2008 Line up and Predictions

[MikeLane]

Looking Forward to the 2008 Formula 1 Grand Prix Season

By

Mike Lane

As we approach the first race in Australia on the 16th March 2008, what changes have been made to the FIA Regulations for this season, what is the makeup of the teams competing and what might we expect, taking into consideration the winter testing of the new cars?

The FIA have introduced the following changes to the regulations for 2008.

1) Engine Changes:- Drivers must use the same engine for two consecutive races. If that engine fails during final practice a grid penalty of 10 places will be given. However, if the engine fails during or following qualifying the penalty will be to go to the back of the grid.

This is the same as last season, but for 2008 each driver can have one engine change per season free of penalty, except during the last event of the season.

2) Gearboxes:- Drivers must use the same gearbox for four consecutive meetings. If a gearbox fails, the penalty will be a five places drop down the grid. If a driver fails to finish a race, he can start the next event with a new gearbox without penalty.

3) Electronic Control Units (ECUs):- Every team must use a standardised, FIA approved ECU. Not only will this standardise development in this area, the ECUs will also run FIA software, which will enable the FIA to monitor each cars performance.

4) Traction and launch control:- These two devices are now banned and should lead to more reliance in driver skills. This will be particularly relevant at the start of a race and during cornering. We should see more driver errors and therefore more opportunity for overtaking.

5) Qualifying:- The familiar format of three qualifying sessions, Q1,Q2 and Q3 have been altered. Q1 will now be 20 minutes instead of 15 minutes.

Q2 remains the same at 15 minutes, whilst Q3 has been reduced from 15 minutes to 10. In addition, cars in Q3 will no longer get back the fuel used in that session and must start the race with whatever fuel they have left at the end.

6) Cockpit safety:- The height of the cockpit padding and therefore the cockpit sides has been raised to further improve protection to the driver’s head in the event of an impact.

7) Biofuel:- From 2008, at least 5.75 per cent of all fuel must contain biomatter. In a bid to make Formula One racing appear more environmentally friendly, all cars must therefore be designed to be biofuel compliant.

The two areas likely, in my opinion, to be the most interesting are the banning of traction control and launch control, together with the change to Q3 in the qualifying sessions.

The loss of the traction and launch controls should bring back differences in driver skill levels and thus be a better comparison.

With regard to Q3 changes, I anticipate some interesting strategies will develop. Cars must carry the fuel in Q3 that will last through to the race and therefore some difficult decisions will need to be made. Should one carry a good fuel load for the race but compromise the qualifying speed, or carry a light fuel load for qualifying performance but then have to pit early in the race for fuel.

The decisions required will be more critical at certain circuits, like Monaco, where overtaking is difficult.

Team line-ups for 2008 are as follows:-

Team ------------ Car ----------------- Drivers

Ferrari -------------- AWB54 ------- Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa.

McLaren ------------- MP4-23 ------ Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen.

BMW Sauber ------- F1.08 --------- Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica.

Renault -------------- R28 ---------- Fernando Alonso and Nelsinho Piquet.

Williams ------------- FW30 -------- Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima.

Toyota --------------- TF108 ------- Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock.

Red Bull ------------- RB4 ---------- David Coultard and Mark Webber.

Toro Rosso ---------- ---------- Sebastian Vettel and Sebastien Bourdais.

Honda -------------- RA108 -------- Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello.

Super Aguri -------- SA08 --------- Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson.

Force India --------- --------- Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella

Engines.

Williams have Toyota engines.

Red Bull have Renault engines.

Super Aguri have Honda engines.

Toro Rosso have Ferrari engines.

Force India have Ferrari engines.

Every other team has it’s own engines.

Circuits.

Australia GP 14-16 March Albert Park, Melbourne.
Malaysia GP 21-23 March Kuala Lumpar.
Bahrain GP 4-6 April Sakhir.
Spain GP 25-27 April Catalunya, Barcelona.
Turkey GP 9-11 May Istanbul.
Monaco GP 22-25 May Monte Carlo.
Canada GP 6-8 June Montreal.
France GP 20-22 June Magny Cours.
Britain GP 4-6 July Silverstone.
Germany GP 18-20 July Hockenheim
Hungary GP 1-3 August Budapest.
Europe GP 22-24 August Valencia, Spain.
Belgium GP 5-7 September Spa, Francorchamps.
Italy GP 12-14 September Monza.
Singapore GP 26-28 September Singapore.
Japan GP 10-12 October Fuji Speedway.
Brazil GP 31 October-2 November Sao Paulo.


