F1 Winter Testing / Driver Line-Ups for 2007

Soldato
Joined
20 Sep 2005
Posts
21,166
Location
West End, Southampton
Well nobody's made one as far as i know, so i'll start us off :)

Anthony Davidson confirmed as Super Aguri's number 2 driver for 2007.
Here's the driver line-ups as of today, some teams yet to confirm their drivers.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes: Fernando Alonso (SPA) and Lewis Hamilton (GBR)
ING Renault F1: Giancarlo Fisichella (ITA) and Heikki Kovalainen (FIN)
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro: Felipe Massa (BRA) and Kimi Raikkonen (FIN)
Honda F1: Jenson Button (GBR) and Rubens Barrichello (BRA)
BMW-Sauber F1: Robert Kubica (POL) and Nick Heidfeld (GER)
Panasonic Toyota: Jarno Trulli (ITA) and Ralf Schumacher (GER)
Red Bull Racing: David Coulthard (GBR) and Mark Webber (AUS)
AT&T Williams F1: Nico Rosberg (GER) and Alexander Wurz (AUT)
Scuderia Toro Rosso: Scott Speed (USA) and Vitantonio Liuzzi (ITA)
Spyker F1: Christijan Albers (HOL) and Adrian Sutil
Super Aguri F1: Takuma Sato (JPN) and Anthony Davidson (GBR)

And the suggested race schedule:

1 ING Australian Grand Prix, Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit, 18 March
2 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix, Sepang International Circuit, 8 April
3 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix, Sakhir International Circuit, 15 April
4 Spanish Grand Prix, Circuit de Catalunya, 13 May
5 Monaco Grand Prix, Circuit de Monaco, 27 May
6 Canadian Grand Prix, Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve, 10 June
7 United States Grand Prix, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 17 June
8 French Grand Prix, Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, 1 July
9 British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit, 8 July
10 German Grand Prix, Nürburgring, 22 July
11 Hungarian Grand Prix, Hungaroring, 5 August
12 Petrol Ofisi Turkish Grand Prix, Istanbul Speed Park, 26 August
13 Italian Grand Prix, Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, 9 September
14 Belgian Grand Prix, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, 16 September
15 Fuji TV Japanese Grand Prix, Mt Fuji Speedway, 30 September
16 Sinopec Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai International Circuit, 7 October
17 Brazilian Grand Prix, Autódromo José Carlos Pace, 21 October

All team line-ups now confirmed for 2007!

World Championship betting (as of 4/3/07)

K Raikkonen - 7/4
F Massa - 2/1
F Alonso - 9/4
H Kovalainen - 14/1
L Hamilton - 16/1
G Fisichella - 20/1
J Button - 20/1
R Kubica - 33/1
N Heidfeld - 40/1
R Barrichello - 66/1

Constructors:

Ferrari - 4/7
McLaren - 2/1
Renault - 7/1
Honda - 14/1
BMW Sauber - 25/1
Toyota - 66/1
Williams/Red Bull - 100/1
Toro Rosso - 250/1
Spyker/Super Aguri - 1,000/1 (I'll give you 1,000,000 :p )

Anyone else think BMW's drivers are overpriced at 33/1+?
 
Last edited:
I think Speed and Luizi have been confirmed at STR, (if it's not then it's as near as makes no difference).

Gary Paffett looks to be taking Anthony Davidson's test seat at Honda - McLaren have said he can go if he gets a decent seat because they don't have the need for a fourth driver with the reduction in testing miles.

Actually scrub the above, just checked Autosport and Klien's got that gig. Still leaves Gary out in the cold though.

McLaren have scotched rumours that Mika Hakkinen could partner Alonso next year. They have already said they won't be hiring outside the company so it's down to Hamilton or de la Rosa, conventional thinking says that two Spainards would limit the sponsorship coming into the team but Ron has said they have a bigger sponsorship portfolio than anyone F1 has ever had. Look for a driver announcement before the new year. New livery has been seen in testing but pictures are rare - there's a drawing in last week's autosport - red Vodafone sidepods, silver bodywork and red wings (don't know if these are Emirates or Vodafone).

Tiago Montiero is still the favourite for the Spyker seat with Adrian Sutil likely to get the test berth.

Sebastien Vessel will be testing for BMW as well as driving on Fridays. Now the rules for 2007 have removed the third car option so it remains to be seen if all three drivers will run on the Friday or if one of the race drivers will be rested.

Williams have signed Kazuki Nakajima (son of 80s driver Saturo) as a tester alongside Narain Karthywosisname. When I say signed I really mean have taken him on as part of the engine deal, he's in Toyota's young driver programme. The team also has a commercial title sponsor for the first time in a while - AT&T have joined RBS as a major sponsor of the team.

At Ferrari it's all change on the technical side, Ross Brawn's on sabattical, Jean Todt will be moving to head up Ferrari as a whole and Paulo Martinelli (engine guru) is moving to Fiat. With homologated engines there isn't going to be the need for a huge R&D effort but Brawn's teactical nous will be missed. Marc Gene stays on as a tester as, I assume, does Luca Badoer.

Red Bull have managed to agree terms with Ferrari to move their supply contract to STR with the Renault engines going into the RB3. The RBR technical department has been seriously boosted since Newey's arrival with the cherry picking of talent from across the top teams - with Renault power they could well be a force to reckon with, Honda & Toyota will need to keep an eye out.
 
Personally i think if honda get their head down over the winter, then they can become serious contenders for next year. Button will be boosted by consistent results throughout 2006, but barrichello i think needs to move on now, he's past his best imo
 
I'm not sure what Honda are up to, they went blindingly quickly in winter testing and then blindingly slowly for the first half of the year. They picked up in the second half of the year but they still seem to be paying a lot of money for not very much performance. It'll be interesting to see what they management shake up results in.

