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[F1]

2008 Team-by-Team Review
The 2008 season was one of the most competitive in Formula One history - and not just because of the unfeasibly-tight championship battle. For much of the year, as little as two seconds covered the entire field, and nine of the 10 full-season teams achieved at least one podium finish. Autosport magazine's Grand Prix Editor Mark Hughes takes an in-depth look at all 11 teams that contested F1 2008, explaining the technical and human stories behind their results, and analysing how and why their seasons unfolded as they did

By Mark Hughes
Autosport's GP Editor


Ferrari 1st, 172 points

Comfortable world constructors' champions, eight grand prix victories and missing out on the drivers' championship by a single point with Felipe Massa, this was a terrific season for Maranello, the first under the full leadership of Stefano Domenicali following the official retirement of Jean Todt.

Much against expectations, Massa proved the stronger performer for the team over the balance of the year, as Kimi Raikkonen too often struggled for someone of his reputation and salary. A car with an understeer balance not to his taste and not always being fully match fit were two of the contributory causes to Kimi's struggle. But another was undoubtedly the way Massa impressively stepped up his own game, by turns controlled and inspired by his race engineer Rob Smedley. The relationship between a driver and his engineer is a much under-estimated performance factor and in Massa's case even more critical than normal. His temperament is such that he needs guidance to keep his energies aligned through a race weekend and his underlying humility allowed him to accept Smedley's lead in this. As a result, his potential was unlocked far more regularly, even compared to his already improved 2007 performance.

He was dominant from the front in Bahrain, Turkey, Valencia and Brazil and was robbed after similar performances in Hungary and Singapore, while in Monaco, Canada and Japan he showed grit and flair when in places other than the lead, nailing a previous criticism. There's a lot that's great about Massa's driving: he can brake super-late, is very committed into fast corners, can maintain way more momentum with understeer than most, he's brave in wheel-to-wheel situations and he can put together a great qualifying lap when his car is as he likes it. Only occasionally did his lack of finesse surface - in Australia and Malaysia, with incidents where he seemed to struggle with the loss of driver aids, and Britain - and he's generally not great with an oversteering car, which the Ferrari rarely was. In fact, as Massa emerged as Ferrari's title hope, development of the car moved towards him and away from Raikkonen.

Raikkonen loses out

Partly this was just the way it unfolded, but it was also a reflection of how Raikkonen is so passive in his relationship with a team. His low-wattage approach sees him just accept how things are and the idea of taking the initiative in getting a team to develop the car the way he needs is totally alien. In this respect he could not represent a starker contrast with predecessor Michael Schumacher. Massa is not the sort to take charge either, but Smedley is and, as the still-young team found its equilibrium in the post Brawn/Schumacher/Todt era, Smedley assumed a lot of responsibility.
Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari F2008s) European Grand Prix © LAT

There were times this year when Raikkonen's performances were a cause of some frustration to the team and the two year extension of his contract to the end of 2010 was believed to reflect a pre-condition in the existing contract if a target number of points were scored, rather than any delight at his '08 performances. There were days, such as in Malaysia, France and Belgium, where he looked very much like the fantastically quick Kimi of old and he was unlucky to lose out in Magny-Cours to an exhaust problem after a devastating performance. But there were too many days where an inability to deal with understeer left him too far down the grid, stuck behind slower cars for too long while the leaders escaped. Typically, when he finally got into free air and without the understeer that new tyres tend to bring, he would be the fastest car on the track - as his all-time record of 10 fastest laps indicates - but by which time it would be too late. His record of just two poles to Massa's six also tells a story.

But, ironically, if only Raikkonen had performed a little worse Massa would have taken the drivers' title, for Kimi's defeat of Massa in Spain cost Felipe, in hindsight, two crucial points whereas at McLaren Lewis Hamilton faced no threat from his team-mate. Ferrari's 21 point margin in the constructors' championship was a reflection not only of Raikkonen scoring much better than McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen, but also the fact that the Ferrari was more often than not the fastest car.

The performance margin between the F2008 and the McLaren MP4-23 was rarely more than a couple of tenths, but by our reckoning there were eight tracks at which the red car clearly had the legs of the silver one versus just four at which the McLaren was faster. At the remaining six venues the difference was too close to call.

F2008's superior aero

The performance patterns over the season suggested the Ferrari had slightly superior aerodynamic efficiency, was faster through long corners and a McLaren-match through slow ones and over kerbs, something of a weakness of the previous year's car. On the downside it continued to be much more sensitive to tyre temperature, something that compromised its qualifying performances and generally made it a trickier proposition to operate. It worked its tyres very lightly, perhaps too much so, and in stark contrast to the McLaren had a generally understeery balance, something that suited Massa much more than Raikkonen. The way it used its tyres, its lack of initial turn in and its excellent startline performance conspired to suggest it was running a more rearwards weight distribution than the McLaren.

In concept the car was based very much on the F2007 and continued to feature the longest wheelbase on the grid. This enhanced its aerodynamic capacity, the expanse of space between the front wheels and barge boards allowing the airflow to reattach effectively after the big disturbance of the tyres, which in turn helped create a lot of underbody downforce, something that tended to give a more rearwards aero balance than most cars.

The two-plane front wing was much simpler than McLaren's multi-planed component, and featured quite an aggressive central drop-down section. Such a concept is great for high peak downforce but vulnerable to airflow stall. On high speed corners, having the front downforce stall in a controlled way is actually an asset, giving a measure of confidence-inspiring stability that counteracts an F1 car's natural tendency for overseer at high speed. But on slow corners - where the car naturally wants to understeer - such a trait would be deemed undesirable. The aero department came up with an ingenious way of having the best of both worlds, with its nose hole.

At tracks with predominantly slow speed corners, the hole in the nose allowed the airflow a route that kept it attached to the front wing surfaces. At tracks with faster corners the solid nose would be used and the front wing allowed to stall at high speeds. In fact, judging by the way the car's straightline speed advantage took a definite step up once beyond 175mph or so, it seemed the whole aero package could be stalled to reduce drag. It was a theme that continued with the diffuser, which featured a very aggressive central tunnel. This too would give a lot of downforce but be liable to stall at low ride heights, and the slots in the central tunnel's walls were there to tune the level of stall to each track's demands.

Ferrari continued to lead the way in the development of aero hub caps, being the only team to invariably run with both front and rear wheels enclosed. They channel the brake cooling air more efficiently, but at some penalty to the actual cooling. For the high braking demands of Montreal the front caps were removed, but for the similarly demanding Valencia the team had an ingenious plan to get around the parc ferme rules that prohibit the removal of anything between qualifying and race. The caps were fitted for qualifying and the first stint of the race, during which time the car benefited from the extra downforce they brought, but were removed at the first stop, thereby avoiding the penalty of having the discs wear out before the finish. It allowed Ferrari to have its cake and eat at least part of it.

