Category: Motor Racing

A new Formula One season is upon us and with new drivers joining new teams; this year’s championship could be the most unpredictable in the 56 years of the sport. Seven times world champion Michael Schumacher has left Formula One after announcing his retirement late last year. His presence will be sadly missed on the grid this season but two likely drivers could take over the role as the greatest – Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen. Both superstars have switched teams for 2007, with the double world champion joining Team McLaren Mercedes and the Finn joining Scuderia Ferrari respectively. It will be fascinating to see how well these two drivers will get on racing in their new cars, the MP4-22 and F2007 in this 17-race calendar.

In addition, this year’s grid will look very different to 2006. Most of the top teams are welcoming new drivers, including some top driving talent from the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Heikki Kovalainen and Adrian Sutil.

So what’s new in F1 2007? What are the new rules and regulations and who will come out on top? All this will be revealed in this in-depth preview to the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship.

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The Honda F1 Racing team have unveiled a new livery for the 2007 season, a picture of the planet earth.

The Japanese manufacturer are moving away from traditional advertising featuring sponsor logos on the car. With this ‘green’ themed RA107, the team are hoping to raise awareness on the environmental issues facing the world.

A new website has been devised for those interested in supporting the idea adopted by Honda. By making a donation to myearthdream.com supporters can pledge to the ‘lifestyle change’ to be more environmentally friendly, and in return their name will be featured on the car and the Honda F1 website.

Music giant Universal Music and sports drink firm Gatorade are the first to sign up to this exciting new concept, while other companies – including Fila, IBM, Instron, Oliver Sweeney, Perkin Elmer, Showa Denko, TUV and GF Agie Charmilles – have also joined up.

“Climate change is probably the single biggest issue facing the global community and F1 is not immune from it,” said Nick Fry, Honda F1 team boss.

“On the contrary, we believe that F1 with its huge global profile and cutting edge technology can play an important role in not only highlighting the issues but also playing our part in developing solutions.

“In addition, the FIA recognises the opportunity for F1 to showcase innovative technologies for the benefit of society for the long term. For example, by 2009, devices for energy recovery will be in place on the cars.

“So we at Honda F1 are proud to dedicate our car to the environmental challenge. We believe that practical solutions can stem directly from engineers working on our F1 programme.”

Fry added that the team’s plan for the year would not only raise awareness of global issues but also encourage the general public to do more to help the situation.

“First and foremost, we are a race team and F1 is very much a team sport. We achieve our racing objectives only by working together, and parallels can be drawn with the way that we must all join together to address the environmental challenge.

“We hope that in raising awareness and highlighting the issues we will encourage members of the public to come together and help take on the challenge of climate change.”

Honda F1 Racing chairman Yasuhiro Wada added: “Honda constantly strives to be innovative in both its technology and its thinking and to sincerely respond to the demands of customers and society.

“Honda has always made great efforts to contribute to the preservation of the environment in its corporate activity.

“We hope this new initiative for Honda in F1 will help to further stimulate awareness and interest across the world for these important environmental issues.”

Finland’s Mikko Hirvonen led home the first Ford 1-2-3 finish since 1979 by beating Marcus Grönholm and Henning Solberg in the second round of the World Rally Championship.

Hirvonen dominated the Rally of Norway from start to finish – taking his second victory of his WRC career. His maiden victory came in Australia last year, when Sébastien Loeb was absent with a broken arm and Grönholm crashed on the first day, but this time the Finn had to battle against the former champions.

“It’s been a fantastic rally,” said Hirvonen. “I rate this higher than Australia, because we were leading from stage one and we were really fighting with Marcus and Sébastien.”

Grönholm now leads the world championship with his second place finish in the Ford Focus. As for Sébastien Loeb, the Frenchman finished in a disappointing 14th position, after making some mistakes in the event.

Finishing in third was Henning Solberg, who managed to hold off his younger brother Petter.

Finland’s Marcus Grönholm has taken his first world tally victory of the 2007 season with a comfortable margin over Sébastien Loeb in the Rally of Sweden.

The Ford Focus cruised to victory once Loeb conceded defeat on day two. But the three times World Rally Champion still leads the drivers’ standings by only two points.

“It’s been a good weekend,” said Grönholm. “We’ve had no problems with the car, everything has been perfect.”

Sébastien has admitted that it would have been a difficult task to beat the Finn but overall he was pleased with the performance of the new Citroën C4 in only its second outing.

“To finish second behind Marcus here is a good result,” said Loeb. “I was happy to see the car had the pace to fight with him, and it looks like we will have a good battle all year.”

Mikko Hirvonen completed a good weekend for Ford with third place.

British motor racing squad Williams have unveiled their new Toyota-powered FW29 in its bid to return back to winning ways after a disastrous 2006 season.

The AT&T-sponsored team finished in eighth position in last year’s constructors’ standings after a winless season and hopes that the new race car will help regain their past glories.

