 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
With Cheltenham and the Cricket World Cup upon us, it would be easy to forget the crème de la crème of international motor sport, Formula One. With the retirement of probably the greatest driver ever, and a bit of musical chairs going on amongst the drivers, what can we expect in season 2007? The Racing Post’s motor sport expert Adam Scriven sheds some light on the subject….
Last year’s Formula One World Championship went down to the wire after the two main combatants – Renault’s Fernando Alonso and Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher - had fought out a roller-coaster ride of a season, but despite Schumacher’s retirement, the early signs are that 2007 will be even more competitive. The teams have been working hard since November on developing their new challengers, and in the recent tests in Spain and Bahrain, Ferrari, McLaren, Williams, BMW and even Red Bull have taken turns at the top of the timesheets. Both Ferrari and Renault have to contend with the loss of drivers integral to their recent success this year, but while the Scuderia have poached Kimi Raikkonen, who just lost out in championship battles in 2003 and 2005, Renault have been forced to promote their test-driver Heikki Kovalainen. Alonso’s brilliance and stunning early-season results have compensated for Renault’s tendency to lose form towards the end of a season over the past two years, but it will be a surprise if either Kovalainen or Giancarlo Fisichella is involved in the championship fight this year. While Ferrari have compensated as well as possible for Schumacher’s retirement, there have been a number of other key personnel changes behind the scenes, but on recent testing evidence it doesn’t seem to have affected the pace of their 2007 challenger. However, as the necessity grows to develop the cars as the season progresses, the disruption at Maranello could become evident as the likes of McLaren and perhaps this year BMW move forward. The German manufacturer enjoyed an impressive debut season in 2006, and introduced one of the most exciting drivers of the year in Poland’s Robert Kubica two-thirds of the way through the season. He and team-mate Nick Heidfeld have showed impressive pace throughout the winter in the new car, but reliability problems have crept in. Reliability and pace tend to go hand-in-hand (as one rises the other invariably decreases) and the teams who have got the balance just right over the winter will reap the benefits in the early races. BMW are just one of a host of big-money manufacturers entering the sport in recent years. Since 2000, Toyota, Renault, Honda and Red Bull have all entered teams, in the case of the latter two with two teams each, and that has hit the privateer teams hard. Williams dominated the sport in the early nineties, but despite showing great promise early last season they were unable to keep up with the pace of development and finished the season in a miserable eighth in the constructors’ championship. Now equipped with Toyota engines, Frank Williams’ team has shown up well during winter testing, but it is very doubtful they will still be near the top of the timesheets come the end of the season. Much of the British press attention will be on Lewis Hamilton, not only an Englishman but the first black driver in F1 history. It is also notable that Hamilton is the first driver to make his Grand Prix debut in a McLaren since 1993. However, the team will expect nothing more from him than to learn from his double-world champion team-mate Alonso and to finish the races - and neither should punters. All 11 teams will use Bridgestone tyres this year following the withdrawal of Michelin. Some have claimed that since Ferrari have used Bridgestones for several years they will have an immediate advantage, but with the absence of competition the Japanese manufacturer have produced a very different compound of tyre for 2007 than Ferrari have been used to. Add to this that all the teams have tested extensively with their new rubber, and we should start the season on a level playing field as far as tyres are concerned. Rain can turn in-running trading on a Grand Prix into a minefield but two drivers who punters should concentrate on in the wet are Jenson Button and Felipe Massa. Button scored an overdue first win in a rain-soaked Budapest last year, in more meritorious circumstances than most give him credit for, and other wet weather performances such as a storming drive to fourth place in China and his inaugural spell in the lead when a deluge hit Indianapolis in 2003, all go to show that when it rains Button is a driver to have on your side. Massa by contrast really struggled in the two wet races in 2006, running down the field until losing control and ending his race in the barriers on each occasion. The 17 race, seven-month season is very long in Formula One terms, and the cars and in some cases the drivers who finish the year in Brazil will be very different to those who started it in Australia, and there are sure to be plenty of trading opportunities for shrewd punters on the championship as a whole and each individual race. Handy Links:www.f1.com – the official Formula 1 site |
|
 |
 |