F1 Winter Testing / Driver Line-Ups for 2007

Q&A with Nick Fry at Honda.

http://www.formula1.com/news/5402.html

This bit was interesting...

Q: With the exit of British American Tobacco, Honda hasn’t named a new title sponsor. Will that change? Or is Honda - aside from some smaller sponsors - the sole financier of the team?

NF: We do not have left any space on the car for next year, even though there will definitely be opportunities for other partners. We have a marketing plan, which will surprise a lot of people and get them interested by our approach for next year. You will not see a car covered in Honda logos, it will be something very different. In terms of timing we will start testing our new car in the third week of January - around the 22nd - but our marketing plan and our new partners will probably not be presented until the beginning of March. So you could say that we will have two launches: one of the car and one of our new marketing concept. Until the presentation of the marketing concept the car will very likely run all in black.
Click to expand...
 
Only two pieces of the jigsaw left.

Japanese F3 champion Adrian Sutil has been confirmed as Christijan Albers' team mate at Spyker for 2007. The contract is described as "long term" with no end date published.

There has been no confirmation of Tiago Montiero's future but it looks likely that he's out on his ear.

CART champion Sebastien Bourdais has been testing with Torro Rosso and could well be in with a shout of a race seat in 2008, he has a contract to continue in the US in 2007.
 
The 2007 Season launches have begun!!!

The schedule:

calender.jpg



Toyota TF107

Technical Specs:

tf107ts.jpg


Launch Pics

tf107a.jpg


tf107b.jpg


tf107c.jpg
 
What are people's opinons on Toyota atm. They say they want to win in 2007, and they have a silly amount of money to spend, are they really going to live up to it? It was the same last year they still had a huge budget but they didn't get anywhere! :rolleyes:
 
Fergie said:
What are people's opinons on Toyota atm. They say they want to win in 2007, and they have a silly amount of money to spend, are they really going to live up to it? It was the same last year they still had a huge budget but they didn't get anywhere! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I think as with all these things only time will tell, however if the Bridgestone tyres work with their car and their aero dept delivers then they may well be in for a shout with a win or two!
 
Toyota's problems have always been a lack of consistency, one week they're scrapping for points the next they're fighting with the Midlands. There was light at the end of the tunnel in 2005, Mike Gascoyne was starting to have an influence, they got a good 4th in the constructors championship and looked to have a good basis for growth and then they sacked him. 2006 started off OK and tailed off as they struggled to keep up with the other team's developments.

What I find telling is how many appendages the launch cars have, it gives you an idea of how much downforce they have. That Toyota has all sorts of bits hanging off it already which suggests that they've had to resort to extra bits which normally you'd not see appearing until mid season.

They've hired an ex Michelin suspension expert who has some fairly radical ideas - the bent front wishbones and some different ideas for rear pick ups. We'll see if they can get good use out of the tyres as a result.

If Toyota are going to be a serious contender then they need to look at their driver line up. Trulli is, as we all know, a superb qualifier but for me he goes to sleep mid race too often. Ralf on his day can be as fast as anyone out there but if things are difficult he just goes off in the huff which isn't going to win you anything. What's concerning is that they don't have a Hamilton, Kovelinen, Luizzi type in the wings, there is the boy who's going to be testing for Williams but he's not got much of a reputation. So that'll be another expense if they want to employ someone else.
 
Interesting to see total X-wing and Chimney integration - they've dropped the X-wing inboard stalk.

I don't like the main flick design though, the little topside double vane element and the inboard flick wall looks messy :o
 
Nick I understand you work for Renault? Have you been part of the development for the this seasons car so far? I have to say you are one lucky git! :)
 
Seamless shift & bigger tank for Toyota

Toyota are set to tackle the 2007 F1 season with a new car that features a seamless shift for the first time as well as a bigger fuel tank.

Toyota unveiled their 2007 car, the TF107, in Cologne on Friday at which time Toyota President John Howett spoke of the new car, claiming that it is a completely new car, with virtually no parts carried over from the TF106 and TF106B that preceded it.