“Without question, 2006 was not our finest year but I am delighted to see how the entire Williams workforce has pulled together and redoubled its efforts over the winter,” said team boss Frank Williams.

“We begin this year with a completely new brand identity courtesy of our new partners AT&T, four new or upgraded sponsors including Lenovo, a wealth of new engineering talent and, of course, what we hope to be the focus of all these efforts and ambitions, the FW29.”

The FW29 will be powered by a Toyota engine and will be the same specification as the works Toyota team.

The new car certainly looks great and I like the dark blue and white colour scheme. As for the aerodynamics, it is quite aggressive-looking in particular the radical front wing.

Hopefully in the hands of Nico Rosberg and Alexander Wurz (who is making a return to racing after years as a test driver), the new car can reward the Oxford-based team with solid points finish and maybe that elusive win.

Finally! A 2007 Formula One car that looks great thanks to the renowned top F1 designer in this modern generation – Adrian Newey.

The new Red Bull Racing RB3 was unveiled at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya and you can see the obvious Newey design touches with its narrow, sweepingly curved nose and triple-deck, bowed front wing. In addition, the beautifully sculpted sidepods that tightly wrapped around the new Renault engine.

David Coulthard and Mark Webber will race the RB3 this season and I expect a strong performance from the team. Consistent top ten finishes and a chance for the overall win will do nicely.

As for lively, I quite like it. The stripes running on the surface of the car gives the illusion of going quickly. Hopefully it does so on the race track.

French manufacturer Renault have unveiled their new lively for the R27 chassis. The new Formula One car will carry the orange and white corporate colours of Dutch financial firm ING, replacing the previous Mild Seven light blue.

Personally, the overall look on this car is hideous. I thought the old Winfield-sponsored Williams back in 1998-99 was horrible, but this is even worst.

Despite that I am exciting to see the driver pairing of Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella this year. Kovalainen in particular, as the Finn is competing in his first season of Formula One racing (as a replacement over the outgoing champion, Fernando Alonso).

Team leader and Formula One’s most experienced driver Giancarlo Fisichella has said recently that he will be aiming for the ultimate prize – to become world champion. But during today’s Amsterdam launch, the Italian has admitted that this season could be ‘tough’.

I really hope the R27 is successful on the track, so that the team can win another championship double. And yet, I wished the Renault graphic designers could have done a better job than that livery…

World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb took his fourth Monte Carlo Rally win with a fine performance in the new Citroën C4 rally car.

The Frenchman finished the four-day rally event with a comfortable lead over his team-mate Dani Sordo, as Citroën marked their return to the World Rally Championship with a one-two finish.

This is an impressive achievement when you consider that Loeb is still nursing a broken right arm…

Finland’s Marcus Grönholm could only manage third and he hopes that the next event – the Swedish Rally in two weeks time – could signal the start of his title fight back.

The 1997 Formula One World Champion Jacques Villeneuve will be driving this beautiful-looking Peugeot 908 in this year’s epic endurance event – the Le Mans 24-Hour race.

The French-Canadian driver left Formula One after a frustrating time at BMW/Sauber even though his short stint last year was actually not too bad.

After leaving the sport, there were rumours of him joining the American stockcar series – NASCAR – like his fellow racer Juan Pablo Montoya. The Colombian also grew tired of racing F1 cars after a disappointing period at McLaren.

With the news that Villeneuve is taking part in the 2007 Le Mans, this will be a fascinating challenge for the driver. He has already won the Indy 500, the Champ Car title and the F1 title. Winning at Le Mans will be the ultimate prize for the French-Canadian.

Villeneuve will drive the Peugeot 908 alongside Nicolas Manassian, Stephane Sarrazin, Pedro Lamy, Marc Gene and three-time Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais. Eric Helary, who won Le Mans for Peugeot back in 1993, joins the new race team as a test and back-up driver.

The Peugeot 908 follows the overwhelming success of the Audi R10 diesel racing car with an all-aluminium twelve-cylinder common-rail direct-injection twin-turbo diesel with the latest advanced particulate filter system.

Between the green power, the star drivers and the return of the French carmaker to the series, there are many reasons to keep an eye on Peugeot this year, kicking off at Monza in April.

This is the car that the double World Champion Fernando Alonso will be driving in his quest to win his third drivers’ title.

The brand new Vodafone-sponsored McLaren Mercedes MP4-22 was unveiled to the world’s media at Valencia, Spain today.

Even though the new car design is similar to last year’s troublesome MP4-21, the British team says the MP4-22 features “some advanced engineering concepts” and “novel aerodynamic solutions”.

British rising star and GP2 champion Lewis Hamilton will join Alonso as the team’s driver line-up in 2007. It will be interesting how well these two will perform in a crucial year for McLaren, who didn’t win a single race back in 2006.

As for the livery, the Vodafone ‘red’ looks reasonable on the car. Not so sure about the drivers’ overalls though…