The 2007 season so far
With only six races to go, the 2007 Formula One Championship is still wide open. F1Technical takes advantage of this three-week summer break to review the season so far, team by team and driver by driver.
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Team
The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Team has been much-discussed in the press this season and not only for the performance of the Woking-based team on track. It all started out with rumours about the bad relationship between double World Champion Fernando Alonso and rookie Lewis Hamilton. These rumours have now come true after the Hungarian GP-event. Rumours have been spread that Alonso will leave McLaren at the end of the season.
McLaren can miss this intern conflict as the team is still involved in the espionage matter. On 26 July, the FIA World Motor Sport Council found McLaren guilty of possession of unauthorised Ferrari documents, but with no evidence that the team had made use of the information, the governing body elected not to punish McLaren. Max Mosley, president of the governing body, decided to take the matter to the Court of Appeal after receiving a letter from Italy's automobile federation president, Luigi Macaluso. The Court of Appeal date has been set for 13 September.
The International Court of Appeal will also meet in Paris on 19 September to hear the appeal of McLaren concerning the decision of the Stewards of the 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix. McLaren received a heavy penalty at Budapest as the stewards decided that the team would not receive any points in the Constructors' Championship.
All these matters aside, McLaren is the team that is leading the Constructors' Championship at this moment. Both Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton snatched 3 victories so far. The Spaniard won at Malaysia, Monaco and the European GP at Germany while team mate Hamilton won at Canada, the US and Hungary.
Lewis Hamilton is still on course for his first World Championship title and this in his maiden F1 season. The Briton has 7 points more in the standings than team mate Fernando Alonso.
Scuderia Ferrari
It has already been a turbulent season for the Scuderia Ferrari. The team suffers more reliability problems than they are used to and are at the moment 19 points behind rivals McLaren. Both teams don't only battle on track but are also mixed in a legal battle concerning the espionage matter.
The Scuderia wasn't only hit by the espionage matter but also by sabotage. The team found a suspicious white powder in the fuel tanks of Massa's and Raikkonen's F2007 only a few days before the Monaco GP. Suspect in both cases...Nigel Stepney.
Kimi Raikkonen, who joined the Italian team from McLaren, had some problems fitting in at Ferrari. The Finn won the first race of the season at Melbourne and showed Ferrari and the Tifosi that he's worth their trust. The 'Iceman' also won the French GP and the British GP.
Team mate Felipe Massa has had his highs and lows so far, but he still believes that the title is possible. Massa won at Bahrain and Spain and is 4th in the drivers standings.
BMW Sauber
The BMW Sauber F1 Team surprised friend and enemy as they have had a great season so far. The team is third in the standings so far and faster than reigning World Champion, Renault.
Nick Heidfeld, who just became a father for the second time, is 5th in the Drivers Championship. Peaks for Heidfeld were his podiumplaces at Canada and Hungary. In Montreal, the German finished 2nd and this in a heavy psychological race for himself and his team as he saw the debris of Kubica's car. Robert Kubica had a heavy crash at the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit and for a while, everybody was fearing for his life. The Pole, however, escaped with only a sprained ancle.
Heidfeld was again on the podium during the Hungarian GP where he took 3rd place.
Robert Kubica, 6th in the drivers standings, was not able to make it to the podium yet this season, but showed he is worth his spot in the F1.07. Kubica already collected 28 points for BMW Sauber.
ING Renault F1 Team
Renault started the season with a new sponsor and a new driver line-up after the departure of Fernando Alonso. Heikki Kovalainen had the heavy task to let the team forget about Alonso, but in an unreliable car this is not an easy job.
The rookie made a lot of mistakes in the first races of the season and this is probably because of the great amount of pressure that was on the young Finn. But, Kovalainen quickly recovered and already scored 16 points for Renault. This is only 1 point less than team mate Giancarlo Fisichella.
Fisichella, who is 7th in the driver standings, does it the other way around. In the beginning of the season, he was obviously faster than his young team mate, but the last couple of races, Kovalainen outpaced the Roman time by time.
According to reports from the Brazilian newspapers, Nelson Piquet Jr., the test and reserve driver of the team, has already signed a contract for 2008 and would replace Giancarlo Fisichella. But as always in this silly season, we have to take the rumours with a grain of salt.