Title-costing blows

Con-rod failure from an impurity within the material cost Massa victory in Hungary, with an identical failure taking out Raikkonen in the next race. The Hungary failure was a title-costing blow, as was the pit lane green light fiasco with Massa's car in Singapore, when he was released with the fuel hose still attached. After the latter incident Domenicali could be seen consoling the devastated pit crew member whose error caused it. It summed up not only the very human drama behind the sport's shop window, but also the emotion within what is still a Latin team even after years of Anglo-Germanic structure.

McLaren 2nd, 151 points

Ridiculous as it may seem, Lewis Hamilton's success represented the first McLaren world title in nine years. Hamilton scored five victories (six if we count the one denied him by the Spa stewards) and Heikki Kovalainen contributed a further one. A McLaren sat on pole eight times.

Kovalainen represented a much more benign presence than his predecessor Fernando Alonso, and in the process McLaren became more of a one-driver team, in much the way that Ferrari was during the Schumacher years. Although no driver could ever infiltrate McLaren's fibre in the way that Schumacher did Ferrari's, it being much too tightly structured a team for that, Hamilton did become very much its focus. His spectacular talent ensured it followed his lead, and the car was developed around his driving style, making things yet more difficult for Kovalainen.

Hamilton is at his most comfortable in an oversteering car. He takes the shortest possible route through a turn, driving right up to the latest possible turn-in, braking hard and turning hard, asking the front of the car to do a lot of work all at once. As long as it does that, he's happy and the rear can do what it wishes, which in slow-medium speed turns means it usually slides wide, giving him a big dose of correction to apply even before he's reached the apex. It's spectacular and, in a car with a responsive front end like the McLaren, it's devastatingly quick. It's not certain which came first, the chicken or the egg, but the MP4-23 developed into a machine with a stiff front end, for good response, and a soft rear for good traction. This made for an oversteery car that required plenty of input from the driver. Lewis loved it; Heikki, with his earlier turn-in, the way he had of making the corner last longer, didn't.

Loading up the tyres

The McLaren worked its tyres hard, which made for that instantly grippy front and the ability to get its tyres immediately up to temperature, giving it a qualifying advantage over the Ferrari. But the Bridgestone control tyres are not particularly grippy. They cannot be loaded up long and hard in the way the tyre-war rubber could be. So, unlike the Ferrari, the McLaren was not great through long-duration corners, where it would overwork and overheat the front tyres, something exacerbated by the way it would pick up its inside front wheel into the corner (from that soft rear/stiff front combination). This transferred 100 per cent of the front cornering load onto the outer tyre, giving it a much harder time. It was great for direction change but not good at sustained loads, and hence it worked perfectly for Hamilton, less so for Kovalainen, whose style made the corner last longer.
Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren MP4-23 Mercedes-Benz) Grand Prix of Brazil © LAT

Wet-weather brilliance

Hamilton's amazing prowess was never more evident than in the Silverstone rain, where he won by over a minute. He took a harum-scarum victory in the wet Monaco race that was as magnificent as it was lucky, given that an early brush with the wall led him to make a pitstop that happened to put him on precisely the right strategy for the way the race then unfolded.

He was dominant from start to finish in the season opener in Australia and in the penultimate event in China, and he memorably overcame McLaren's bizarre strategy to win at Hockenheim. His victory at Spa was perhaps his most exciting, but was of course denied by officialdom.

In between such highs he made a lot of errors. In Bahrain he forgot to put his car into launch mode, made a terrible start and hit Alonso, twice. There was his Montreal pitlane faux pas on a day when he was otherwise quite brilliant. In France he made a series of errors while trying to overcome the grid penalty incurred by the Canada incident. In Italy he unfathomably attempted to blitz Q2 by choosing intermediate tyres when it was still raining heavily, and instead mired himself in the midfield for a risk that didn't need taking. He almost left himself there again in Singapore two weeks later after messing up both his Q2 runs, and then there was the first corner at Fuji when, needing only to finish ahead of Massa, he staked all on a do-or-die move on Kimi Raikkonen at the first corner and messed up spectacularly. Is it because he was a 23-year-old in just his second F1 season? Or is it simply in his DNA to react aggressively when something doesn't go according to plan, a flaw that will always be part of him?

The MP4-23 that enabled Hamilton to become the sport's youngest champion was based very much on the preceding MP4-22, albeit with a few tweaks to make it just a little less aggressive on its rubber. The wheelbase was increased slightly, though was still significantly shorter than the Ferrari's, and its behaviour suggested a more forward weight distribution and aero balance. As in '07 it was a more compliant car than the Ferrari, with greater suspension travel, and the pitch and dive this allowed played its part in it heating up the tyres quicker. An apparently less sensitive aero platform allowed this, the McLaren hanging onto a greater proportion of its grip through a variety of ride heights. The front wing was of the maximum allowed plan area, but with three, and sometimes even four, elements to create multiple slot gaps. These surrendered downforce-generating surface area, but made the wing extremely tuneable and benign, as the airflow would be very reluctant to stall.

Tuning it on the pitch

A great deal of attention was focused on making the car more tuneable from the cockpit because of the regulation absence of driver aids that came with the standard ECU. Throttle maps and diff settings were controlled from paddles behind the steering wheel, enabling the drivers to change parameters without taking a hand off the wheel. Only later did two teams - Ferrari and Honda - get around to copying this.

The Mercedes engine came to be recognised as the most potent of all, with a great spread of torque and real grunt from 15,000rpm onwards. Despite the regulation engine-specification freeze, gains were definitely made here as Mobil constantly developed its fuel and changes to the exhausts were made to accompany this evolution. An engine failure for Kovalainen, when he was possibly poised to win the Japanese Grand Prix, was the first such occurrence for Mercedes since 2006.

Heikki won in Hungary, but only after Massa and Hamilton suffered problems when running well ahead of him. His best race was probably in Turkey, where he showed enough pace to have won but where his race was ruined by a puncture picked up by a touch with Raikkonen. He was a quick qualifier in the first half of the season, but with a style that took too much from the tyres. Changing his driving and set-up into the second half eased the tyre problem, but lost him much of his speed.

