After dealing with my host Network Solutions and tearing my hair out, it’s time to lighten things up a bit. Man, I need it for sure.

If you haven’t seen this video of Nick Heidfeld showing off the much improved F1.08 to the employees who helped produce it, have a look. Poor old Nick is much better on an F1 track than he is on a road.

Tags: bmw sauber, nick heidfeld

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Who do you believe, or do you believe anyone. Fernando Alonso is speaking out on his team’s chances at the Australian Grand Prix and says they’re not good. Not only that, but he is suggesting BMW-Sauber are actually much better than they appear on testing time sheets.

“Where are we? Quite a long way behind.”

“We are not in a position to do anything about McLaren, Ferrari or BMW.”

“Just two or three weeks ago BMW was a little further back, we were near them. Now they are quite close to McLaren.”

“They are very fast.” “They always use full tanks and record very good times.”

BMW-Suaber from Mario Theissen on down to Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica have continuously said that they are not as happy with the F1.08 as they hoped they were at this time of year. They started with a balance problem that took a long time to rectify and have not shown as well on the time sheets as fans anticipated . Time sheets in testing are of course often misleading as teams are running on low fuel, testing different components, etc., but Alonso’s statements are a little surprising.

Alonso even suggested it will be a tough job to make it into Q3 in Australia.

This when he also suggests that Renault will shortly test some improvements to the front of the R28 that should yield “one or two tenths” per lap.

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Technorati Tags: Fernando Alonso, Australian Grand Prix, BMW-Sauber, McLaren, Ferrari, Mario Theissen, Nick Heidfeld, Robert Kubica, F1.08, Renault

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Bloggers always have unique opinions on different topics so I’m now featuring popular F1 blogger 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, Timo Glock is not Confident Toyota 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.

Bernie Ecclestone is at it again, playing musical chairs with F1 circuits. The British Grand Prix, and Australian Grand Prix 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 Grid Boys. Yes, guys will be prancing around the grid side by side with the girls at this year’s Australian Grand Prix.

Day 2 Testing at Jerez showed McLaren fighting hard to close the gaps between them and Ferrari while BMW-Sauber have finally, but maybe too late come to grips with the F1.08.
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 FIA Sporting Regulations that explain how pit garages are designated. After some research, I cannot come up with that answer.

Technorati Tags: F1 blogger, Timo Glock, Toyota, Bernie Ecclestone, F1 circuits, British Grand Prix, Australian Grand Prix, Grid Boys, Day 2 Testing at Jerez, McLaren, Ferrari, BMW-Sauber, F1.08, FIA Sporting Regulations

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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.

Giancarlo Fisichella echoes this with his stunning statement that Ferrari are the best and probably will dominate through the early part of the season with McLaren 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.”

Toyota 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.

David Coulthard has decided to lift spirits of Red Bull 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.

Jenson Button, 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.

Technorati Tags: Giancarlo Fisichella, McLaren, Toyota, David Coulthard, Red Bull, Jenson Button

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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 Jerez 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. Lewis Hamilton was one of them, quiting early at 15:00.

Even though wind was a factor, Mark Webber in the Red Bull came out on top with a 1:18.628 in 72 laps and had both Williams right behind. Fuel loads were probably pretty good to achieve those times and clearly Williams has solved their wing mounting problem. Honda continue to struggle with not much difference in their time from yesterday, but at least they weren’t last.
BMW-Sauber with Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica 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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Technorati Tags: Jerez, Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber, Red Bull, Williams, Honda, BMW-Sauber, Nick Heidfeld, Robert Kubica

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Day 2 at Jerez is over and the times all in.

McLaren are continuing to improve and are an easy 2nd behind Ferrari. It would have been cool to see Ferrari today so we could see what kind of gaps are left for Mclaren.

I see BMW-Sauber are finally coming to grips (literally) with their car and now posting some respectable times. Robert Kubica up in 3rd, off 4 10ths, that’s 4 10ths behind Lewis in the McLaren, not Ferrari. Nick Heidfeld quite a bit slower than Kubica.

Renault not far off. A great fight is shaping up between BMW-Sauber and Renault.
Force India behind Super Aguri? They did evaluate a number of chassis set-ups in the SA07B interim car. I still expect more from Liuzzi.

Honda Honda Honda, what is happening there. Ross Brawn must be tearing his hair out. Alex Wurz only pulling out a 1:21.950 in 86 laps.

Nick Fry:

“I’m very much enjoying myself, and going home with a sense of achievement as opposed to going home with a sense of frustration that no matter how hard we tried, progress was slow.”

Jenson Button

“The RA108 is completely new which means we are starting from zero in terms of developing the set-up,” he told the official Formula One website. “We are also working on driveability as we adapt to the new ECU.

“These challenges were reflected in our speed at our debut test in Barcelona, especially on single fast laps, but our long-run consistency improved. We have a good basic car with new opportunities for aerodynamics and other areas and a clear plan for addressing any issues in the coming tests.”

Basic car? Honda has so much experience in F1 it’s amazing they can’t come up better by now.

Technorati Tags: McLaren, BMW-Sauber, Robert Kubica, Nick Heidfeld, Renault, Force India, Super Aguri, Honda

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Now that we’ve got a bit of testing out of the way I can begin to see how things may unfold. My big word is “may”. Most teams have put a lot of testing miles on the new cars using both primary drivers as well as test drivers. Weather has been a factor in some sessions (as it should be). There have been long and short stints, simulated qualifying sessions etc.

Since day 1 when Ferrari launched their car and put it through a shakedown, little has gone wrong. They have consistently been at or near the top of testing times with all drivers performing well and the F108 appearing to handle just about every specific test they throw at it. Both Kimi and Felipe are by all accounts happy with what is taking place in their camp and are itching to get the season under way.

The latest from Bahrain has Kimi Raikkonen on top enjoying another good and productive day.

Barring a complete meltdown at Ferrari, this team is going to be tough to beat this year.

McLaren have also for the most part been breezing through testing with no real surprises. The MP4-23 seems to be where they expect it to be at this time. Short testing, long reliability stints, tires, and the car remains at or near the top. Lewis has had a few hiccups, but nothing worth speaking about. Heikki Kovalainen seems so happy to be at McLaren, he can hardly contain himself. That enthusiasm is really showing on track and he has been at the top in testing consistently as well.
Martin Whitmarsh seems happy but predictably subdued:

“The progress we are making is quantifiable and the drive within the team to continue to push remains high.”

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