Formula 1 2007

[Quixotic]

The full grid for Formula 1 2007

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
McLaren MP4-22 Mercedes FO108T
1. Fernando Alonso
2. Lewis Hamilton

ING Renault F1 Team
Renault R27 RS27
3. Giancarlo Fisichella
4. Heikki Kovalainen

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
Ferrari F2007 056
5. Felipe Massa
6. Kimi Räikkönen

Honda Racing F1 Team
Honda RA107 RA807E
7. Jenson Button
8. Rubens Barrichello

BMW Sauber F1 Team
BMW Sauber F1.07 P87
9. Nick Heidfeld
10. Robert Kubica

Panasonic Toyota Racing
Toyota TF107 RVX-07
11. Ralf Schumacher
12. Jarno Trulli

Red Bull Racing
Red Bull RB3 Renault R27
14. David Coulthard
15. Mark Webber

AT&T Williams
Williams FW29 Toyota RVX-07
16. Nico Rosberg
17. Alexander Wurz

Scuderia Toro Rosso
Toro Rosso STR02 Ferrari 056
18. Vitantonio Liuzzi
19. Scott Speed

Etihad Aldar Spyker F1 Team
Spyker F8-VII Ferrari 056H
20. Christijan Albers
21. Adrian Sutil

Super Aguri F1 Team
Aguri SA07 Honda RA807E
22. Takuma Sato
23. Anthony Davidson

Legend:
Bold is team name
Blue is contracted and/or confirmed car and engine name and number
Regular black is contracted and/or confirmed driver
Numbers are car/driver numbers

Edit: Title sponsor for Spyker

[benny]

Alonso for McLaren. Hope the engine doesn't disappoint the driver this year. Somehow, 2000 to 2005 wasn't great for Mercedes.

Which are the other drivers to look out for since this round of musical chairs leaves some interesting combination?

Cheers,

[bclee]

I think the Ferrari engines used are 056 not 057.

BC

[Quixotic]

Thanks BC, edited.

[Puffer]

Great info! My 6 yr-old son will love to read this tomorrow morning. Thanks!

[Quixotic]

Wow, your 6 year old son is a racing fan? Which driver/team is he supporting?

BTW, seen the livery of the Honda RA107? Very interesting livery but looks extremely cluttered.

[valice]

Who's going up to Sepang to watch the Malaysia Grand Prix?

[Quixotic]

FIA 2007 Rules & Regulations Changes
(condensed from http://www.formula1.com/insight/rulesandregs/)

Engines

Engines homologated and used during the last two races of 2006 must now be used during the 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 seasons.

Two-race engine rule no longer apply to Friday. Any driver starting a meeting with fresh engine will not be penalised for early failure. Drivers may opt to use alternative engines on Fridays and save their race engines.


Weekend schedule

Friday's two practice sessions have been extended from 60 to 90 minutes each.


Tyres

Bridgestone being Formula One's sole supplier for 2007. Each team will receive two specifications of tyre per event. However, they will get more sets - four per driver on Friday, and ten for the remainder of weekend.

Each driver must use both specifications during the race, and special markings mean spectators will be able to easily distinguish which one a driver is using.


Safety car

Safety car regulations have been modified to prevent drivers diving for the pits the minute safety car comes onto the circuit, and to stop backmarkers interfering with leaders during race restart.

No car is allowed to enter the pits until the field is bunched up behind the safety car. Before safety car returns to the pit, any lapped car running between cars on the lead lap, must overtake those cars and the safety car before taking up their correct position at the back.


Friday Practice

Third cars no longer allowed, but all teams are permitted to run one alternative test driver in each Friday session. The alternative driver must be nominated beforehand and may use either of the team's race cars.


Safety

A GPS marshalling system, involving a cockpit light display of flag signals in each driver's car, will allow Race Control to alert drivers to potential hazards more effectively.