BMW Sauber 3rd, 135 points

Third in the constructors' championship and a breakthrough victory summarises BMW's season. It remains unerringly on course with its own schedule of achievement, but it was done in a peculiar way, the F1.08 starting out very strong but becoming much less competitive once Robert Kubica had won the Canadian Grand Prix. Early in the year it was a car capable of getting among the Ferraris and McLarens if one of them was even slightly below par. But by the end it was nowhere near. In fact, by this time it wasn't even the third-fastest car, having been leapfrogged by Renault and, occasionally, Toro Rosso and Toyota too.

The car's curious performance curve through the year suggested either a team that was deliberately holding back with its development, perhaps keeping the board's expectations grounded while it pressed on with its '09 programme, or a less-than-full understanding of the car. It was, after all, a very intricately conceived machine and generally unrelated to last year's F1.07.

The whole philosophy of this car was one of intricately detailed airflow, with all sorts of bodywork add-ons and finely-honed detailing: cow horns atop the nose; flip-ups around the sidepods; flow conditioners around the cockpit; a T-wing across the middle of the car. These, as well as the conventional barge boards, wheel fairings and a McLaren-like three-flap wing, were all used to dictate an incredibly complex airflow, especially around the front of the car. At the rear it was more conventional. It was longer in wheelbase than its fairly short predecessor, all the extra space being used between the front wheels and sidepods for better aerodynamic flow. Despite the increase in length, however, it was lighter than the F1.07, pre-ballast.

Consistent downforce throughout the corner was the aim, and when all was working well BMW succeeded. The car seemed very aero efficient, producing good downforce for a given level of drag, though it wasn't at its best on tracks that demanded high downforce above all else, such as Monaco and Hungary.
Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber F1.08s) Grand Prix of Belgium © XPB

One pole for a Pole

In Melbourne, Kubica pushed Hamilton hard for pole position and would have taken second in the race had the team not taken a strategy gamble. In Malaysia he was a solid second behind Massa. In the first race the Ferraris had underperformed; in the second the McLarens - and both times Kubica was fast enough to punish them.

Robert secured the team's first pole position in Bahrain, albeit aided by a low fuel load. He continued squeezing the maximum from the car without error, flattered its performance by finishing second in Monaco, and was flawless in his victory in Montreal.

He was performing to a different level than the year before, looking much more like the guy who'd made a sensational impact on his arrival at the end of '06. For one, he had a more experienced race engineer and formed a much better relationship with him. For another, the car was much more stable under braking, showing how bad the previous electronically-aided system must have been, given that such systems were now outlawed. Braking stability is essential for Kubica's aggressive driving style - the car must not be at all nervous at the rear. Like Alonso, he needs a front end that responds and will continue to accept direction change even when already understeering. Any oversteer into the corner and he's in difficulty.

Kubica's style meant he had no trouble getting the front tyres quickly up to temperature, in stark contrast to team-mate Nick Heidfeld, whose early-on-the-brakes/early-on-the-gas style was not at all suited to this car/tyre combination. Canny racecraft allowed him to rack up good results - and he was beaten to victory by Kubica at Montreal only through a team strategy call - but he struggled in qualifying, for much the same reasons as Kimi Raikkonen and Heikki Kovalainen elsewhere. He altered his technique and set-up preferences, and into the second half of the season he was generally closer to Kubica.

In the meantime the car had dropped off the pace, as others stretched their development legs. The car's complex airflow seemed to make it quite inflexible when a change of balance was called for. Kubica became quite frustrated that the team was following this direction, apparently to help Heidfeld, feeling that his own chances were being damaged in the process. He was leading the world championship after Montreal, he felt the team had surrendered too easily, too early, and there was considerable friction. There were many instances of incorrect tyre pressures and set-up anomalies with Kubica's car into the second half of the year, yet he continued to race well. Had the team been prepared to do a Ferrari-like reverse of positions in China, where Heidfeld and Kubica were fifth and sixth, Kubica would have finished third in the championship rather than fourth. But such a move was never up for discussion.

This is a team in a fascinating stage of its development and which has a fiery relationship with its lead driver. It will be intriguing to see how it all develops from here, whether the final step to McLaren/Ferrari territory can be accomplished.

Renault 4th, 80 points

Fernando Alonso's dramatic back-to-back wins in Singapore and Japan totally transformed Renault's season, helping secure a fourth place in the constructors' championship that looked highly unlikely in the early part of the season. Both victories, to a greater or lesser degree, depended on good fortune, but that's to take nothing away from the performance improvement of the R28. It was over one second off the pace in Australia at the beginning of the year and only 0.3-0.4 seconds off in Brazil at the end. In terms of performance gains through the year this team outstripped even Ferrari and McLaren - with the proviso that it's easier to do when starting from a lower base.

Alonso returned to his spiritual home after his bruising year at McLaren, but while he might have preferred the ambience he could be under no illusions about the competitiveness of the car as he first got behind the wheel for winter testing. It lacked grunt, grip and traction. Other than that it was fine!

The power and torque shortfall became ever-more apparent as the season unfolded. The FIA had created an opportunity for teams to refine the specs of their engines during the close season in the interests of reliability, but it seems most found performance in the process. Renault, with most of its F1 engine department disbanded, was in no position to make use of the opportunity and the motor was reckoned to be 35bhp down on the best in the second half of the season, though some of this was clawed back by a new evolution of Elf fuel from the Singapore GP, further advantage being taken in Japan with a revised exhaust system to match the new combustion characteristics.

Single tyre hangover

The R28 was a revision of the previous season's car but with more aerodynamically efficient zero-keel front suspension mounts like everyone else, rather than the previous uniquely Renault vee keel. This was a consequence of the team's first year on the Bridgestone control tyres in 2007 and the realisation that a more forward-biased aero distribution was needed, together with a two per cent shift in the same direction for the weight distribution, achieved mainly by moving the engine further forwards. These were the sorts of moves being made 12 months earlier by other teams.
Fernando Alonso and Nelsinho Piquet (Renault R28s) British Grand Prix © LAT

In the tyre war days Renault went out on a technical limb with a rearwards-biased car, a philosophy that was led by the characteristics of the Michelin tyres. The withdrawal of Michelin at the end of 2006 was therefore a particularly devastating blow to Renault, and in 2008 it was still suffering the hangover of that. With a more forward weight distribution even than the '07 car, the R28 was into the territory where traction was badly affected and, in stark contrast to the Michelin days, it was one of the slowest cars off the grid as the team learned how to alleviate the consequences of the weight distribution.

Complex airflow

The car suffered aerodynamic inconsistency for the first three races, something that particularly hurt the confidence of rookie Nelson Piquet Jr. The design featured quite an aggressive-looking front wing with perhaps the most sharply defined central 'spoon' section of all and a notably arched nose shape. Air from the central section of the wing was channelled through here, the passage further defined by the keel stumps. The whole combination made for a complex flow that was difficult to control.