So for 2008 we have two new circuits, one new team and three new drivers.

Both new circuits are street circuits, which should add some interest and drama, with Singapore hosting the first night Grand Prix. Lighting is said to have been up-rated to give daylight levels of visibility, but nevertheless will add to the mix for this season.

The new team is the former Spyker team, which has been bought by Indian billionare, Dr. Vijay Mallya. This should indicate a well financed team and with Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil as drivers, I hope for a much better season than recent ones. Of course finance isn’t the only factor, as Toyota and Honda can attest to, but the package looks encouraging and I will be following their progress with interest.

Lastly the three new drivers, Nelsinho Piquet for Renault, Timo Glock for Toyota and Sebastien Bourdais for Toro Rosso. Nelsinho Piquet is Brazilian and the son of Nelson Piquet, former World Champion. He impressed last season as Renault test driver. Timo Glock is German and had four F1 races for Jordan in 2004 before racing in the Champ car series in the USA during 2005. In 2007 he was GP2 champion and test driver for BMW Sauber. Sebastien Bourdais is French and has raced in the Champ car series in the USA since 2003. He was Champion in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.
All three drivers have impressive pedigrees and it will be fascinating to watch their progress. My guess is that it’s any ones bet as to who will shine the best out of the three.

Predictions for 2008.

When trying to anticipate where the teams will be for the first race, it is worthwhile remembering where they were for the last two or three races last season. Back tracking here is what we see.

Ferrari and McLaren were in front of the rest by a country mile in terms of performance in qualifying and races. They also had four of the strongest drivers in terms of race results. The nearest rival was BMW with the rest playing catch up.

Next we can look at the winter testing performances to see if there might be any further clues. The problem with that is that the teams are all running different programmes at different times and these may be for development, tyre analysis or reliability checks etc. This can be seen if you examine the drivers topping the time schedules on each day at the various circuits. You often see some surprising results with less competitive teams showing best times on any particular day or session.

What we can say is that Ferrari appear to have kept up their momentum from last year, as does McLaren. I can see no reason to doubt that they will represent the front runners again this season.

BMW has also shown good form over the winter but the new car does seem to have some lively aspects to its chassis, which may test both Heidfeld and Kubica.

Williams appears to have cemented their re-emergence of form and together with Renault may provide a challenge to BMW for that third spot.

It is difficult to see evidence of any startling step forward with Red Bull, Toyota or Honda and these teams may well struggle again this year.

Force India appears to have improved over the winter and might well cause some upset in the mid field. If so, Super Aguri and Toro Rosso will be under some pressure to improve so as not to find themselves at the bottom of the field.

I think what we can say is that the 2008 season promises to be a fascinating one. We have new rules, new circuits, a new team and new drivers. We also have some new driver line-ups in the teams.

At the top, Ferrari have the consistency whilst McLaren have a new driver line-up.

Can Hamilton step up as the lead driver after his sensational ‘rookie’ season or will Kovalainen give him a fright. Certainly over the winter the young Finn has been seriously quick. I would still bet on Hamilton to deliver and I think it will be fascinating to see the battle ahead.

How will the new rules affect performances? With the banning of traction control and the prospect of more driver errors, overtaking opportunities should be more prevalent and you wouldn’t bet against Hamilton shining in that particular aspect of racing, now would you?

Of course we must not forget Raikkonen, who at last has the World Championship under his belt and is now settled at Ferrari. With the performance of the car over the winter I would expect him to be very strong right from the first race in Melbourne at the weekend.

One thing we can say with some certainty is that the 2008 season promises much and on Saturday we will see if it starts to live up to that expectation.

Mike Lane
F1 Correspondent - Home Base - England

[rookie]

After Qualifying it looks like the new rules will make for an interesting season.

[Mikey uk]

Well after yesterday's race, looks like Mike Lane could be right in predicting a fascinating season. The result sheets were nicely turned around.

Regards to all