As the clock ticks down towards the 14th of March, a new season of Formula One begins to dawn on the world. Last year saw the crowning of a new champion and the coming of age of a potential champion, as well as the fall from grace of another. The 2008 season promises to be another of unending drama on and off the track. There are new rules, new teams and new tracks that bring added spice into an already hot concoction that is the Formula One World Championship.
Last year saw rule changes that dramatically changed the championship for good and bad and this years changes have already produced large discussions between fans of the sport and those who partake in F1. The main talking point in the off season was the change to standard ECU’s made by McLaren. This caused uproar around the paddock as McLaren is perceived to have an advantage over the field as they know the inner workings of the device, as well as Renault angered because they believed themselves to have the best ECU in the business. Along with the ECU change, traction control, launch control and electronic aids including engine braking were banned from being made part of it. Drivers are now forced to rely on their skill of being able to prevent the wheels from spinning when they apply the throttle.
The V8 engines that were used last year have been kept the same, except they have been rev-limited to 19,000 RPM. Previously the engines had been limited to 20,000 RPM, but as a cost cutting measure and the FIA wanting to keep engines for more than one weekend in good condition, the engines are having less stress put on them. If the engine needs to be changed, the driver of the car will suffer a ten place grid penalty. However each driver is allowed one free engine change for the year that can be used at any time, except the final race. The fuel for the engines now must be made up of 5.75% biological material to comply with European Union law.
In addition to engine penalties, there are now penalties applying to drivers if their gearbox cannot last for four consecutive races, but instead of a ten place penalty in the case of an engine change, each gearbox change will only incur a five place penalty. As is also the case in the engine penalties, if a driver fails to finish the race then they will not be penalised for using a new gearbox at the next race meeting.
Qualifying has also received some tweaks this year as the FIA try to sort out all the issues that teams have had with the new qualifying system. The first session of the three segment qualifying has been lengthened to 20 minutes to allow drivers more space when completing flying laps. However to compensate for that, the final session has been shortened to ten minutes. In addition to this, the teams will no longer be able to add fuel to the car after qualifying is complete, meaning every car in the top ten will be qualifying with relatively high fuel loads, but no fuel burning is needed.
Tyres are also an important issue that teams will have to contend with this year as the use of tyres has been limited. During a grand prix event, drivers will only have access to 14 sets of dry weather tyres, four sets of wet weather tyres and three sets of extreme weather tyres. Also no driver may use more than two sets of each specification of dry-weather tyre during Friday Practice.
The final set of changes made for the 2008 season involve the most important aspect of all in motor sport, the car. For the new season, the use of a spare car has been restricted such that each team can only have two cars available for use at a time. This means that in the event of an accident, they must build a car from scratch. The definition of car has also been changed to now read that a car is a survival cell fitted with an engine, any front suspension, body work, radiators, oil tanks or heat exchanges.
Furthermore to the rule changes, there have been just as many changes in teams with driving personnel and a change in team ownership.
The reigning World Champion Kimi Raikkonen remains with his World Championship winning team Ferrari and is again paired up with Brazilian Felipe Massa. Raikkonen will be aiming for back to back Championships as his Ferrari team again looks strong in testing, while Massa will be trying to knock him off his perch. However it is more than likely that Massa will be told to act as rear gunner for Kimi in most circumstances.
Rising star Lewis Hamilton will be relieved that his long running feud with Fernando Alonso is over after Heikki Kovalainen and Alonso performed a driver swap. Kovalainen joins the Brit at McLaren as both former GP2 stars aim to take their first titles in F1, as well as finally bring back the title to the once successful McLaren team. Alonso heads over to the Renault F1 team that made him a household name in the sport. Reuniting with his old boss Flavio Briatore, Alonso is joined by another great name in F1 circles, Nelson Piquet Junior. The son of the former three times World Champion is aiming to emulate his father and has a great opportunity by getting his first drive and a former Championship winning team.
