For most grand prix drivers the need to be with a winning team in a winning car is their all important driving force. Look at the likes of Fernando Alonso who simply cannot accept anything less than a chance to fight for the title. Nigel Mansell? Never would his volatile character allow him to drive at the back of the field knowing he would never have a chance at winning. The list goes on.

There are some notables however who have allowed their careers to ’suffer’ and their status as a grand prix driver decline after spending too long with a team going no where fast. Take Jacques Villeneuve for a prime example. He won the title with Williams in 1995, came 2nd in 1996 and then entered into a long and difficult venture with BAR Honda. At a time when his stock as an F1 driver was high, he gambled his career with a new team that stood no chance at success and eventually tore itself apart from the inside out. The longer he stayed with BAR, the older he got and the lower his stock as an F1 driver until after a short stint with BMW-Sauber, he was gone and no one batted an eyelash. Sad but true.

This same progression down the ranks has now struck Jenson Button. There is no question that Button’s rise in F1 has been full of struggles from his time with Williams in 2000, through the last year of Benetton and then at Renault where he was replaced by Fernando Alonso. In 2003 Button joined ill fated BAR-Honda and by 2004 was showing great potential finishing 3rd in the drivers championship. This was the Jenson Button we were suppose to see.

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Bloggers always have unique opinions on different topics so I’m now featuring popular [tag]F1 blogger[/tag] posts in the right sidebar delivered daily. Spreading the links around can only be a good thing.

Testing is fast coming to a close and although a lot of progress has been made, [tag]Timo Glock[/tag] is not Confident [tag]Toyota[/tag] have achieved their goal of Closing Gaps. Since this post, he may have had to eat his words a little as Toyota have begun to show more improvement than originally thought.

[tag]Bernie Ecclestone[/tag] is at it again, playing musical chairs with [tag]F1 circuits[/tag]. The [tag]British Grand Prix[/tag], and [tag]Australian Grand Prix[/tag] are targets while Russia and Portugal are looking for openings by 2010 or 2011.

Meanwhile in Australia, they aren’t crying yet about the future loss of their grand prix, instead they are opening the grid to [tag]Grid Boys[/tag]. Yes, guys will be prancing around the grid side by side with the girls at this year’s Australian Grand Prix.

[tag]Day 2 Testing at Jerez[/tag] showed [tag]McLaren[/tag] fighting hard to close the gaps between them and [tag]Ferrari[/tag] while [tag]BMW-Sauber[/tag] have finally, but maybe too late come to grips with the [tag]F1.08[/tag].
Williams are also showing good form this pre-season while Honda, what can I say, are just not moving anywhere yet.

In a strange move, Bernie Ecclestone has granted McLaren the 5th pit garage instead of their previously designated las pit garage. At this time it hasn’t been confirmed and I wait to see if indeed it is true and why.

After I posted this story, a reader commented that there is nowhere in the [tag]FIA Sporting Regulations[/tag] that explain how pit garages are designated. After some research, I cannot come up with that answer.

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Yesterday, the second last test session closed out leaving just Barcelona left before the start of the 2008 season. It is now pretty clear where teams will stack up come the season start and despite hours and hours of work some teams just haven’t accomplished their goals while others like say Ferrari have caused frustration for just about everyone.

[tag]Giancarlo Fisichella[/tag] echoes this with his stunning statement that Ferrari are the best and probably will dominate through the early part of the season with [tag]McLaren[/tag] close behind, and then the rest.

He is pleased with the progress and performance of his car and is predicting a faster car after a new update in Barcelona.

“At the beginning of the season it will be hard to stay out of the bottom (of the field), but we hope that we can gradually improve.”

[tag]Toyota[/tag] sat near the bottom of time sheets through most of testing, but pulled out something good in the last week with some pretty respectable times and are one of the few that have closed gaps to teams previously ahead of them. Their senior general chassis manager is now predicting serious gains between now and season start.

[tag]David Coulthard[/tag] has decided to lift spirits of [tag]Red Bull[/tag] fans by telling them not to believe too much in the test times Red Bull are pulling off. He says not to expect Red Bull to be front runners just yet.

[tag]Jenson Button[/tag], up and down with his feelings on his car says Honda made ‘good progress’ in Jerez, but more work is still needed and they are moving in the right direction.

Over 2 seconds off the pace with only a month to go? Yes, a lot more work is needed.

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3 posts in one day is a little off for me, but today, well…it happened.

Another good weather day at [tag]Jerez[/tag] except for the wind. 16 driver were out today and some because of wind ended their day early not expecting to get the data they needed. [tag]Lewis Hamilton[/tag] was one of them, quiting early at 15:00.

Even though wind was a factor, [tag]Mark Webber[/tag] in the [tag]Red Bull[/tag] came out on top with a 1:18.628 in 72 laps and had both [tag]Williams[/tag] right behind. Fuel loads were probably pretty good to achieve those times and clearly Williams has solved their wing mounting problem. [tag]Honda[/tag] continue to struggle with not much difference in their time from yesterday, but at least they weren’t last.
[tag]BMW-Sauber[/tag] with [tag]Nick Heidfeld[/tag] and [tag]Robert Kubica[/tag] piled on the laps today, but initially had long runs scheduled, but again, wind prevented any clear results and they abandoned that idea.