Flavio Briatore promised to announce the 2008 driver line-up by the Italian Grand Prix.
AT&T Williams F1 Team
The Williams F1 Team hasn't been much discussed this season, but they are doing a fantastic job as they are in 5th position in the Constructors' Championship. Nico Rosberg is the star driver of the team, but Alexander Wurz has collected the most points so far.
The Austrian is in 9th position in the drivers standings and collected 13 points for his team. The Canadian GP was the moment to shine for Wurz as he finished on the podium.
Team mate Nico Rosberg, 12th in the Drivers Championship, has had his part of bad luck this season. The youngster only failed to outpace Wurz in qualifying at occasion, but due to reliability problems and a wrong strategy, he was only able to collect 7 points for Williams.
Red Bull
The Red Bull Racing Team, at the moment 6th in the Constructors' Championship, has been struggling all year long. With nine retirements, reliability remains the biggest problem of the team.
Mark Webber and David Coulthard both collected 8 points so far this season. Webber's moment to shine for his new team was at the European GP as he made it to the podium. Team mate Coulthard had his best races during the Spanish GP and the European GP as he finished in 5th position.
If Red Bull can solve their reliability problems that are mostly related to the new seamless-shift gearbox , they can still grab a lot of points this season.
Toyota
Every year, Toyota has high expectations at the debut of the season, but once more these expectations seem to have fade away. Toyota is only 7th in the standings and this with the largest budget in F1.
Toyota has 8 points less than customer team Williams and this says it all. Both Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher have had a lot of problems handling the car, but especially the German had problems performing. In the beginning of the season there were a lot of reports that Schumacher would be replaced at Toyota, but the last couple of races, Ralf seems to have pulled his act together again.
Super Aguri
The Super Aguri F1 Team is surprisingly faster than their engine supplier Honda. Nobody expected the Japanese Team to improve this much in only their second year in the pinnacle of motorsport.
Super Aguri so far collected 4 points. After the Spanish Grand Prix, the team could celebrate for the first time as Takuma Sato collected the first point of the season. At the Canadian GP, the party was even heavier as Sato finished the race in 6th position and grabbed 3 points.
Anthony Davidson is driving a good season as well, though he hasn't scored a point so far.
Although everything is going well on track, the Super Aguri F1 Team is still mingled in the customer car row that still hasn't been solved. As the team runs a modified version of Honda’s 2006 car, Spyker has taken action against SA. We are still waiting for the outcome of this matter.
After the Hungarian GP, it was reported that Super Aguri is in financial problems as one of their main sponsors failed to make its payments on time.
Honda
After a fantastic 2006 season, the Honda Racing F1 Team has a major setback this year. The team is only 9th in the Constructors' Championship and only collected 1 point. The team is trying to solve the lack of pace and performance of the RA107 by attracting technical staff from other teams.
The bad performance of this season will have no affect on the team's driver line-up for next season as both Button and Barrichello have already been confirmed for 2008.
Toro Rosso
The last couple of races there has been a big soap opera around the Scuderia Toro Rosso. After the European Grand Prix at Nürbürgring, Scott Speed claimed that he was physically attacked by Franz Tost. The relationship between Berger, Tost and Speed had been turbid for a while.
As from the Hungarian Grand Prix, Speed was replaced by Sebastian Vettel. And last week, it was announced that in 2008 Vettel will be joined by Champ Car Champion Sebastien Bourdais, leaving Liuzzi without a race seat as well.
With 14 retirements this season, Toro Rosso does worse than sister team Red Bull. All we can conclude from this is that the bad performances weren't only the fault of the drivers but especially because of the lack of reliability.
Spyker F1 Team
With driver changes, reliability issues and financial problems, Spyker remains at the back of the grid this season. Christijan Albers was fired after the British GP and replaced by Markus Winkelhock at Nürbürgring. Winkelhock could only shine for 1 race as Sakon Yamamoto stepped in with more cash.
In the meantime, Adrian Sutil, the rookie driver, is being praised for his driving skills. Although he's not in a competitive car, everybody can see his potential.
