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F1 2007
Fernando Alonso(McLaren Mercadies) 1 (50%)
Lewis Hamilton(McLaren Mercadies) 0 (0%)
Kimi Riakonen(Ferrari) 0 (0%)
Filepe Massa(Ferrari) 0 (0%)
Giancarlo Fisichella(Renult) 0 (0%)
Heikki Kovalainen(Renult) 0 (0%)
Rubens Barrichello(Honda) 0 (0%)
Jenson Button(Honda) 1 (50%)
Robert Kubica(BMW) 0 (0%)
Nick Hiendfeld(BMW 0 (0%)
Ralf Schumacher(Toyota) 0 (0%)
Jarno Trulli(Toyota) 0 (0%)
Mark Webber(Red Bull Ferrari Racing) 0 (0%)
David Couthard(Red Bull Ferrari Racing) 0 (0%)
Nico Rosberg(Williams) 0 (0%)
Anyone else? 0 (0%)
Total Votes: 2
F1 2007
Topic Started: Jan 8 2007, 05:41 PM (333 Views)
Lee Vilenski
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ITV.com
 
Commentator Martin Brundle takes us down the grid and analyses who was hot and who was not in 2006.

In the latest part of our 2006 Christmas round-up, Martin tells it like it is, as well as how it might be as we look forward to another gloriously unpredictable new F1 season, less than three months from now.

In part one of his team-by-team review he looks at the top five from last season…

Renault

Renault wasn't always the ‘team to beat’ this year.

Ferrari just edges that one because of the way it came back and developed its car through the year.

But Renault handled losing its mass damper system incredibly well, and kept fighting nobly when it looked like the titles were slipping away.

Alonso was the best driver out there.

He soaked up as much pressure as the team did in the latter stages of the championship and as a combination they were enough to beat Michael Schumacher and Ferrari.

They did the same thing with Kimi Raikkonen and McLaren in 2005.

I think it will be interesting to see how much of a contribution Alonso made to Renault's campaign.

In 2007, Giancarlo Fisichella must lead the team and, as good as he is, he scored half the points of Alonso in 2006.

Is he the natural replacement for Alonso? I don't think so. His new team-mate Heikki Kovalainen is also very good, but he will have a lot to learn in his rookie year.

But has Renault got a driver line-up that's ready to take on Alonso and Raikkonen?  Probably not.

Then there is the switch to Bridgestone tyres.

All of the ex-Michelin teams have found that the different dynamic profile and size of Japanese tyres affect their aerodynamics significantly. 

It’s going to be difficult for Renault to retain its titles in 2007.


Ferrari

I was just so impressed by the might of the resource of Ferrari this year.

To start the season so badly and then haul itself all the way back into the thick of a title fight was amazing.

Remember that Ferrari also came back massively in 2006, after a disastrous '05, and by the end of this year its car was the fastest on the track by a long way.

Was that as much Bridgestone as Ferrari?  Both, in reality.

Ferrari has to absorb as big a blow as Renault has in 2006, with the retirement of Michael Schumacher, and the loss of Ross Brawn and Paulo Martinelli.

It will hit them quite hard, especially losing somebody with the focus and calming influence of Ross.

But Ferrari ended the season with a lot of momentum and you don't lose that in a hurry.

It's like a big fly-wheel that takes a long time to build up, and when you've got that inertia…

Ferrari has got the quality in depth and I would fully expect it to come through this tricky patch.

With its knowledge of Bridgestones, Raikkonen's pace and legendary reliability on its side, for me Ferrari will start the season as favourite.

But only just…


McLaren

McLaren went from having the fastest car in the pack to going the whole season without a win.

And a lot of that was down to its drivers.

The whole destabilisation with Juan Pablo Montoya, who left mid-season to race in NASCAR, had a negative effect.

The team also had reliability issues and Kimi Raikkonen, partly because of that, did not reach his top form.

But I think Alonso in a McLaren will win races pretty early doors.

Like Renault, it has to get used to the Bridgestone tyres, and Alonso has got quite an unusual driving style, so it will be interesting to see if they try and copy Renault's unique strategy of weight distribution.

I don't think McLaren have the same momentum Raikkonen inherits at Ferrari but it is another team with enough quality in depth that it ought to be able to build a strong and fast car.

Even without Adrian Newey.

There are some very clever people at McLaren and I would never underestimate them.

And we have already seen what Alonso can do, he can drive around anything.

On the other hand for McLaren newboy Lewis Hamilton it doesn't get any more difficult than this.

With no experience it's a tall order stepping into a works team and going up against the reigning world champion.

Then add on the inevitable media blitz and you have one of the toughest debut seasons in F1 history.

He is going to need every ounce of his undoubted speed and skill and yet-to-be established maturity to pull it off.

The expectation level will be lowered to an extent against Fernando Alonso, but in my experience that's not how it really works.

F1 is a cruel business and you don't get cut any slack by anybody at any time.

He will either sink or swim and I very much hope he swims. We all need him in this sport.


Honda

Honda could be the dark horse in 2007.

