The 2007 season of Formula 1 motor racing is almost upon us. The teams have almost finished showing their cars to the press and testing has been going on for some time on their completed cars. With the first race just over a month away I thought it time we looked into everything a motor racing fan needs to know.

So for my first article on Bits of News I produced a comprehensive preview of the teams including their drivers, the cars, changes from last year, and a look at some of the new rule changes to expect in the sport. As usual there are some good changes, and some bad.

There's not too many major changes as yet, but Ferrari seem to be the most unsettled with Renault making a point of saying that the loss of Alonso is not really a loss. Flavio Briatore even said that Alonso isn't as good a driver as it is claimed.

So to begin the Formula 1 coverage on Bits of News, something that I hope will prove popular and continue, here's the roundup of everything you need to know for the 2007 season.



The tyre manufacturers had a little shake up this year with Michelin leaving and now all teams are racing on Bridgestone tyres. This means a slight disadvantage for those teams that were running Michelin last year as they have to get to know the Bridgestones without the previous years running that the other teams had. However it's not a great setback, and any tyre issues are now likely to affect the entire paddock.

Teams that finished between 5th and 11th last year inclusive, will not be running a third car on Friday sessions from this year. Previously they were allowed to do so in order to try and give them an edge over the top four teams who usually carry with them a much larger budget.

The two Friday practice session are now extended from sixty to ninety minutes, that means more track testing time for the teams and more for those with weekend passes to watch.

One of the most interesting rule changes this year is when a safety car pulls out. No car is allowed to enter the pits until all the cars are lined up behind the safety car. What this means is that we won't see cars racing into the pits to fill up with fuel and change tyres when a safety car is announced and pulls onto the track. Everyone will wait until all the cars are lined up behind the safety car.

It'll be interesting to see how this one works in practice, personally I always found safety car deployments to be an interesting moment when the race order can be swapped around rather quickly and mess with strategies.

There's another safety car rule change that is quite interesting and will definitely have an affect on the race. When the safety car is deployed and the cars all line up behind it, all those lapped cars that are out of position will be required to drive right past the safety car and rejoin at the back of the grid.

Again this seems like another rule change that will actually take something away from the sport. When a safety car pulls in there's an added unknown quantity with traffic, and this looks like it will clear most of that away making safety car starts less exciting and unknown.

Previously the engine change penalty applied to the entire race weekend, change an engine and you're docked ten grid places. Now though if you change an engine on the first day of the weekend you'll be fine, it's only thereafter does it incur a penalty.

In a much needed move, each car will now have flag indicator lights on the inside of the car to tell the driver what the track status is. Finally this is a much needed addition, now if the FIA can just make sure that they actually use them as all too often with the flags we'd see them appear late and sometimes not at all.

Update: 05/07
There's a further rule that I've just discovered that will most definitely have an affect on the racing, but as yet I'm just not sure which way. Rather than add this in as a new story it seems wise to keep them all together.

Teams must use both types of tyres in the race both soft and hard. Now I'm finding it hard how to call this one, but at some point each team will be racing on a tyre that they aren't wholly comfortable with, some with varying degrees of difficulty. Many, like David Coulthard and Mark Webber are calling the rule ridiculous and claiming it will have a serious impact on the racing.

Meanwhile others are saying that it will keep the tyre side of the racing exciting and that the only impact will be that teams will come in near the end of the race to run a few laps on their least liked tyres. Well to me that means a few laps at the end of the race where everyone settles for their place. Perhaps not the best of rules.

Now, that's not all the rule changes of course, but they are the ones that I think will have an impact on the audience and the fan, rightly or wrongly.

Now let's have a look at the teams and the drivers for this year.

McLaren-Mercedes - UK
Chassis:	MP4-22
Engine:	Mercedes-Benz FO 108T
Test Drivers:	Pedro de la Rosa - Spain
	Gary Paffett - UK
Drivers:	Fernando Alonso [1] - Spain
	Lewis Hamilton [2] - Britain

Tyre supplier has changed and the car represents the very latest in R&D. It has been through computer modelling, computational fluid dynamics, and finally a complete wind tunnel programme. None of this of course improves reliability. Visibly, it hasn't changed that much.

Tactically I think this is a great choice to pull in Alonso and Hamilton as the main drivers, both are great drivers but with huge gaps of experience between them. Hamilton will have an excellent opportunity to learn from the current World Champion.

The word is that Alonso is none too pleased at leaving Renault when they were so strong and coming to a McLaren struggling with reliability. I doubt that Alonso will lose any of his drive because of this though and we're liable to see him fighting harder than ever.

Hopefully both drivers will have a strong car underneath them to get some good results, but another important factor to consider is the loss of Adrian Newey to Red Bull. He has been a huge factor in the success of the car to date, being one of the most sought after technical specialists in Formula 1.