Barichello's an interesting character. There's no doubt that on his day he's as quick as anyone but I think he's not as determined or agressive as his rivals so really only performs when he's in the right mood. If Honda can recognise this and manage him properly then they'll get some good performances from him. I also have a feeling he's not the most adaptable driver on the planet, it took him over a year to really get to grips with a Ferrari which had been designed round Shumi's driving style. It looked very much like he took a few months to unlearn that and go back to the more neutral style of the Honda.

Button's the one who's under the spotlight. Along with Massa and Fisi he's in the priviliged position of staying with the same team as last year and as a result should be quick out of the box and needs to get points on the board before the rest get really up to speed.
 
EddScott said:
Is there any fact in the rumour that Brawn is going to Honda after his 12 month break?
Not that I've heard but if Ross has truely left Ferrari rather than just taking a break then I wouldn't be surprised that folk are after him.
 
Theres a lad on SNet that says he works with Brawns uncle.

He's definately left Ferrari and the lad seems to think he's agreed with Honda but theres also an article posted on SNet that suggests he's also talked to Mclaren and Williams.

I tried to talk to my oldman about this a few days ago but as it wasn't in Autosport he wasn't having any of it. :)
 
Does RBR really think they stand any chance of beating the main team of their engine supplier. Seems they missed a trick not buying the Cosworth F1 Business and sticking a bunch of cash in there and developing their own engines. Its not like Cosworth didn't produce a half decent v8...

Steve
 
There are certainly plenty of precedents of customer teams beating the main works teams - McLaren in 93, Benetton in 95 and hopefully Williams in 07 ;)

Buying Cosworth would have been a big mistake for RBR. We're now into a period of engine design stability so there's no benefit in spending a huge amount of money to develop an engine that you then can't change - what do you do with all the staff. You might as well do what RBR did and buy a supply of the best available engine at the time.

While I would have loved to see Cosworth still in F1 (2007 will be the first they haven't competed in since the mid 60s) I'm glad that they haven't tried to stick about in the way Hart did and fail as a result. What that means is that a smaller leaner Cosworth still exists doing specialist work like supporting the TGP series with new DFV parts :D Hopefully, and this may be looking at the future through a rose tinted crystal ball, they may come back in years to come.
 
Another piece of the jigsaw has been put in place - Lewis Hamilton has been handed the second McLaren race seat...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/6179704.stm

Surprising but not unexpected, while de la Rosa would make a good partner for Alonso the prospect of running 2 Spanish drivers didn't make the best commercial sense and in Hamilton McLaren have one of the best young talents out there. Obviously he'll be a distinct #2 to Alonso but McLaren being what they are are unlikely to reign him in in the same way as other teams.
 
rpstewart said:
(2007 will be the first they haven't competed in since the mid 60s)

Thought it was 1986? The only Ford engine in the field that year wasn't a Cosworth build IIRC (the turbo motor in the back of the Haas Lola). The following year, Cosworth brought back a DFV derivative for the new 'atmo' rules that were coming soon.

Regarding Hamilton - I can't decide if they're pushing him up to a race seat too early or not. I'll be interested to see how close he gets to Alonso in testing. Also be intersting to see how he fares in relation to both test drivers, DLR and Paffett.
 
JRS said:
Regarding Hamilton - I can't decide if they're pushing him up to a race seat too early or not. I'll be interested to see how close he gets to Alonso in testing. Also be intersting to see how he fares in relation to both test drivers, DLR and Paffett.

Personally I think Ron's master plan has fallen apart slightly on two fronts and as a result has had his hand forced somewhat.

1) JPM should still have been racing next year allowing Hamilton to take a test seat in 2007 with a view to a race seat in 2008

and / or

2) The Direxiv (sp?) run McLaren B team didn't happen. Hamilton would have been a shoe in for a 2007 drive, possibly with Paffet.


Testing times will be interesting, I think Hamilton has already posted better times than Paffett (one of the reasons McLaren weren't exactly bending over backwards to renew Gary's contract), DLR is a known quantity and so will be the benchmark for both Lewis and Ferdy.
 
el_dazza said:
Great to see hamilton in the seat for next season! When does testing resume... 4th december?

Nov 28 - 30 at Barcelona, then 6-8 & 13-15 Dec at Jerez.

I would assume that Pedro and Lewis will be doing all the running, I doubt Alonso's contract will allow him to drive a McLaren until 1st Jan.
 
Japanese GP, anyone know if this is the confirmed date yet?

I've seen the 7th October on other websites!

I'm off with my uncle to see this has he won a charity auction for a 5 day trip out there with 3 day F1 passes (I'm 32 and he's 40 before anyone starts to think of me being 8 and him being in his 50's!)

Need to book my holidays for the trip, but obviously need to know if the calendar is concrete yet!
 
I don't think the dates have been finalised just yet.

It's good too see that Lewis has been given the second McLaren seat - always good to get a nice influx of young drivers into the sport. I just now hope Heikki proves to be faster than Fisi during the initial races so that Piquet can be promoted up to a race seat. Both very nice chaps Heikki and Piquet Jnr :)
 
rpstewart said:
There are certainly plenty of precedents of customer teams beating the main works teams - McLaren in 93, Benetton in 95 and hopefully Williams in 07 ;)

........

Are Williams really a customer team and paying Toyota for the engines?
 
Alibaba99 said:
Are Williams really a customer team and paying Toyota for the engines?

Well, I doubt Toyota are in the business of giving away the engines....;)
 
rpstewart said:
Another piece of the jigsaw has been put in place - Lewis Hamilton has been handed the second McLaren race seat...

Excellent news :)

Good luck to the lad, think he will do well.
 
Great news having two more brits on the grid
icon14.gif
 
Back
Top Bottom