A few incidents on trace disrupted things a little. Coulthard parked unexpectedly on track and Nelson Piquet jr. copied later with an engine failure, and then Sebastien Bourdais caused a stoppage right near the end of the session.

1. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1min 18.628secs 72 laps
2. Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1min 19.091secs 98 laps
3. Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1min 19.215secs 91 laps
4. Fernando Alonso Renault 1min 19.710secs 104 laps
5. Robert Kubica BMW-Sauber 1min 19.829secs 116 laps
6. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1min 19.857secs 68 laps
7. David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 1min 19.883secs 97 laps
8. Sebastian Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1min 19.889secs 114 laps
9. Nelson Piquet Renault 1min 20.014secs 110 laps
10. Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1min 20.152secs 84 laps
11. Nick Heidfeld BMW-Sauber 1min 20.201secs 109 laps
12. Sebastien Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1min 20.536secs 76 laps
13. Jenson Button Honda 1min 21.147secs 85 laps
14. Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 1min 21.376secs 101 laps
15. Rubens Barrichello Honda 1min 21.710secs 58 laps
16. Adrian Sutil Force India-Ferrari 1min 22.244secs 86 laps

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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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Now that the McLaren-Ferrari espionage scandal is officially over, the teams can get back to the business at hand; preparing for the 2008 season.  We’ve read news story after news story about this for months now and it’s time to move on. 

News stories we would all like to read have been pushed back in the pages to accommodate this mouth watering event and I for one am glad we can move on.  Writing on these scandals can be exciting and feedback and opinions, well, there’s plenty of it, but I’m looking forward to the 2008 season now and am hoping for a relatively clean season.  The team drivers have almost been chosen with prominent names moving about and looking at the drivers lineup as it stands right now, I see some great opportunities for a few notable teams and drivers.

Fernando Alonso signing with Renault again is pushing the team to perform at a much higher level than in 2007.  Fernando quite possibly will have a competitive car and will be in the hunt at every race without having to deal with an ‘interfering’  team mate.

McLaren with Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen and strong backing will be a tough pair to beat.  Heikki with a great package underneath him may push Lewis on the track rather than off and Lewis is looking forward to it.   Now, If McLaren stick to their ‘equal driver’ status, who will be the better driver?

Ferrari have basically maintained a status quo with their drivers and why wouldn’t they.  Both drivers are capable of winning races time and time again and coming off the high of Kimi Raikkonen winning the 2007 championship Ferrari are confident in getting back to the Michael Schumacher winning years.

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[tag]Jenson Button[/tag] is not a happy man and his frustration has now spilled over.  First he makes a comment about [tag]Lewis Hamilton[/tag] suggesting that Lewis may have let his only chance at winning a championship get away.  To me, this is a comment better kept to himself as it is not altogether true.  Here's what Jenson had to say about Lewis.

"He's a great driver, but there are lots of great drivers in Formula One who did not have his package."
"What would worry me is the lost opportunity.  You can't say in my sport: 'Oh well, I only missed out by a point so next year I'll go one better'. It doesn't work like that."
"He should be sick as a dog because another chance like that might not come round again."

Well Jenson, if Lewis Hamilton is as good as he has started out to be, there will be many many more chances at the title.

On the heals of these comments, Button boiled over about his 2007 season with Honda by threatening to quit the team if things don't get better.  I see his point on this one.  Honda fell so flat on their faces this season with a dismal car that should not have been anything but better than the 2006 car.  Honda has a long and reputable reputation in racing and to enter 2007 like they did is not acceptable from any point of view.

"The car was a complete dog and I'm just not interested in racing like this any more."

"I remember after Hungary this year wanting to hit something. I'd won that same race 12 months previously and now I was there sitting in something which was undriveable."

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Fog and rain were the initial story in Fuji today, but soon into the 1st qualifying session at least the fog abated leaving only a slow drizzle of rain and a bunch of nervous drivers.
Not only is this the first F1 race in 30 years at this redesigned track, but with little practice this morning in the rain, qualifying began with not one driver putting in more than a lap or two in the rain.

By the time qualifying was over, the rain had all but stopped and the track was in most sections just damp. This gave opportunities to lesser drivers and drivers needing good results and they didn’t disappoint. Both Jenson Button and Sebastion Vettel made it into Q3 placing high.

Jenson Button’s a guy whose career is fast fading away with Honda Racing and I can’t help but scream at him to get out. He’s talented, fast and can drive even this pitifully slow Honda fast. Today he proved it in the rain.

Things looked up for Jenson Button and Honda on the latter’s home turf, thanks to the effect of the wet track on car performance. Button was able to remind people of what he can do as he lapped in 1m 26.913s to shade Mark Webber’s Red Bull by a thousandth of a second. (f1.com)

“It was really tough,” Button said. “The track was drying all the team but that was just making it more and more greasy all the time.
Button said one of the keys to his position was his decision to use scrubbed intermediate tyres in all three parts of qualifying.
My other performer of the day is Sebastian Vettel. I was first impressed with Sebastian when he stepped in to drive in place of injured Robert Kubica. The result, 8th place in the BMW.

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