F1 Season preview

Not sure if anyone else has been following pre-season testing in Valencia and Bahrain... some interesting stuff coming up...

Williams are looking quite solid. Their times are in the upper-mid range and they have some nice aero developments which might suit long-run driving.

Ferrari are doing well but I suspect their performance, consistently near the top, and totally on top last week in Bahrain.. but grumblings are starting to begin about the closeness of Ferrari and Bridgestone in the tire development stage - tires which everyone now has to use (even though they were essentially designed by Ferrari in conjunction with Bridgestone and for their car alone).

McLaren are looking very, very good. The new car is riding the curbs well - Alonso, Hamilton and De la Rosa have all been top of time sheets numberous times - showing the car is very good. Alonso has not had problems with his driving style either which, previously, some thought wouldn't suit the McLaren.

Renault are also looking pretty solid... although this year will be Fisichella's last unless he does wonders. Shame he's never lived up to his talent.

Honda, again, will talk big and probably do nothing of significance.

RW

I agree with most of what you have summed up there.

Though I am suprised at the lack of mention for both BMW, and Anthony Davidson in the Super Aguri, both have been performing strongly, and AD is leaving Taku for dead.

Not so sure about BMW's performances. I really like Nick Heidfeld and think he will be a big force in the coming years.. but some of their super-fast times have come on days when their cars ran out of gas on the track. Their car is good and Mario Theissen isn't a mug at all, I'm just not convinced they'll be a top team this year.

Super Aguri.. haven't really been following the teams who really have stuff-all chance of doing anything special this year.

RW

For me it's been the times I have noticed Davidson's name in or around the top 10, has always been a great 3rd driver, let's see if that translates to the track proper.

I hope to hell too.. He is great and, like Wurz/De La Rosa these guys keeping getting superceded by newbies when, for most teams, they'd actually be better use if they weren't just the test driver.

Wurz and De La Rosa have wasted the best parts of their careers waiting for nothing. I'm sure they're highly valuable after their F1 careers though for road-car/tire testing.

RW

massa FTW

Unfortunately I doubt they grew up wanting to earn lots of money driving Honda Civics around test tracks though.

Wurz vs Rosberg should be interesting this year, the seasoned race/test driver vs one of the many hot new kids on the block.