The aero department suffered a huge upheaval during the winter as it became apparent that aero chief Dino Toso was losing his fight with cancer. He was given a different position and passed away in August. In the meantime Dirk de Beer had joined from BMW as the new chief of aero. The team was also expanding, building a new CFD centre beneath its Enstone base, all adding to the unsettled environment in which the car was created.

An aero upgrade for Spain saw the team the first to copy the Red Bull 'shark fin' engine cover that almost everyone subsequently adopted. Also included in this package were new front wheel fairings and a downforce-inducing extension to the front brake ducts. On the mechanical side, an inerter was added to the front suspension (a rear version was added at Monaco), Renault being one of the last teams to use this technology. It all helped make the R28 a more predictable machine and lifted it briefly from the back of the midfield to the front of it. The final improvement came after Italy with a new front wing and the fuel development. It was only then that Renault leapfrogged clearly ahead of Toyota, Toro Rosso and BMW.

Piquet's shunt into the Singapore barriers just after Alonso had made his first stop, but before anyone else had, effectively gave the race to Fernando and was viewed with deep suspicion by many rivals. But Alonso's follow-up victory in Japan was all about being at the head of the queue to take advantage of the McLaren/Ferrari incident at the first corner, which says everything about the team's rate of progress.

Toyota 5th, 56 points

Toyota enjoyed its best season since 2005 with an all-new design that took Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock to a podium each and secured the team fifth in the constructors' championship.

Realising that it had backed itself into a corner with the previous-generation design, which dated back several years, the technical team sought to produce a car with a wider operating window, more stability, and downforce that was more consistent. The car's wheelbase was increased to give a greater distance between the front wheels and sidepods, the previous forward turning vanes were discarded for more fashionable bigger bargeboards further back, and the sidepods at last gained a significant undercut in their proportions. In all, it was a much more modern-looking car than its predecessor, looking fully up to date with those around it.

Closer to the pace

Our speed-data comparison shows it to have been an average of just over 0.6 seconds off the front, similar to the Renault R28, but unlike that car its deficit remained consistent throughout the year. It began the season a faster machine than the Renault but ended it behind, while retaining the same gap to the front.

Pascal Vasselon remained in technical charge, Dr Mark Gillan, formerly of Jaguar Racing, joined the team during the off-season as chief of aerodynamics, and Frank Dernie was recruited as a consultant with a roving role, liaising between the wind tunnel and the race team, between engineers in different departments and between management and race team, generally loosening up some of the corporate rigidity. Trulli in particular was very positive about the difference he made in these roles and greatly enjoyed working with him. Team manager Richard Cregan left at the end of the season after many years of loyal company service and he will be a difficult man to replace.

Well-behaved; unhappy in damp

The TF108 achieved the team's aims in that it was a consistent, well-balanced car and easy to operate. It simply lacked that last little bit of aero efficiency enjoyed by Ferrari and McLaren and even BMW, though it showed well at tracks demanding a lot of downforce. Like the Ferrari it was very easy on its rubber, this sometimes giving it problems when the Bridgestone tyre choice was conservative, such as at Hockenheim. But whenever the choice was aggressive, the Toyota was invariably a podium contender. For similar reasons it disliked a combination of low downforce and damp conditions, and struggled badly for these reasons at Monza and during the wet late stages at Spa.
Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock (Toyota T108s) Italian Grand Prix © LAT

Glock initially struggled in qualifying to get heat into the front tyres, and was bemused by how Trulli would invariably find an extra 0.3 seconds or so at the critical moment on Saturday. Their driving styles were quite different, Jarno leaning heavily on the front of the car and needing it to remain stable to pull off his big-momentum style. It was particularly suitable for this car, with its ability to retain grip in long corners.

Glock was initially unable to maintain as much momentum into the turns, but his ease with oversteer meant he was very adept at quick-direction-change circuits, and would invariably be one of the very quickest on a new track, as seen to great effect in the early stages of the Valencia weekend. With his race engineer Francesco Nenci he eventually developed the car's set-up in a direction more suitable to his style, and into the second half of the season was frequently just as quick as Trulli in qualifying. His progress was genuinely impressive and his tough-but-clean racecraft was as good as anyone's.

A Magny-ficent podium

Trulli's third place at Magny-Cours was probably the season highlight. Coming just days after the death of team founder Ove Andersson, it was also a great tonic. Jarno was in feisty form all day, successfully repelling attacks from Alonso and Kubica, then finally securing the place in the late stages after rubbing wheels into the fast chicane fending off Kovalainen's McLaren.

The car was particularly suited to the very smooth surface of the French track but was much less convincing on bumpier circuits, probably a reflection of the one hangover from the previous design - the small gap between the suspension's upper and lower front wishbones, which is great for airflow on a smooth track but poor for ride consistency.

Huge strides were made in the car's startline performance, one of the weak points of the '07 machine. At Spa Trulli made one of the all-time great starts and from 11th on the grid was up with the Ferraris by the first corner. The Toyota invariably made up places on the cars around it off the start. The engine was a little light on low-speed torque and perhaps this actually helped, giving less wheelspin to control. But this and its tyre use also implied, as with the Ferrari, that the car had perhaps a more rearward weight distribution than most.

Toyota in 2008 look much more like a savvy, flexible, race-hardened operation than in previous years, and now seems to have a good nucleus with which to finally make long-term progress.

Scuderia Toro Rosso 6th, 39 points

Toro Rosso's 2008 season stands as one of the great David-vs-Goliath feats in the sport's history. The highlight was, of course, Sebastian Vettel's stunning victory from pole at the Italian Grand Prix, but in the second half of the year this team - which began the year with 158 people and ended it with 173 - regularly beat teams numbering 800 or more. It also beat its parent team, Red Bull, to sixth place in the constructors' title. Rival teams were quick to point out that it wasn't really as small a team as the personnel numbers suggested. As a customer team it was the beneficiary of a massive investment of dollars and people in the creation of the car it raced. Regardless, it was still a remarkable achievement, one that reflects especially well on the team's technical director, and effective boss at the circuit, Giorgio Ascanelli.

"Yep, we'll take the Ferrari..."

The STR3 was essentially the Red Bull RB4 fitted with a Ferrari engine rather than a Renault. Originally Newey had been adamant he wanted the Renault motor for the Red Bull, and the team had to get itself out of a contract to use the Ferrari into '07, switching the Italian motor to Toro Rosso. Turned out this year the Ferrari was significantly more potent than the Renault, to the tune of 35bhp, even though it required more cooling. This accounted for some of Toro Rosso's superiority over Red Bull into the second half of the year -

but not all of it.
Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso STR3 Ferraris) Canadian Grand Prix © XPB

Vettel gets to grips with STR3

It was a design that followed Adrian Newey's philosophy of a very forward weight and aero distribution, making for a car with McLaren-like characteristics in its turn-in response and tyre heating. The underlying oversteer characteristic this brought suited Vettel much more than Sebastien Bourdais, who prefers to load the car more progressively and needs stability above all else.