Renault - France/UK
Chassis:	R27
Engine:	Renault RS27
Test Drivers:	Ricardo Zonta - Brazil
	Nerlson Piquet Jr. - Brazil
Drivers:	Giancarlo Fisichella [3] - Italy
	Heikki Kovalainen [4] - Finland

Tyre supplier changes.

This is the time that Fisichella can show what he's made of as last year was a very hit and miss year for him living in the shadow of Alonso. Glad to see he's made it out to the number one spot and I do hope he can recapture and keep that great form he's shown before.

Will the Renault car still be as strong without Alonso? Was it the car or the driver? Flavio Briatore seems to think it is more the car than anything. According to F1Racing.net he told German magazine Auto Motor und Sport that Alonso is good, but not as good as people think. Briatore believes that the Renault newcomer Kovalainen is the new Schumacher/Alonso. Unsurprisingly he manages him this season and no longer manages Alonso.

The engine undergoes little change from the 2006 engine, and it will also be the engine of choice for the Red Bull team. It will be interesting to see how the two teams compare.

Ferrari - Italy
Chassis:	F2007
Engine:	Ferrari 056
Test Drivers:	Luca Badoer - Italy
	Marc Gené - Spain
Drivers:	Felipe Massa [5] - Brazil
	Kimi Räikkönen [6] - Finland

An updated car, but no major changes as tyres and engine suppliers stay the same.

Like Renault they have allowed this engine to be used by another team, two other teams in fact, both Spyker and Toro Rosso. Watching those two teams battle it out will be interesting, but seeing them battle with the Honda powered Super Aguri will provide some excitement for the back end of the grid.

No more Michael Schumacher this year with his retirement, and one might wonder how much he'll regret that this season. Another strong blow to the team is that the much admired superb tactition Ross Brawn is taking a break.

Replacing Brawn is former head of human resources Mario Almondo with strategist Luca Baldisserri helping him at each race. Sounds a bit strange doesn't it? The race and test technical manager Nigel Stepney has even said he's unhappy. From Autosport we hear that he is unhappy with the changes at Ferrari and is looking to take a year out with Brawn.

"I'm not currently happy with the situation within the team - I really want to move forward with my career and that's something that's not happening right now."

He says that he would consider moving teams if he couldn't further his career with Ferrari. This looks like he's annoyed that he wasn't moved up while Brawn is away, and instead an HR person was brought in, hardly seems right. Word has it that he will step up the ladder with Brawn upon his return, but right now it doesn't bode well.

Without Brawn and Schumacher they are definitely weaker than last year, now if Stepney goes, and with the new tactical team in place, you might be considering that Ferarri aren't so strong this year.

Honda - UK/Japan
Chassis:	RA107
Engine:	Honda RA807E
Test Drivers:	Christian Klien - Austria
	James Rossiter - UK
Drivers:	Jenson Button [7] - UK
	Rubens Barrichello [8] - Brazil

Tyre supplier has changed.

The Honda engine is also being supplied to the Super Aguri team.

Both Barrichello and Button are reportedly very happy with the testing of the car so far this year. If the team can pick up from the fade it found mid season last year then this could be a strong year for the team. What will be interesting to watch is the continued increase of Barrichello and if Button can fend him off and keep ahead of him.

BMW Sauber - Germany/Switzerland
Chassis:	F1.07
Engine:	BMW P86/7
Test Drivers:	Timo Glock - Germany
	Sebastian Vettel - Germany
Drivers:	Nick Heidfeld [9] - Germany
	Robert Kubica [10] - Poland

Tyre supplier changed, and overall the car has gone through significant development to bring about a raft of changes for 2007.

This is the second year that BMW are racing separately from Williams. They have a revised engine and Villeneuve has been replaced by Kubica. Personally I think this isn't such a good move as Villeneuve was showing some strength in the latter half of the year and at times threatened a return to form in the BMW Sauber car.

Toyota - Japan
Chassis:	TF107
Engine:	Toyota RVX-07
Test Drivers:	Franck Montagny - France
	Kohei Hirate - Japan
	Kamui Kobayashi - Japan
Drivers:	Ralf Schumacher [11] - Germany
	Jarno Trulli [12] - Italy

An engine update and the test driver changes are the only real changes to Toyota this year. There's also an updated chassis which doesn't really make many changes, the largest being a move of the engine and gearbox forward on the car.

Can we hope to see Ralf pull away from the shadow of Michael now that he's no longer racing, or have we seen the best from him already?

Red Bull - Austria/UK
Chassis:	RB3
Engine:	Renault RS27
Test Drivers:	Robert Doornbos - Netherlands
	Michael Ammermuller - Germany
Drivers:	David Coulthard [14] - UK
	Mark Webber [15] - Australia

Tyre supplier changed and they move from a Ferrari engine to the Renault engine.

Adrian Newey joined the team for this year and designed the new RB3 car from the ground up. This meant that he couldn't get all the changes he wanted in place, but he managed to get the major ones, what he says are left are the small tweaks that he doesn't think really makes that much of a difference. They spent a lot of development time in the new wind tunnel, and it will be interesting to see what all this new development brings. So far the testing time has been limited due to ironing out issues with the all new chassis and engine.