"It's pretty extensively changed in terms of basic lay-out," Howett said of the 2007 car.

"When we went from the V10 to V8 the back of the engine effectively stayed in the same place, and the chassis and fuel tank filled the space where the front two cylinders of the V10 were.

"Now we've moved to engine forward, and yet worked really hard to still have a big tank. The gearbox is longer, and we will run a seamless shift for the first time.

"Aerodynamics is the big focus, and a lot of the chassis layout has been designed to give better aero opportunity. The whole monocoque concept has been modified in terms of height and how it sits. Before it was quite a low car, now it's higher.

"We have improved the suspension, and we have some interesting developments in the pipeline that we hope will give us performance."

Toyota are also confident that the experienced they gained of Bridgestone's tyres during the 2006 Championship will benefit the team and help them get the maximum out of the tyres available.

"We switched to Bridgestone tyres one year ago,," said team boss Tsutomu Tomita.

"In the beginning it we had some problems. I would compare it to the weather. In the winter testing and at the beginning of the season it was cloudy but in the middle of the year the clouds began to disappear and towards the end it was perfectly sunny!

"It was down and up through the year, but it was a very good learning year in 2006. So if I talk about 2007, and going to single tyre supplier, we have learned a lot about tyre treatment, particularly about temperature, suspension geometry and downforce."
Click to expand...
 
Toyota really need to do something this season IMO or the sponsors will start asking serious questions of them. They've got a massive budget and 3 fairly decent, reputable drivers, why arent they winning races?
 
I have a bit of a 'who cares' attitude towards Toyota. As an outfit I've always had the impression that the bottom line is all that matters to them. Sure they have a shed-load of cash, but then again so did Jaguar, and nothing came of them either.
Personally I think most of the blame must be laid on the drivers, Ralf and Jarno. Both of them, and adding Fisichella too while I'm wielding the axe, are representatives of the classic 'Ooh, but they're good qualifiers' argument.

I don't care about good qualifiers, what I care about is maximum attack, last of the late breakers and the 'take no prisioners' approach to racing. Toyota might scrape a win if most the proper drivers have a multiple pile up at the start, but with Ralf and Jarno at the sharp end they will never challenge for a title.

Kimi to win! :D
 
Qualifying doesnt play a big part as it used to imo. Ferrari, Mclaren, BMW, Renault in the top 10, the occsaional RBR or Toro Rosso or Williams in there, but the result will always be a McLaren/Ferrari/Renault win, no matter where they qualify.
 
el_dazza said:
Qualifying doesnt play a big part as it used to imo. Ferrari, Mclaren, BMW, Renault in the top 10, the occsaional RBR or Toro Rosso or Williams in there, but the result will always be a McLaren/Ferrari/Renault win, no matter where they qualify.
Click to expand...

True enough, but can we really put Renault as prime contender for a win/podium anymore? Fisichella's their main man (lord help 'em!) and he's hardly what I'd consider a full on racer.

Still, this should provide some wonderful Flavio Briatore freaking out moments (as we all know how much he loves Fisi).

I'm curious how BMW and RBR will fare this season though. Especially RBR now that they have the 'golden child' Adrian Newey fully in place. It'll also be interesting to see if Webber can pull his finger out and start wowing us again, or was he really just a tail-end charlie all along?
 
The level of secrecy and technology in F1 amazes me. I hope to get to Indy one day and see and HEAR them run.

I realize this thread is current but, I wish Senna could have given us a few more years :( R.I.P. I'd love to see a mature Schumacher vs Senna battle in evenly matched cars.

I see we have a token American in the field this year. I wonder how he will do and if we will ever have another American F1 champ?

FWIW, last I heard Jody Sheckter lived near me and was head of a company building video based firearms training simulator. Google for the F.A.T.S system.
 
Yellowbeard said:
I see we have a token American in the field this year. I wonder how he will do and if we will ever have another American F1 champ?
Click to expand...

There was one last year too, he must has slipped under your radar ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom