Preview of the 2008 season (Part 2)

March 4, 2008

In the first part of this preview (Part 1) I review the changes to the races and the rules. In this part, I will review the driver lineups for the teams, and how the teams are positioned after the pre-season.

Driver Lineups

Ferrari: The Ferrari lineup is unchanged with both the current drivers champion Kimi Räikkönen and his team partner Felipe Massa returning. Kimi will race with car number 1 (as the current champion) and Felipe with car number 2. Ferrari’s test drivers are Luca Badoer and Marc Gené.

BMW Sauber: The BMW lineup is also unchanged with both Nick Heidfield and Robert Kubica returning. Nick will drive the number 3 car and Robert the number 4. BMW’s test drivers are Christian Klien (previously with Jaguar, Honda, and Red Bull racing) and Marko Asmer (moving up from F3).

Renault: The Renault lineup has completely changed this year with Fernando Alonso returning from McLaren and Nelsinho Piquet (son of the famous Nelson) in his debut year. Fernando will drive car number 5, and Nelsinho car number 6. Renault’s test drivers are Lucas Di Grassi (moving up from GP2 last year), Sakon Yamamoto (previously with Jordan, Super Aguri and Spyker), and Romain Grosjean (moving up from GP2 Asia).

Williams: The Williams lineup remains unchanged from the end of the 2007 season with Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima returning. Nico will drive the number 7 car and Kazuki the number 8 car. Williams test driver is Nico Hülkenberg (moving up from F3).

Red Bull: The Red Bull lineup remains unchanged with both David Coulthard and and Mark Webber returning. David will drive the number 9 car and Mark the number 10 car. The Red Bull test driver is Sébastien Buemi (moving up from F3 and GP2).

Toyota: The Toyota lineup has Jarno Trulli returning and Timo Glock (previously with Jordan and stepping up from GP2) replacing Ralf Schumacher. Jarno will drive car number 11 and Timo car number 12. The Toyota test driver is Kamui Kobayashi (moving up from F3).

Toro Rosso: The Toro Rosso lineup has Sebastian Vettel returning from the end of last season (when he replaced Scott Speed) and Sébastien Bourdais moving up from Champ car racing in the USA to replace Vitantonio Liuzzi. In the all Sebastian lineup, Bourdais will drive car 13 and Vettel car 14. Toro Rosso has not named a test driver.

Honda: The Honda lineup remains unchanged with both Jensen Button and Rubens Barrichello returning. Jensen will drive car number 15 and Rubens car number 16. The Honda test drivers are Alexander Wurz (moving over from Williams after retiring last year and reportedly one of the best test drivers in the business), Mike Conway (moving up from GP2), and Luca Filippi (moving up from GP2 and previously tested with Minardi).

Super Aguri: The Super Aguri lineup remains unchanged from last year with Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson returning. Taku will drive car number 17 and Ant car number 18. The Super Aguri test driver is James Rossiter, the same as last year.

Force India: The Force India (previously Spyker) has Adrian Sutil (returning from the end of last season) and Giancarlo Fisichella (previously with Renault). Adrian will drive car number 19 and Giancarlo car number 20. The Force India test driver will be Vitantonio Liuzzi (previously with Toro Rosso).

McLaren: The McLaren lineup has Lewis Hamilton returning and Heikki Kovalainen (moving over from Renault). Lewis will drive car number 21 and Heikki car number 22. The McLaren test drivers remain unchanged with both Pedro de la Rosa and Gary Paffett returning.

Positions

After pre-season it appears that both Ferrari and McLaren will once again be fighting it out for the championship. They have both looked very good in testing so far.

The next group appears to be BMW Sauber, Renault, Red Bull, and Williams. BMW has made significant changes and have had a number of problems understanding their impact. They may struggle at the beginning of the season and then come on strong once they have their changes under control. Renault is also struggling a little (according to their drivers) but it is unclear how much this is true and how much this is the usual pre-season games. Expect them to struggle a little at the beginning. Both Williams and Red Bull have had a great pre-season testing series and certainly appear to be moving up a step.

The next group is Toyota, Honda, and Toro Rosso. Toyota certainly appears to have moved up in performance with their latest car, and Trulli is enjoying driving it (which is very important for Jarno). They may well be giving the previous group some problems (which is about time given the money they have spent). Honda appears to be in better shape than last year (not difficult) but it is unclear how much progress they have made. We will have to wait until the season to really see. Toro Rosso was coming on very strong at the end of last year so we will see if they can continue into this season.

Finally we have Super Aguri and Force India. Super Aguri have been in a great deal of financial difficulty and at one point in the off season we weren’t sure if they would even make the season. It looks like they will be in Australia, but they have had very little testing and that will show when the racing starts. Force India’s Mike Gascoyne has been talking up his new car and his drivers but they had a long way to go, so we will see.

As is usual, it is very difficult to make comparisons from the testing to the real racing. We can only hope that the racing on 2008 is as good as 2007 (without all of the off-track trouble).

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