Ferrari fastest in testing (F1)

[- Paul -]

Is it going to be Renault or Ferrari next year?

[dschulenberg]

Kimi will be a hard man to beat driving a Ferrari.

[Ghunger]

Renault don't have a good enough driver for 2007 imo. Ferrari will probably be up top with BMW, Honda and Mclaren close behind in my guess. A lot can change in the off season though. Should be an exciting season to say the least.

[Scarabeo]

My bet is on Ferrari...why the Spaniard Alonso did not go over to Ferrari is beyond me...what a winning combination that would have been...however, maybe with a fast and reliable car Raikkonen will have a chance to showcase his superb driving abilities...just my opinion..

[shimshimhada]

Kimi will probably win, unless his Ferrari explodes or something. I'm actually excited for this season, it should be interesting.

[MCS]

Me too - The new F1 season should be interesting - Sans Michael. Too bad he retired.

My prediciton is Ferrari and McLaren will be the ones to beat. I'm not to impressed with Giancarlo and Renault, although their car should be competitive.

Hopefully BMW will win a race with Heidfeld.

[F32Fleet]

I'm an F1 novice, but from what I read BMW had major engine issues last season. Ne1 share their thoughts on this?

[Ghunger]

Originally Posted by Socom

I'm an F1 novice, but from what I read BMW had major engine issues last season. Ne1 share their thoughts on this?

From what I remember of the season I'd call their engine reliability average, and their power output near the top. My order for engines would be Ferrari, Renault, and then BMW or Honda. Did the article you read go into any more detail? I'm sure they had problems through the year, all the teams did. Ferrari had some issues with their pistons failing early in the season for example. I think they said they had a bad batch from the factory.

[Robin_NL]

Macca 1
Ferrari 2

[obLu]

My prediciton is Ferrari and McLaren will be the ones to beat. I'm not to impressed with Giancarlo and Renault, although their car should be competitive.

+1

Giancarlo just isn't a good enough driver to make up for car deficiencies. Except for the odd weekend where Renault might just have it completely right and everybody else completely wrong, they're going to be fighting at the front of mid-pack.

I suspect McLaren are going to step up their game after last year. But they don't have Newey anymore, and they've got a rookie driver. So they might not be much of a challenge for Ferrari. But I'd bet on them consistently bettering Renault.

BMW will be fighting, and most likely loosing to, Renault in the mid-pack. Honda aren't going to be much better this year (although I dream of Barrichello challenging for race wins again ... for some reason I'm a big Barrichello fan) than last. I don't believe they've got the team to do it.

Remember also that next year is Bridgestone only, so you've got Kimi in a Ferrari that's been designed for years around the Bridgestone tire. Everybody else will be playing catch up. And as much as I dislike the little troll Massa, he proved last year that if the car's working great he can at least drive it. Which is much more than you can say for Fisi.

Toyota? Pffft. They're still around?

I would really like to see Honda up their game, but I really think it's going to be a repeat of 2004. Ferrari dominating, McLaren fighting and winning against Renault and then everybody else struggling to keep up.

I know this is a BMW board, but I don't think their F1 team has much going for it right now.

[Scarabeo]

Oblu - I think your assessment is pretty much on the mark...unless BMW can find a better driver, they will be doomed to the middle of the pack for the 2007 season. As much as I like Ferrari, I still would like to see BMW give them a run for their money....

[Ghunger]

Originally Posted by Scarabeo

Oblu - I think your assessment is pretty much on the mark...unless BMW can find a better driver, they will be doomed to the middle of the pack for the 2007 season. As much as I like Ferrari, I still would like to see BMW give them a run for their money....

I still want to see how Kubica does in his second season and his first full full as a race driver instead of a test driver. He's already podiumed which is more than I can say for some of the guys who have been around much longer.

[obLu]

Originally Posted by Ghunger

I still want to see how Kubica does in his second season and his first full full as a race driver instead of a test driver. He's already podiumed which is more than I can say for some of the guys who have been around much longer.

That's right I forgot all about that. Getting old, and having a longer season, makes for me forgetting easy.

But didn't they podium on a weekend that they just happened to have it all gel, and the other teams were having problems or playing conservative? I seem to remember there was a string of two races there where they looked hot, and then pffft, they fizzled out.

I like Kubica a lot. He appears to be a racer and not a pilot. Nick I'm not so hot on.

[Ghunger]

Originally Posted by obLu

That's right I forgot all about that. Getting old, and having a longer season, makes for me forgetting easy.

But didn't they podium on a weekend that they just happened to have it all gel, and the other teams were having problems or playing conservative? I seem to remember there was a string of two races there where they looked hot, and then pffft, they fizzled out.

I like Kubica a lot. He appears to be a racer and not a pilot. Nick I'm not so hot on.

Actually, he just had a very good race that particular race although there's always some luck involved . His race finishes havn't been fantastic though, overall. His test driving was very good though and he showed promise in the races he was in, despite his finishing position(solid mid pack). I just want to see if he'll go from being just the replacement, to a great driver and high finisher once he's the race driver from the start. He certainly did better than Scott Speed. though I havn't given up on him yet either.

[obLu]

Scott Speed.

[maq]

Scott Speed, a rookie on a newly formed small budget team, was a solid mid pack guy with an average finish of 12th on a 22 car grid, despite driving an outdated Minardi chassis with an uncompetitive engine. His DNF rate is very low for a rookie, and out of the 5 DNFs he had, none was at his fault. He was just unlucky that he didn't get any points.

I don't know what you guys are laughing at. Speed may not be the most talented F1 driver, but his rookie performance was respectful and nothing to be laughed at. Consider this, Fernando Alonso spent his first season in the back, scoring nothing.

[- Paul -]

Originally Posted by Scarabeo

My bet is on Ferrari...why the Spaniard Alonso did not go over to Ferrari is beyond me...what a winning combination that would have been...however, maybe with a fast and reliable car Raikkonen will have a chance to showcase his superb driving abilities...just my opinion..

#
I would have rather seen Alonso in the Ferrari too - Kimi has the most boring monotone voice in the world. I'll be asleep watching the interviews with him.