second and if ad the impresive run of Fisi in Force India on Friday we can say the field is very tight at the moment. The only team visibly lagging behind right now is Honda. We have no comparison with Ferrari and Toyota this time, these 2 will be testing this week in Bahrain. The lack of news (other than takeover and driver rumours) from Super Aguri is a bit worrying.

Unfortunatelly it will not be the racing that will be making the headlines after the Barcelona test but the racist behaviour of some Spanish fans towards Lewis Hamilton …

F1Wolf

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Jarno Trulli expressed suspicion that some teams may have found a way around the new standard ECU developed and supplied by McLaren Electronic Systems.

“I’m not going to name any names, but I think that some teams have already found a way to automate the starting procedure and reduce to the minimum the chance of spinning the wheels under acceleration. I’m not saying someone’s cheating, even though we’ve received some conflicting information at Toyota. But having analysed the behaviour on the track both now and in the tests in December, the changes between them are many - and in several cases suspicious.”

Autosport also reports some “Paddock sources” saying that some cars did sound different under heavy acceleration during last week tests in Jerez. Only Honda and BMW did not run in Jerez last week, so if what Trulli says is true, there are quite a few suspects. The teams would be stupid to use something outright illegal, but pushing the limits to the edge of legality is common in the competitive world of F1. Remember BAR and their fuel tank in 2005 (banned for 2 races), Renault and their mass dampers in 2006, Ferrari and their flexi floor in Melbourne 2007…

The implementation of the standard ECU, was one of the reasons why it was possible to ban the traction control. It has been banned before, but quickly everybody found a way around it somewhere deep inside the car electronics and FIA had no other way than to make the TC legal again. Standard ECU should have been (among other things) a solution to the problem policing the TC ban.

If some of the teams indeed found a way around the standard ECU after only few months of working with it, than the TC ban might be shortlived again. It would be interesting to see what action (if any) will FIA take. Trulli may be right or he may be wrong. But in any case I hope that FIA goes ahead and investigates Trulli’s suspicions now. If there are to be any rulings on legality of any cars, FIA better make them before the racing begins. It would be nice if the 2008 Formula 1 season can start without a controversy.

F1Wolf

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… it is the same boring red and white monster . The 2008 F1 car launch season continued with the Toyota launch in Cologne, Germany. The Panasonic Toyota Racing team hopes that the new TF108 will move them closer to its long-term aim of winning races and fighting for the World Championship. As with the Ferrari and McLaren the continuing aero development will mean that the car they will bring to Melbourne may have entirely different look. Here are some photos of the TF108:

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F1Wolf

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Ralf Schumacher is not a bad driver. But even the best ones should know when to go…

The departure of Ralf Schumacher from Toyota was long expected. He was reportedly within a race of being fired during the summer but he managed to hold on to his seat till the end of the season. The expected announcement came in Shanghai, between the Japanese and Chinese GPs. What was unexpected was Ralf’s decision to leave instead of Toyota’s decision to let him go. Well, there are only few who believe that is how it happened…

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F1Wolf

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