Lewis mania! Well, what about it. It’s two words soon to be included in our dictionaries if things keep up. Is it a bad thing though? Jenson button doesn’t think so and why should he. Last season he could possibly have had some of the limelight if his season went the way he and his fans had anticipated it, but obviously it didn’t and 6 points is a bit embarrassing.

Back to Lewis mania. In some ways this actually benefited Jenson. The fact that his poor performance on behalf of a rotten car was kept low key allows him to deal with it without a throng of media following him constantly. Jenson himself has admitted that this was indeed the case.

“Until we get into a position where we can win races then it is going to be all about Hamilton, and I can understand that and I really have no issues with it.”

“It means I can get on and concentrate on developing the car with Honda.”

This year it is much the same with everything Lewis says being blown far out of proportion resulting in far less media attention being given to the Honda car launch. I’m not saying things were totally quiet in the Honda media camp, but without Lewis mania, there would have been more.

On the other hand, Button had some really good drives this past year, but this (you know what) kept even those out of the media. He’s a really good driver who had a really bad car, a guy who managed to wrestle the car into the points and only Honda fans and Jenson fans gave the middle of the grid a serious look.

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What was more anticipated, the car or the livery?

Honda revealed a different coloured car than we saw earlier this week at their official launch. The launch took place this morning at their headquarters in Brakley.

We’ve already seen the new RA108 on the track in it’s initial shakedown and a little bit of testing and initial impressions are, well, it’s better than last years car.

Honda has reaffirmed it’s commitment to F1 and is determined to revive a hurting team. One process in achieving this was to change direction in car design philosophy and this is exactly what is happening with help from a stronger engineering team with more experience. Ross Brawn having taken leadership has also steered this team in what they hope is a new direction and the right direction.

Livery! Toned down quite a bit and incorporating the teams’s Earthdreams Program. Essintially this is a concept representing Honda’s commitment to harnessing the passion of Formula One and its partners to provide support and investment for good causes through a unique cause related marketing initiative.

I’m really pulling for Honda this year. It was an embarrassing 2007 season Honda who have had such a successful time in F1 over the years. Let’s hope they can shave a few seconds.

Ross Brawn, Team Principal says:

“The RA108 car is a wholly different concept to its predecessors, in terms of its aerodynamic layout and mechanical structure. The design philosophy has been developed to allow greater scope for aerodynamic packaging and exploitation, particularly to facilitate the introduction of performance upgrades through the season.

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Monday, January 21

Monday, Williams showed their new car for 2008 in Valencia. Test driver Nico Hulkenberg gave it a good shakedown briefly before fog stopped the session until later in the day.

Renault also rolled out the R28 at Valencia, just over a week (10 days) from their official Paris launch date. Fog again was the story of the morning delaying any work until around midday. Fernando did eventually get out and put in a good 39 laps and declared himself satisfied in his first impression of the car.

“When you have your first day with a new car, you always have to take your time to check that all the systems are functioning correctly, and that is what we did today.”

“We were able to lengthen our runs little by little and ended the day with a 14-lap stint.

Nigel Stepney got himself back in the news today saying “It’s not my fault”. He apologized for the mess created by his actions but doesn’t feel responsible for the spy scandal nor the penalties McLaren incurred.

Tuesday, January 22

Darkness seems to be the new trend on track with the news that this years Malaysian grand prix may just be the last held in daylight. The Circuit chairman, Mokhzani Mahathir spoke with the New Straits Times and hinted he was investigating the possibility of a night race for 2009.

“Our target is to have the race at night next year and the same consultants who are doing the lighting for the Singapore grand prix are advising us on our lighting system.”

BMW-Sauber showed off a radical front nose wing at testing at the Valencia circuit on Tuesday.

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Rubens Barrichello has been in the news the past few days with his team, in particular the team’s CEO Nick Fry defending Rubens’ will to win. The jist of what he is saying is that yes Rubens has been around a long time and it is natural to get unmotivated when after driving top cars you get a ‘dog’. He gives Rubens the thumbs up for this year feeling that Rubens will be driven to perform and get everything out of the car. He was also talked up earlier in December by Ross Brawn when he says:

“Rubens has one year remaining of his contract.” “I think the past year was very difficult to judge either driver because of the problems with the car.”

“I don’t have any concerns about the drivers. There are much bigger challenges for the team overall and for me than the drivers.”

That said, Rubens gave an interview after some testing of the new RA108 and I just thought he was a little flat.

He says the car is better than last year’s, but that’s not saying much.

“There is not much to say,” Barrichello told autosport.com during testing at Valencia. “You could quite easily say it is better than the other one. That is not so difficult as the other one was tremendously bad.

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So far this pre-season, I’m fascinated by the new designs and ideas. Some modified, some copied and some a completely new concept. My previous post talked briefly about the new BMW-Sauber front wing and their use of the Ferrari style wheel fairings.

Looking at new photos from Valencia, BMW have now modified the wing area a bit by adding fins spreading out from above the nose, sort of antler shaped upwards forming a sort of endplate. Not much information is available on this yet.

McLaren also added their new front wheel fairings. These fairings remain static just as other teams wheel fairings, but they opted for quite a different approach in where the outlet is ahead of the wheel center line in a 4 o’clock - 7 o’clock position. The picture here shows a red arrow shows the internal duct leading air out in a spiral in the same direction the wheels turn.