Coulthard faces strong competition this year from an equally passionate driver Webber. They both share a similar style and temprament which might suit the team superbly well, or it might cause a lot of friction. One thing is certain, this will not be Coulthard's easiest year.

Of the new package Coulthard said at the launch through ITV F1:

We're nudging ever closer to the lap times that the Honda is doing....The Renault engine is proven, but it's not proven strapped to the back of a Red Bull...I don't know how quick the car is [yet].

Williams - UK
Chassis:	FW29
Engine:	Toyota RVX-07
Test Drivers:	Narain Karthikeyan - India
	Kazuki Nakajima - Japan
Drivers:	Nico Rosberg [16] - Germany
	Alex Wurz [17] - Austria

The engine has been changed from last years Cosworth to the Toyota. Overall the aerodynamic package has undergone a lot of changes, and it needed to considering the performance from last year although the front wing does remain pretty much as is.

Although I wouldn't expect a leap up the pack this year, it should bring Williams back into the mid grid grouping.

Rosberg moves up the driver line up and Wurz is promoted from test driver position. Karthikeyan is fighting to get into a race position this year as news comes through that he's considering racing more A1GP and entering the Le Mans 24 hour race to push himself.

Toro Rosso - Austria/Italy/UK
Chassis:	STR02 (TBC)
Engine:	Ferrari 056
Test Drivers:	TBC
Drivers:	Vitantonio Liuzzi - Italy [18]
	Scott Speed - USA (TBC) [19]

Tyre supplier changed and the engine moves from Cosworth to the Ferrari.

With no announcement as yet of the drivers, and their scheduled car launch to be the last of the pack on February the 6th, there's not a lot to be heard from this team, however it is clear their battle will be with the rear end of the pack.

Spyker - Holland/UK
Chassis:	F8-VII
Engine:	Ferrari
Test Drivers:	Adrian Valles - Spain
	Mohamed Fairuz Fauzy - Malaysia
	Markus Winkelhock - Germany
	Giedo van der Garde (TBC) - Spain
Drivers:	Christijan Albers [20] - Netherlands
	Adrian Sutil [21] - Germany

This year sees Spyker fully changed from Midland as they also change tyre supplier as well as moving from a Toyota to a Ferrari engine.

There's some confusion over the test drivers, of which there are four, Geido van der Garde still has a contract with Super Aguri and was testing with the week that Spyker announced he was a Friday test driver for them. He believes he's racing with Spyker, we shall see.

Their car launch is the second last of the teams and is to be shown on February the 5th. At that time we'll know more of their performance capabilities, but I would expect to see them fighting at the back of the grid.

Update: 05/02 The car launch was today and I've revised the chassis name. This is the car they will race and focus on developing for the first half of the season with a revised B car coming out towards the latter half which will be "a big step forward" they say.

Super Aguri - Japan/UK
Chassis:	SA07
Engine:	Honda RA807E
Test Drivers:	Sakon Yamamoto - Japan
	Giedo van der Garde (TBC) - Spain
Drivers:	Takuma Sato [22] - Japan
	Anthony Davidson [23] - UK

There are no real changes with this team, apart from the addition of Davidson as second driver to Sato. I actually expect to see Davidson pull ahead of Sato as he gets to know the car, and that might be mid or late season. However the team will still be fighting at the rear of the pack.


So there we have the team lineup for the season, all that remains are the circuits and the schedule.

2007 Formula 1 Schedule
Date	Time (UTC/GMT)	Location
18th March	03:00	Australian Grand Prix, Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne
8th April	07:00	Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix, Sepang International Circuit, Kuala Lumpur
15th April	11:30	Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix, Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Manama
13th May	12:00	Gran Premio Telefónica de España, Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona
27th May	12:00	Grand Prix de Monaco, Circuit de Monaco, Monte-Carlo
10th June	17:00	Grand Prix du Canada, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal
17th June	17:00	United States Grand Prix, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indianapolis
1st July	12:00	Grand Prix de France, Circuit de Nevers, Magny-Cours
8th July	12:00	British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone
22nd July	12:00	Grosser Mobil 1 Preis von Deutschland, Nürburgring, Nürburg
5th August	12:00	Magyar Nagydij, Hungaroring, Budapest
26th August	12:00	Petrol Ofisi Turkish Grand Prix, Istanbul Park, Istanbul
9th September	12:00	Gran Premio Vodafone d'Italia, Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Monza
16th September	12:00	Belgian Grand Prix, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Spa
30th September	05:00	Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix, Fuji Speedway, Mount Fuji
7th October	06:00	Sinopec Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai
21st October	16:00	Grande Prêmio do Brasil, Autódromo José Carlos Pace, São Paulo

Here's to a strong season. More stories as they happen here on Bits of News.

Sources:
Wikipedia
The Official Formula 1 Website