The team did the first five races with a modified version of last year's STR2, and this seemed much more to Bourdais's taste. He outqualified Vettel twice in these races but then almost from the moment the new car appeared Vettel's star was in the ascendant. This seat turned out to be a fantastic opportunity for him and he grabbed it with both hands, in the process becoming the youngest grand prix winner of all time. His Hamilton-like ease with oversteer and penchant for straight-lining corners to the maximum meshed superbly with this car, and Ascanelli was impressed with the way his technical skills, initially not great, developed through the season. There was a definite, but non-vocalised, question at Red Bull of whether the lap-time difference not explained by the engine was in fact coming from the respective drivers.

Then there was the way Ascanelli chose to develop the car. Reading between his lines, he questioned whether the Red Bull team had maybe gone too far with its forward weight and aero distribution. He set about pulling some of that back by his choice of components from the common parts bin. The car, as it appeared from Monaco to Montreal, was much as the Red Bull had run in the first three races.

It received the 'Barcelona' package of aero updates in time for Magny Cours - and from this point its competitiveness took a big step forwards. Unwilling to experiment too much with alternative packages simply because of lack of people, Ascanelli standardised his own preferred set-up with this design, and there seemed to be a greater benefit from becoming familiar with it than the parent company found from further developing the design. Partly because it was able to run more wing for the same straightline speed - courtesy of its power advantage, but also because its weight wasn't quite so far forwards - the STR3 enjoyed much better traction than the RB4.

This was also a very tactically savvy race team, and Toro Rosso invariably made the right calls around the safety cars. Vettel's win at Monza was partly about Ascanelli's reaction to the weekend weather forecast, which all along was predicting rain for Sunday. He reasoned that, because everyone would likely be starting the race on intermediate tyres, the usual tactical advantage of running longer than your opponent wouldn't apply. The inters would lose performance too quickly to overcome the positive fuel effect. Therefore, why not run light in qualifying? Toro Rosso did that, Vettel got pole, and he was at absolutely no tactical disadvantage in the race. It was the sort of clear, one-man-makes-the-calls type of thinking that McLaren could have greatly benefited from on occasion.

That's not to dismiss Vettel's brilliant performance in the rain, in both qualifying and race. He'd pounded around in the wet Saturday morning practice, getting ever-more comfortable with the conditions, and so was very much at ease in the similar conditions of qualifying. McLaren, by contrast, elected to restrict Hamilton's running in the morning practice, and he was a long way from his best in qualifying later that day.

The seasonal picture is one of a confluence of fortunate circumstances, of a good car with a better engine than the parent team, but one that the talents of Vettel and Ascanelli absolutely maximised. It also showed that in this age of teams numbering 800 plus, small can be beautiful.

Red Bull Racing 7th, 29 points

Actually, this was a much improved performance from last year. The car was quicker and vastly more reliable, the arrival of Geoff Willis instilling the necessary systems and processes of a top team. Yet it isn't reflected in the team's position, a lowly seventh in the constructors' championship, because the other midfielders improved also - none more so than offshoot squad Toro Rosso.

The car was essentially a reworking of the RB3, with the visible surfaces remarkably similar aside from the new nose. Before the season began it had been fitted with the 'shark-fin' engine cover to give a better flow to the rear wing in yaw, initiating a whole host of imitations.

Beneath the skin the mechanicals had been substantially repackaged to bring the weight distribution yet further forward compared to the RB3, enabling a similar shift in the aero centre of pressure. Judging by the way David Coulthard's punctured left-rear barely touched the ground as he brought it back to the pits at Barcelona, it appeared as if the design team had succeeded in getting the weight further forward than anyone else, remarkably capable of running more than 50 per cent on the front axle. It allowed a very aero efficient set-up, though it still didn't quite seem to reach Ferrari/McLaren levels in that respect. It also made for a car that had no problems generating the necessary heat in its front tyres, making it very useable in qualifying.

Form drops off late in year

In the first half of the season the car's superb fast-corner performance combined with Mark Webber's stellar qualifying ability to get the car regularly into points-scoring positions. Webber's sequence of seventh in Malaysia and Bahrain, fifth in Spain, seventh in Turkey and fourth in Monaco absolutely nailed the car's potential and represented a series of great drives. There followed a bonus podium place in Canada from Coulthard, largely thanks to the timing of the safety car. At the halfway point of the season Webber had 18 points. By the end of it he had only 21, saying everything about how the car was leapfrogged by the super-tight midfield; at the lower end of the points-scoring positions, it takes only a minor fall-off in competitiveness for the points to dry up.
Mark Webber and David Coulthard (Red Bull RB4 Renaults) Grand Prix of Singapore © XPB

Coulthard calls it a day

Coulthard began the year badly, with indifferent qualifying performances and a series of very atypical collisions. It was around this time that he took his decision to retire at the end of the year, drawing a close to an impressive 14-year F1 career. He rarely looked the driver he once was and only once genuinely outqualified Webber (he did so in Australia only because Webber could take not part in Q2 because of a brake-disc failure). Webber did all that could reasonably be expected of him.

Renault took a significant amount of the blame for the fall-off in that its engine was clearly down on performance compared to the Ferrari in the sister Toro Rosso. This became more apparent in the second half of the season, probably as other engine manufacturers found more gains from previous built-in reliability margins and fuel developments. But the car had other shortfalls too. It had notably poor traction and could be difficult to balance, but this was exacerbated by having to run less wing in order to compensate for the lack of grunt.

At least reliability improved

But engine power couldn't be the full story. The Renault R28 was, after all, using the same motor and enjoyed a late-season surge in competitiveness, being one of several cars that leapfrogged past the RB4. The car simply seemed to run out of development steam, and technical chief Adrian Newey was quite frank in admitting that getting the balance between developing this and the '09 car caused a lot of heartache.

On the plus side, reliability was vastly improved over the disastrous '07 level. Until Webber's retirement in Singapore with a gearbox that tried to select two gears, there was 100 per cent reliability. This statistic disguises the front-suspension scares for Coulthard in Australia (after colliding with Massa) and Malaysia (in practice). These, it turned out, were a result of a component failure within the suspension that forced loads upon the wishbones they were not designed to take. It was an easy fix once traced, but it cannot have instilled a great deal of confidence in the drivers. The ever-quotable Webber opined at the time: "It's a good job they don't make aeroplanes, mate."

Unfortunately, Webber's appalling luck didn't desert him either. In Singapore he was on course for a strong second place, his crew having got him in the pitlane before it closed just as Piquet crashed. The gearbox failure put paid to what would have been a great result, but it was only when the team explained the likely cause that Webber was truly cast in a Chris Amon light: seems a passing metro train had caused an electrical surge through the ground. That seemed the only explanation for why the 'box tried to select third and fifth at the same time - interrogation of the software revealed that at no time had it made such a request.

It will need more than a change of luck for Red Bull to scale the next challenge in its development: becoming a race winner. With Vettel's arrival from the junior team as a proven winner, the pressure is on.

Williams 8th, 26 points

There were only 10 teams left by the end of the season, and Williams, nine times world champion constructors, was eighth in the rankings. These are worrying times for independent F1 teams, especially one that isn't part of any other business portfolio, and Williams' 2008 performance did little to dispel that worry.

Back to back winter testing of the FW30 with its predecessor showed it was immediately 0.8 seconds quicker, but that wasn't enough. Through the season it proved an average of just under 1sec off the ultimate pace and just under 0.3 seconds slower than the identically-powered Toyota TF108. Nico Rosberg scored two podium, one in bizarre circumstances, but the performance of the car varied massively from track to track.

Advantage neutralised

The car was a logical development of the FW29. A more powerful diffuser central channel combined with a more aero efficient cooling package to create significantly more rear downforce, and this was balanced out by a considerably bigger front wing than before. Williams has been enjoying the benefits of suspension inerters since 2006, being the first team to follow McLaren's lead with them, and 2008 was the first year in which most teams had them right from the beginning of the year. Given the significant performance improvement the devices bring, Williams' former advantage here had been neutralised this year, making things yet more difficult.
Kazuki Nakajima and Nico Rosberg (Williams FW28 Toyotas) French Grand Prix © LAT

Rosberg's acrobatics

The car seemed to benefit from an aggressive tyre choice and was invariably at its best on traction-type tracks, proving semi-competitive at Melbourne, Monaco, Montreal, Monza and Singapore. It was much less convincing on high speed corner circuits, struggling particularly badly at Silverstone and Spa. High speed aerodynamics were clearly not the car's forte but its driveable nature on slow corner tracks allowed Rosberg's acrobatics to work well. He's a driver quite at ease with oversteer and so was able to run a set up that banished the sort of mid-corner understeer that's so time consuming on street circuits. His third place in Australia was flattered by the second safety car coming at just the wrong moment for Kovalainen's McLaren, but was otherwise fully deserved. Yet at the very next race of Malaysia, where the aero efficiency demands are much greater, he struggled to a 14th place finish having qualified 16th.

Kazuki Nakajima was rarely as quick as Rosberg (an average of 0.5 seconds slower over the season) and was usually put on longer opening stints. He did, however, show an intelligent approach, generally kept his nose clean and was particularly adept at bringing the car home. Whenever there was a race of attrition, Nakajima would inevitably score lower end points.

It was particularly frustrating for the team that Rosberg was twice forced to retire when well placed. He'd raced well to get up to sixth in Spain when the Toyota engine let go, and was on course to have finished on the podium in Canada had he not got himself mixed up in the Hamilton/Raikkonen pit lane fiasco, quite unnecessarily.

But that was paid back by how fortunate his second place in Singapore was. Forced to pit under the safety car because he was about to run out of fuel, he was allowed to continue for nine laps upon the resumption of racing before having to take a stop/go, so long did the stewards take in confirming the inevitable penalty. With the heavy one-stopping Trulli behind him holding the rest up, it allowed Rosberg to build up enough time to more than pay for the penalty. Irrespective of that, he'd driven well and was genuinely quick there. Two weeks later in Fuji he could qualify no better than 14th, just underlining the erratic and track-dependent performance of the car.

Focus on 2009

This was undoubtedly amplified by lack of development. There were 50 per cent fewer development parts made for this car than there had been for the 2007's FW29. Technical director Sam Michael admitted the FW30 suffered through a concentration of resources on the 2009 programme, where it was felt bigger and important gains could be made because of the all-new regulations. The team's future could hang on the effectiveness of that '09 programme.

Honda 9th, 14 points

Another season of punishment for bad decisions made in the past, but with good help now at hand. The Honda RA108 was too far down the line for Ross Brawn to do anything about when he arrived at Brackley this time last year. He was only narrowly preceded by new chief of aero Loic Bigois and senior aerodynamicist John Owen, who were so unimpressed by what was planned they hastily redid the aero around the monocoque.

That was the best that could be done in the available time. On a good day it could stretch to mediocre - Barrichello and Button did well to get it into Q3 once each all season - but usually it fell well short of that. It finished in the points on only four occasions, it averaged 1.4 seconds off the pace through the year, but was less competitive by the end than the beginning as time was called early on its development.

It was conventional in appearance, more so than its predecessor, but without any clear aero concept, more a compendium of ideas. The familiar mantra of consistent downforce through a wide range of parameters was chanted. It carried a conventional two-piece front wing, the bargeboards had been moved further back to reduce pitch sensitivity, the chassis was slimmer, the wheelbase longer, all familiar themes elsewhere on the grid. But the devil was in the detail - and a lot of that was quite wrong.
Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello (Honda RA108s) Monaco Grand Prix © LAT

The team that originally created this car was all at sea. There were good people but there had been no technical leadership, and it was badly lacking in key areas such as CFD, chassis rigs and race-strategy tools. Recent Hondas had been structurally good but aerodynamically poor and, in conceptualising this car, there had been the idea that the structure could be compromised in the interests of aero. It was a deeply flawed concept. Oh, and the engine was gutless; at around 50bhp short of the Mercedes it was believed to be the least powerful on the grid. Chief designer Kevin Taylor departed not long after Brawn joined and was replaced by team returnee Jorg Zander, who'd served a spell at BMW.

But whatever other shortfalls there were in the factory, the wind-tunnels were working well and a logical programme was put into place for an aero development upgrade - basically a new floor and engine cover - ready for the start of the season. In the meantime the spec of the basic car was frozen, and this is the beast that was tested through the winter at around three seconds off the pace.

On first trying it, Button reportedly couldn't believe it felt even worse than the RA107 and he resigned himself to yet another miserable season. But both he and Barrichello were cheered when they got to try the upgrade just prior to the cars being crated up for Melbourne: it was suddenly two seconds faster. Rubens reported it the biggest single improvement he'd ever experienced in a car in all his time in racing, not only that, but the findings at the track correlated beautifully with what the tunnel had suggested. At least the basic aero platform now made it possible to achieve a reasonable chassis balance, even if outright grip and drag levels were decidedly average and its response to set-up changes was poor. It was enough to put them in the midfield pack for the first few races.

Team hits a brick wall

But, as the others developed their cars, Honda hit a brick wall. Knowing the car's limitations, there was no real will to develop it further, and attention was focused onto the '09 programme. But there was one thing left to try: Brawn had been bugged by the rear suspension of the car right from the start. The structural compromises in the chassis played havoc with the damping rates, and the car was visibly bad in how it handled the bumps, this in turn playing havoc with aerodynamic performance and tyre life - and the car had evolved in a way to take the load off that suspension.

Brawn tasked the same team that had designed this suspension under the former leadership to design a new one. It was as much a team and confidence-building exercise as a technical one. The suspension made its appearance in Hungary and Button reported that at last he could feel the car's behaviour change when he altered the set-up. After that, the development was effectively switched off and the car fell ever-further down the grid until it was barely any faster than the Force Indias.

Barrichello was able to stay more positive about the whole thing than Button, and this was reflected in their performances. Rubens outpaced Jenson much more often than last year, impressive for the most experienced F1 driver of all time. Button above all needs a car with a grippy front end and this car did not feature that, whereas Barrichello's style is more flexible, open to improvisation. He made an inspired call for extreme wets at Silverstone and was rewarded with a great third place, the only time the car made the podium. Button changed onto extremes too, was briefly extremely quick, then went off - which he did rather too often.

While the focus has been on the '09 car, Brawn has been rebuilding the technical heart of this team, getting the facilities, structures and processes in place and smoothing out the relationship between Brackley and the engine plant in Tochigi. The only way is up.

Force India 10th, 0 points

The team underwent another change of name but the car beneath remained essentially the same. Thus the Force India VJM01-Ferrari was based heavily upon the Spyker F8-V11-Ferrari, which in turn was developed from the 2006 Midland M16. Vijay Mallya only completed his purchase of the team into the new year and, while he made available a significantly improved budget, the car was conceived and built well before this.
Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India VJM01 Ferraris) German Grand Prix © LAT

It was essentially a rebodied version of the B-spec Spyker that had made its debut at Monza in 2007, already with the four-race gearbox required by the '08 regs. Mike Gascoyne presided over the update, which included a new floor, diffuser, bargeboard and sidepods. Although the team's own windtunnel was being refurbished, time spent in the Lola tunnel had allowed the aero team, led by Simon Phillips, to test the car in yaw for the first time, enabling them to create a more consistent downforce profile. The car remained quite high-drag but generated significantly more downforce than the Spyker version.

Once Super Aguri departed the fray, the Force India pairing of Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil invariably propped up the back of the grid, but the car's performance was respectable given the resources at the team's disposal. An effective development programme was put in place that saw the lap time deficit to the front remain consistent throughout the year at an average of just over two seconds off, and it closed on Honda ahead of it.

The highlight of the team's season was undoubtedly Adrian Sutil's stirring drive in the rain of Monaco. His wet weather skills, aided by a good strategy call, got him as high as fourth and he looked set to finish there until taken out by Kimi Raikkonen's out-of-control Ferrari. Although the conditions had played into his hands on this day, Sutil gave best to Fisichella in the first half of the season, but into the second half the two were extremely evenly matched as Sutil adapted his style to front tyres that were reluctant to generate temperature.

A substantial aero upgrade - front wing, top body (with cooling louvres instead of chimneys and a shark fin engine cover), sidepods and diffuser - and the fitting of suspension inerters for Silverstone found time, as did the Valencia introduction of a new quick-shift gearbox. Although Force India was the last to switch to such a transmission, it was a great achievement for a team with a gearbox department of two people. They were guided around some of the pitfalls by newly recruited design director Mark Smith, who'd overseen a similar project at Red Bull.

Mallya seemed dismayed at how the cars remained at the back despite his capital investment as he learned the hard way about the length of competitive cycles in F1, and there was disharmony within the team into the second half of the year. This wasn't helped by uncertainty about 2009's plans and the programme for that car was put on hold as negotiations began about a technical partnership with McLaren and Mercedes, which is now confirmed.

Super Aguri 11th, 0 points

The plucky Honda-powered customer car team that had so impressed in 2007 entered the new season on a wing and a prayer and sadly folded after four races. Without Honda's financial support it had no way of staying in business and travelled to the opening races as a consortium tried to buy it.
Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson (Super Aguri SA08A Hondas) Grand Prix of Bahrain © XPB

It still enjoyed the use of Honda engines and the new four-race gearbox. In fact the solitary day of winter testing was conducted just to check the gearbox/engine installation. The SA08 was a cut-and-shut version of the previous year's car. New roll hoop and gearbox regulations altered the airflow, making it necessary to completely change the cooling package. This involved cutting the existing cars around as there was simply no budget to build new ones. Getting it through tougher crash test regulations meant it was considerably heavier than before and carried no ballast. The revised machine was never windtunnel tested. There were few spare parts and running at grands prix was kept to a bare minimum. In these circumstances Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson did well to record five finishes.

In Bahrain Davidson drove what he reckoned was the finest race of his career, with an on-the-edge qualifying lap that got him to within 0.3 seconds of a Force India, a great set of race stints, perfect in and out laps, 14th fastest race lap and a finish almost half a minute ahead of Sato. Yet it was all for 17th place; soul-destroying stuff.

The great fighting spirit that had endeared the team to so many was evident when Sato came around in 11th place at the end of the first lap in Australia from the penultimate row of the grid. But spirit wasn't enough. Sato's 13th - and last - place in Spain was the final time a Super Aguri crossed the line.

The team trucks only made it as far as the paddock gates for the next race in Turkey. The equipment was auctioned, a few people were taken on by Honda, Aguri Suzuki left to concentrate on his other businesses, and Davidson and Sato were left pondering their futures.

[Nacho]

all the words, ever

I'm not reading all that.

[vietlol]

F is for pr0 post

[yonson]

HOLY frack'n wall of words!

[HighTachPres]

HOLY frack'n wall of words!

they just don't stop!!!!