It has great momentum going into the winter and has proved it can use Bridgestone tyres to good effect in the past.

But when I think of the budget, people and momentum that they have, it shouldn't even be a dark horse.

It should be a title contender.

In 2006 Honda still failed to prove it could be a consistent front-runner, despite winning the winter-testing war.

But now a lot of competitors have been destabilised, and there has been a lot of change in all the other teams.

Honda should be able to capitalise on that given their relative stability.

I think Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button should be right in there from the get-go.


BMW

BMW continued to improve throughout 2006 in an impressive way.


Actually I thought Villeneuve did a very strong job for them and enhanced his perceived value and probably damaged Heidfeld’s.

I liked Jacques more as I got to know him better.  A complex man but intelligent and fascinating at the same time. 


Exiting the team was a shame for him but allowed Robert Kubica to come in and continue shining after his Friday testing performances.

Kubica seemed to bring a whole new level of energy and focus which forced Heidfeld to raise his game.

Kubica’s podium in Monza was well deserved but he and Heidfeld hardly make the most charismatic and dynamic of pairings out of the car.

Another team that should be right in there on resources is Toyota, yet it isn't.

It has just added yet another ‘boss’ into the mix.

So from what I can see there are three people with their hands on the steering wheel and that's never going to work.

Obviously the team lost (technical director) Mike Gascoyne mid-season.

The other problem it faces is where the factory is based in Cologne.

With all the working regulations in Germany, I always felt they were doing it in the wrong place.

To attract key leaders in the various departments is quite difficult anyway, but having seven of the 11 teams being based in the UK, Ferrari and Toro Rosso in Italy and BMW in Switzerland, just makes it harder.

Toyota also seems to have a corporate leadership rather than a sporting one and for me if you are looking for reasons why it hasn't delivered since coming into F1, then they are the two key ones.

Perhaps another is its driver selection.

Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli are good professional race drivers, but I can't understand why Toyota has kept them both on long-term deals.

It could have brought in some fresh blood to provide much-needed new energy.

Just look at the way Robert Kubica has brought BMW to life for example.


Red Bull/Toro Rosso

Red Bull quite clearly chose to abandon the RB2 early on and focus on '07 and they just fell badly down the grid.

There is nothing more to be said than that.

But it could be a completely different story in 2007.

With Renault engines, two quick drivers and Adrian Newey designing the car, there are few limits to what can be achieved.

I think it could be the making of Mark Webber.

Certainly it's the chance he has been looking for and both he and David Coulthard will be looking over their shoulders at the young drivers.

It could be DC's best season for years. He has still got it and if he smells a result there's no stopping him.

Wherever DC started among the four Red Bull cars this year, (and whenever I looked at the screen they appeared to be line astern), he usually managed to find his way to the front of them by the end of the race.

As for STR, much depends on how hard Williams and Spyker fight against the cars they plan to use.

In 2006 I was completely underwhelmed.

Scott Speed was all mouth and no results and I don't understand why either he or Tonio Liuzzi made so many mistakes.

The car should have been quite easy to drive.

It was the same car DC and Klien were driving the year before, albeit with 150 less horsepower, and you didn't see them spinning off the road every five minutes.

I sensed Gerhard Berger was a bit frustrated with his driving line-up and I think he was right to be so.


Williams

It was a shame to see Williams having such a bad time of it.

I don't fully understand either, because when you think of Nico Rosberg in the first race in Bahrain it was just amazing.

He set the fastest lap and drove past just about everything.

Mark Webber led the race in Australia and looked very strong again in Monaco.

But reliability let the team down badly.

Williams lost its momentum and then seemed to lose its way completely.

The Webber/Williams relationship also fell horribly apart, and that became really outwardly apparent by the end of the season.

Nobody likes to see that.

It now has the chance to bring it all back together with Toyota engines and new money (AT&T), next year.

But what's needed now is a clear succession in the team, from a management point of view.

Williams has got to re-establish reliability and driveability and then get back to basics. It needs to get the team united and empowered, and the drivers focussed and confident and then go from there.

It lost all of that this year.


Super Aguri/Midland Spyker

It remains to be seen, but if Super Aguri is allowed to run Honda hardware, I think Anthony Davidson could have a very strong season. And Takuma Sato.

I thought SA did an extraordinary job this year.

For a team that had got nothing together this time last year, it was just bloody amazing.

Spyker, too, got better as the season went on.

That was another team that really improved its car from the start of the year.

I think Spyker benefited from better Bridgestones, when they came on song, but when you look at how far off pole they averaged, it was bloody impressive.

As for next year, Mike Gascoyne ought to be able take them forward.
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Put a quote thing around it so we know where it came from ;)

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I hope Fernando Alonso or Lewis Hamilton win it! Go McLaren!
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Rosenborg91
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Go Alonso! :D
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Lee Vilenski
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Oh nice one! I got my monthly version of F1 Racing in the post yesterday. They had a 16-page view of all of the testing. Even though Jenson did no winter tests at all, Honda had the fastest car on the grid on every single test.
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