New F1 season shaping up nicely!

[jameswithington]

At the weekend (Sunday I think) Jenson Button smashed the Circuit de Catalunya lap record in his new BAR. This was probably the biggest shock of the pre-season testing so far, with Button taking huge chunks of time out of the McLaren and Williams. I know it's only testing but it seems as though BAR are coming on leaps and bounds.

For the last few seasons it's been Ferrari domination with McLaren and Williams in with an outside chance. The gaps between the top three seemed to close last season, and Renault F1 became seriously competitive on a few circuits. If Renault can carry on their improvement into the coming season, and BAR can show consistent podium type pace as they're threatening to do, then it could really put the cat amongst the pigeons in terms of the championship.

I'm not saying someone like Alonso or Button is gonna win the championship, but if they can consistently take high points finishes and keep some of the points away from the big three, it could keep things really tight, especially in terms of the constructors championship. Also if the rumours about the Michelin tyres being so far ahead of the Bridgestones are true, if Schumi is gonna win another title he's going to have to do it the hard way!

For the first time in years I'm seriously looking forward to the new F1 season and not just expecting a Ferrari whitewash.

[bum-man]

nice post!
heres a quiktime video of the 2004 WCC and WDC car.
enjoy

[GT500]

well, I say Ferrari all the way, I think the rules were changed last time so that Ferrari had a disadvantage.....but then again, doing that was only "fair"......[/badgrammar]

[NAZCA C2]

Go Mclaren!!!!!!!!!!!! Kimi and DC are going to clean house (i hope)!!!!! The new Mclaren looks cool. I hope they do better than last year. DC better be back in winning form.

[MyRx7]

Mark Webber will also help this year, especially if the jag team get their reliability straightened out.

[Homem de Gelo]

Mark Webber will also help this year, especially if the jag team get their reliability straightened out.

Jaguar's chances are very slim, the first tests of the new car have not been encouraging at all.

This season has everything to be one of the best ever, great battle between young and experienced drivers, teams rising and teams fighting to stay on top. So far it seems as if, again, Williams and Ferrari have the strongest cars, with the Williams massively testing the walrus FW26 and Ferrari quickly comming out with a fresh and fast car. McLaren was looking great, but things have been weird for them this week at Barcelona. And Button's times are impressive but hardly realistic. He was either running very low on fuel and/or running without ballast.

But hey, here's to hope that 2004 will be even better than 2003!

[NAZCA C2]

Mark Webber will also help this year, especially if the jag team get their reliability straightened out.

Jaguar has been the biggest joke in racing since they bought the Stewart team! They have just as much money and talent as any of the other teams but they have had next to no success. Every year their car sucks and they say that they are working on something big for next year, then next year comes and their car still sucks.

[bum-man]

Jaguar's chances are very slim, the first tests of the new car have not been encouraging at all.

This season has everything to be one of the best ever, great battle between young and experienced drivers, teams rising and teams fighting to stay on top. So far it seems as if, again, Williams and Ferrari have the strongest cars, with the Williams massively testing the walrus FW26 and Ferrari quickly comming out with a fresh and fast car. McLaren was looking great, but things have been weird for them this week at Barcelona. And Button's times are impressive but hardly realistic. He was either running very low on fuel and/or running without ballast.

But hey, here's to hope that 2004 will be even better than 2003!

testing times dont mean anything...if you recall last year williams was breaking a lot of track records and when it came to melbourne the fw25 proved to be a dog for the first half of the season. oh and BTW i doubt a toyota would be in front of a mp4-19.

[jameswithington]

Does anyone know what the details and intentions for the new aerodynamic restrictions and regulations are? I've heard it mentioned a few times in the press releases for all the new cars but none of them seem to give any details as to what the changes are or what they are supposed to achieve.

Any ideas????

[Homem de Gelo]

testing times dont mean anything...if you recall last year williams was breaking a lot of track records and when it came to melbourne the fw25 proved to be a dog for the first half of the season. oh and BTW i doubt a toyota would be in front of a mp4-19.

I'm not only relying on testing times, but also on the reports. There have been several not so optimistic reports about the R5 carrying big flaws and problems, which sadly reminds me of the R3.