[Skyliner]

Thanks F1! :biggthumb:

[Skyliner]

2008 Team-by-Team Review: Condensed Version

By Mark Hughes
Autosport's GP Editor


Ferrari 1st, 172 points

• A terrific season under the full leadership of Stefano Domenicali following the official retirement of Jean Todt.
• Mass overachieved while Kimi underachieved.
• The Ferrari doesn't particularly suit Kimi's driving style.
• Engineers are important.
• Massa is brave, but lacks finesse.
• Kimi is passive.
• Smedley assumed a lot of responsibility.
• Kimi had 10 fastest laps, the most ever, but just two poles. He was a bit unlucky.
• Kimi maybe should have let Massa have more points.
• The Ferrari was fastest at either tracks, while the Mclaren was fastest as just four.
• Ferrari has superior aero, but is sensitive to tire temperature.
• The F2008 understeers, which suited Massa better. It's rear-heavy, with the longest wheelbase on the grid.
• The entire aero package could be stalled to increase top speed.
• Ferrari like the hubcaps.
• Ferrari has engine problems.

McLaren 2nd, 151 points

• A McLaren sat on pole eight times.
• McLaren became more of a one-driver team.
• Hamilton likes oversteer.
• The McLaren worked its tyres hard.
• In between such highs Hamilton made a lot of errors.
• The MP4-23 was based on the preceding MP4-22, albeit less aggressive on its rubber.
• The wheelbase was increased slightly, though was still significantly shorter than the Ferrari's, and has a more forward weight distribution and aero balance.
• Heats up the tires quicker than Ferrari.
• They made the car more tuneable from the cockpit because of the regulation absence of driver aids that came with the standard ECU. T
• The Mercedes engine was quite good.

BMW Sauber 3rd, 135 points

• By the end of the year, it wasn't even the third-fastest car, having been leapfrogged by Renault and, occasionally, Toro Rosso and Toyota too.
• They were holding back development, or didn't understand the car.
• All the ugly bits were to produce intricately detailed airflow.
• The car seemed very aero efficient.
• Robert secured the team's first pole position in Bahrain.
• The BMW was more stable under braking.
• Kubica is good, and has an aggressive driving style that heats up the tires quickly.
• Nick was disappointing, for similar reasons to Kimi.
• The car's complex airflow fucked up development.

Renault 4th, 80 points

• The Renault engine sucked.
• Renault went to a zero-keel design and messed with weight distribution because of the move to Bridgestone.
• They had a hard time with aero.
• It was only then that Renault leapfrogged clearly ahead of Toyota, Toro Rosso and BMW.
• Alonso did well, Piquet generally blew.

Toyota 5th, 56 points

• Toyota enjoyed its best season since 2005.
• The car was just over 0.6 seconds off the front,
• There was lots of personnel changes.
• The TF108 was a stable, easy to drive car, that sucked in the wet.
• Trulli, FUCK YEAH!
• Trulli's start at Spa kicked-ass, possibly due to no low-end torque.
• The car is rear-heavy.

Scuderia Toro Rosso 6th, 39 points

• Vettel's win from pole was the highlight.
• The Ferrari engine was better than the Renault.
• Vettel got better.
• The aero got better.
• The race strategy was good.
• Vettel got even better.

Red Bull Racing 7th, 29 points

• The car got better, and is nose-heavy.
• Form drops off late in year
• The drivers did pretty well.
• The Renault engine blew.
• They were more reliable.

Williams 8th, 26 points

• These are worrying times for independent F1 teams.
• The car likes an aggressive tyre choice.
• Its best on traction-type tracks.
• Nico did well at slow tracks.
• Kazuki Nakajima was an average of 0.5 seconds slower than Nico over the season.
• They had some bad luck.
• There were 50 per cent fewer development parts made for this car than there had been for the 2007's FW29.

Honda 9th, 14 points

• They sucked, but it's not Brawn's fault.
• The car sucked, and they couldn't improve on such a shitty foundation.
• Rubens generally did better than Button.
• Butten went kinda fast, then DIAF'd.

Force India 10th, 0 points

• They sucked, but it was expected.

Super Aguri 11th, 0 points

• They sadly folded after four races.
• Davidson tried his hardest, but the car was terrible.

[MrHahn]

Super Aguri 11th, 0 points

• They sadly folded after four races.
• Davidson tried his hardest, but the car was terrible.

What the hay?

Fuck Davidson, stupid Brit whinged like a no-good.....brit

I'm not a fan of Sato (other than his past spectacular engine failures) but he shat on Davidson

[Shi]

@ skyliner's condensed version

[Dr. Jimmmah!]

at summary... renault colors still remind me of fruit loops

[_R_]

Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz says Sebastien Buemi is very likely to be one of Toro Rosso's racing drivers next year.

The Faenza-based squad have both seats vacant for 2009 and have tested Buemi as well as Takuma Sato alongside Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais, who raced for the team in 2008.

Mateschitz said 20-year-old Swiss Buemi is the main candidate to land one of the seats.

The Austrian also claimed the final line-up would be announced before the end of the year.

"One will very likely be Buemi," Mateschitz told autosport.com. "The line-up will be confirmed before the last test in December."

The final test of the year at Jerez takes place on 15-17 December.

no sato

[Redliner]

no sato

A sport best reserved for the ones w/ the deepest pockets still...

[Dr. Jimmmah!]

no sato

it says buemi is likely goign to get seat #1 in STR.. but they have always said that the other seat will be filled by someone with experience.. i don't think sato is out of the running just yet, especially since he was faster than bourdais AND buemi.

[_R_]

Sato can't be too old can he? he's like what 27/28?
I can't see how a Swiss guy can bring in more money than a Japanese guy

[kngrsll]

i still think its going to be breumi and satooooo

[Dr. Jimmmah!]

http://www.autosport...ne.php/id/72244
BBC's f1 coverage lineup:

TV Commentary:
David Coulthard
Eddie Jordan
Jake Humphrey

Pitlane Reporters:
Ted Kravitz
Lee McKenzie

Radio Commentary:
Martin Brundle
Jonathan Legard

Website Contributor:
Murray Walker


quite a lineup, especially EJ and DC..

[Nacho]

EJ and DC!?

[Nacho]

no sato

WTF? Buemi was the slowest of all the drivers.

[kngrsll]

im going to start downloading the BBC version

[Nacho]

im going to start downloading the BBC version

I'll get a couple to see how they are. The Speed guys are still hilarious though.

[Redliner]

WTF? Buemi was the slowest of all the drivers.

It's all about the Benjamins baby
Now, what y'all wanna do?
Wanna be ballers, shot-callers
Brawlers -- who be dippin in the Benz wit the spoilers
On the low from the Jake in the Taurus
It's all about the Benjamins baby

[Nacho]

I figured it was because his name was Sebastian.

[yonson]

I thought Jeremy Clarkson was going to be doing F1???

[vietlol]

I thought Jeremy Clarkson was going to be doing F1???

[_R_]

I thought Jeremy Clarkson was going to be doing F1???