Below is a photo before the new fins were added to the F1.08 and a photo with fins added to the F1.08.

Click on them for larger views.

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BMW-Sauber is on track in Valencia today to test it’s new front wing. The test is a comparison between their conventional front wind and this new radical design. Nick Heidfeld was in charge of the test today.

Willie Rampf also expects 2 tenths of a second gain per lap using the Ferrari-style wheel covers. BMW have of course been criticized for the use of these covers as they are suspiciously similar to the covers Ferrari debued in 2006. It should be noted that Toyota and Renault have also used variations of the covers.

Jumping on the criticism, Mario Theissen defended his team by saying essentially that in motorsports there are no patents allowing you to protect your ideas, so once a new idea can be seen on the track, it is fair game.

“There is a fundamental difference between motor sports and other technical industries,” BMW boss Mario Theissen explained.

“(In motor sports) there are no patents, so you cannot protect your own ideas once they come out of the factory and can be seen on the track.

“So applying ideas that are visible on the other cars is absolutely normal,” he added. “You get ideas from your competitors, and vice versa.”

It should be interesting to hear how the car handles with this new wing. If it is successful, other teams may adopt the style and of course the criticism will stop.

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Nigel Stepney wants to be in the news again, this time to (cough, cough) apologize to McLaren for their troubles and explain his side, all on public television. Stepnney actually says he never meant harm to come to McLaren as a result of his actions. Even by handing over confidential Ferrari documents, Stepney says he never intended for it to be used in a McLaren car. Now, if this is true, what did he really expect would happen to it. Here’s a little of what he had to say in an interview for World Motorsports:

“I don’t feel responsible in anyway at all for what happened at McLaren.”

“Obviously, it got a bit sensitive and somebody used information more than I actually thought it was, or not more than it should have been. “It should never have been used to that extreme.”

No, Nigel, it shouldn’t have been used to that extreme. If fact it shouldn’t have been used at all and it wouldn’t have if you didn’t hand it over. I don’t have any sympathy for stepney, he was the catalyst in the summer scandal affectionately known as stepneygate and only received the boot from Ferrari.

I certainly have no sympathy for McLaren for their part, but I would say McLaren were penalized enough and took it on the chin. I also believe they were made example of while the instigator was set free. This in itself should have been enough for him to simply disappear rather than actually appear on television. How much are they paying you Nigel?

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The first of 4 days of testing at Valencia got underway today, but only briefly. Williams and Renault, being the only 2 scheduled today were thwarted by fog and ended the day just an hour into it.

Renault, having their official R28 launch date on January 31, unveiled it early and on track in Valencia today. Despite the lated official launch, a shakedown and testing must be done in the interest of time prior to the launch, but after just a brief shakedown appearance amongst a throng of reporters, Fernando Alonso was pulled in by track officials due to poor visibility on track.

Initial looks at the new Renault R28 find it similar to the R27, but with a radically different front wing.

There will be much more on this car later.

Williams, without an official launch, revealed more detail about their car today when Nico Hulkenberg, their new test driver began the shakedown today.
The new FW30 is similar to the R29 in structure, and features a zero keel and dual pillar rear wing, with notable visual changes including a three plane front wing, increased sidepod top cooling louvres in view of the altered orientation of the water radiators, the sidepod and side impact sails and the increased cockpit sides for compliance with the new driver safety requirements.

Technical Director Sam Michael says:

“Our focus has been on performance as well as refining our packaging and weight distribution. We are designing a tidier car with a higher standard of build quality. The FW30 should represent a good step forward when all of the many small areas of attention and improvement are brought together in the overall package.”

Tomorrow, 9 other teams join Renault and Williams for the remaining days at Valencia and hopefully weather won’t play as much of a factor.

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The past couple of days have had me pulling out my hair over a blog caching problem. If you don’t know what I mean by caching, don’t worry about it. My host updated some things and F1-ToGo didn’t like it.

Anyway, the blog is hopefully running ok now. Speed may be an issue though. If it is, contact me so I know.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

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So what’s up with Ron Dennis? Rumors continue to float around about the future of Ron Dennis, and shakeups at McLaren are possible in the coming months before the new season starts. Will Dennis be there in the pits for McLaren or not? These are questions asked almost daily around the F1 world especially with those who love McLaren and those who hate them. Lets face it, Rond Dennis has been a fixture at McLaren since 1980 and the team has had quite a bit of success over those years, but has the scandal over the summer really tainted his image?

Fact is, he is still there and still in charge. Preparations for the 2008 season are in full swing and Dennis is right in the middle of it all. This being the case, would it be prudent to sack him or have him in a less obvious roll. I tend to believe he should remain at least until the conclusion of the upcoming season. Removing Dennis may cause even more problems in the near future than they are worth. Could it be that McLaren and their many partners consider what happened in 2007 as unfair and feel Mclaren and Dennis were railroaded? It’s a good argument and one that I hear on a regular basis. For now anyway, things remain status quo.

But what about this? There is another strong rumor coming into play that Daimler AG´s Mercedes intends to increase it’s stake in McLaren up to a majority share effectively sacking Ron Dennis. Some reports, not from the best sources say an agreement has already been reached and will be announced before season start, but news is so hard to come by that one wonders.

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