All cars must be fitted with a medical warning light, just ahead of driver's cockpit to provide rescue crews with an immediate indication of the severity of the accident, and is connected to the FIA data logger.

The crash tests that Formula One cars must pass have been made more stringent. The velocity used in the frontal impact test has been increased from 14m/s to 15m/s, while the minimum size for the impact-absorbing structure has been raised.

The driver’s cockpit must be clad in special anti-penetration panels made of Zylon. An additional five kilograms has been added to the car’s minimum weight requirement to offset the weight of the panels.

[Puffer]

Wow, your 6 year old son is a racing fan? Which driver/team is he supporting?

He's just started to fancy it last season. Fan of Michael Schumacher, now following Kimi Raikkonen cos he loves Ferrari. Anyone knows where to check out great Ferrari FI pics?

[benny]

BTW, seen the livery of the Honda RA107? Very interesting livery but looks extremely cluttered.

Really cluttered, but it's actually a map of the earth right? Seems strange that British American Tobacco branding is not present. Have they pulled out?

Cheers,

[valice]

The new regulation doesn't allow cigarettes advertisements on the cars. So maybe that's why BAT's branding no longer there.

[lwm999]

IIRC, the only tabacco sponsor left is Marlboro for Ferrari.

[Quixotic]

Really cluttered, but it's actually a map of the earth right?

Yes, the car is called the Earth Car. Map supposedly from Google Earth (remember reading it somewhere) but let me check it and confirm.

Edit: http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/25022007/...ew-livery.html

Detailed 'Google Earth' imagery has been used to depict the globe on the Honda racer, sparking suggestions that the American corporation might on Monday be announced as a 2007 backer.

However, Google is not a backer as suggested.

[valice]

Race Calendar

18th March - Melbourne, Australia
8th April - Sepang, Malaysia
15th April - Sakhir, Bahrain
13th May - Catalunya, Spain
27th May - Monte Carlo, Monaco
10th June - Montreal, Canada
17th June - Indianapolis, USA
1st July - Magny-Cours, France
8th July - Silverstone, Britain
22nd July - Nurburg, Germany
5th August - Budapest, Hungary
26th August - Istanbul, Turkey
9th September - Monza, Italy
16th September - Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
30th September - Fuji Speedway, Japan
7th October - Shanghai, China
21st October - Sao Paulo, Brazil

[BFG]

Tomorrow is the qualifying round that will begin the new season without the World Champion in the prancing horse car! I hope every driver is happy tomorrow that they would have a chance to grab the trophy now that the World Champion has retired. But I believe on Sunday, there will be a different type of race to watch.

[firethorn]

http://www.espnstar.com/formula1/for...l_4952910.html
http://www.espnstar.com/formula1/for...l_4919046.html

Now if only I can make friends with someone living in (presumably) Marina Bay.

[Quixotic]

Interesting first race. Surprisingly, not many retirements where normally, attrition is quite high in previous Australia GPs.

Too early to tell but...

Lewis Hamilton is one for the future, didn't see any mistakes (major) and drove very intelligently. First rookie to finish in the podiums since 1996.

Renault looks to have fallen behind Ferrari, McLaren and BMW.

Super Aguri is suprisingly much better than expected.

Honda really disappointing.

Kimi has thrown down the gauntlet, will be interesting to see if Massa and the McLarens can rise to the challenge.

On to Sepang next.

[benny]

Didn't realised that there were no black drivers previously. So Lewis Hamilton is the first. Pretty good showing too.

Cheers,

[firethorn]

Well i don't know if Indian falls into the classification of black. Otherwise, there's Narain Karthikeyan.

It's nice to see a smile on the driver's face on the podium.

[Quixotic]

Mark Webber tested out the proposed F1 night circuit on Saturday.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stori...267689/1/.html
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stori...267641/1/.html

There is some information of the proposed route, which seems to have plenty of turns to keep it interesting. Wondering how it would be like running a night race.