The two newer outfits of BMW-Sauber and Red Bull Racing remain the same for 2008 with drivers Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica returning with BMW and Mark Webber remains at Red Bull with Scotsman David Coulthard. Both teams will have the same goal of aiming for consistent podium places as well as perhaps a win. Testing times have shown that both cars have some pace, but both still have the same niggling reliability issues that have plagued them over the past two seasons. Honda, like the two above, has retained the services of veteran Brazilian Rubens Barrichello and British driver Jenson Button. Honda will be aiming to get closer to their 2006 season after capturing a minuscule amount of points last year.
Sir Frank Williams team will be returning once again as they aim to recapture former glory. Nico Rosberg has once again returned after being touted for the McLaren drive. He stayed loyal and is joined by former test driver Kazuki Nakajima following Alex Wurz’s retirement. Their engines will once again be supplied by Toyota, who themselves will be looking to improve on their previously poor performances thus far in F1. Timo Glock has been recruited from BMW’s test driving ranks to join Jarno Trulli. Ralf Schumacher’s contract ran out and after a year of poor performances in contrast to Trulli, he was released in favour of Glock who along with fast performances in testing was the GP2 Champion in 2007.
The second Red Bull outfit of Scuderia Toro Rosso again returns in 2008 with a fresh face for F1 fans. Four time Champ Car Champion Sebastien Bourdais joins young star Sebastian Vettel to complete and all Seb line up. The team is aiming to produce another year of surprises as they receive help from its sister team. Bourdais will be looking to make an impression in the field so that his chances of receiving a top drive increase, after many years in the F1 wilderness. Super Aguri also return in 2008 with an unchanged line up. After many months of speculation it was confirmed just recently that a new backer for the team was found and that Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson would lead the way for the fledgling Japanese team.
Finally, a new team has entered into F1. What was once Jordan, MidlandF1 and most recently Spyker F1, is now the Force India team. Spyker sold the team to Indian businessman Vijay Mallya. Along with new sponsorship and a brand new paint job, Giancarlo Fisichella joins the team as a new driver to partner former Spyker driver Adrian Sutil. The German will be hoping to get some tutoring from Fisichella that will enable him to climb up the ladder of success after an impressive season last year.
So after months and months of rumours and speculation, seemingly endless hours of testing, the new season is set and ready to go. However there is one last thing to dwell over and that are my predictions for the 2008 season.
After following testing closely through January and February, it’s clear to see that Ferrari and McLaren will be once again battling for supremacy. At the moment it looks like Ferrari has the advantage over McLaren and will be expected to take out the first few races. However McLaren is known for their aggressive development of the car and will come on strong later in the season. Red Bull, BMW, Williams and Renault appear to be all about the same in terms of pace, which will hopefully provide some great racing this year. Toyota seem to be making progress and with their large budget will more than likely join these teams later in the year, but once again will start slow. As will Honda who seem to like matching their countrymen at racing. Toro Rosso will be the next of the teams and will find themselves battling the improving Force India who now has double the budget of previous versions of this team. Super Aguri will unfortunately find the going tough at the back end of the grid as they get themselves together after the turmoil that was their off season.
Finally, let’s look at is the additional venues to the 2008 season and the loss of tracks. New to the calendar this season is the Valencia Street track as the European Grand Prix. This replaces the Nuurburgring as the host of the European GP, who will now alternate with Hockenheim as the German GP. Valencia is 12th venue on this year’s calendar. Singapore is also a new GP added to the calendar and for the first time in history F1 will race under lights. The track is also a street circuit like Valencia, but crosses over water. The intrigue of a race under lights will help attract visitors to the shores of Singapore. However when you gain a track, you lose another and this season the United States GP was lost from the calendar, for perhaps just a year, as negotiations between FOM and Indianapolis Motor Speedway broke down.
All in all this looks like a great season ahead, with less drama than the previous season (read as Stepney-Gate). Don’t forget to stay tuned to UpdateF1 for in depth news, views, live race weekend coverage and community interaction.
Written by Braden Earl on Tue, 11 Mar 2008 11:07:26
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