F1 BLOG

It looks like Bridgestone, the only supplier of Formula one tires for 2007 is willing to go ahead with the plans to place a red stripe on the sidewall of the soft compound tires for F1 next season.

This system is currently used by the Champ Car series and is said to provide more excitement as the fans can see which cars are running the soft tires and which are not at any point in the race.

Bridgestone claims that this may be a bit of a headache for them because the “Soft” compound at one track may be the “Hard” compound at another so they may end up having to make “Red Stripe” tires and “no stripe” tires in the same compound and shuffle them around depending on the track.

Another interesting fact is that Bridgestone will not be doing tire development throughout the season. When there were two suppliers they would each strive to improve their tires from race to race but with only one supplier there will be a range of tires / compounds at the start of the season and they will remain the same for the whole season according to Bridgestone.

I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing for F1.

What do you folks think ?

Just a Quick note with some of the latest lap times comming out of the F1 testing in Barcelona..

TODAY’S TESTING LAP TIMES

1 F. Massa (Ferrari) 01:16.406
2 N. Heidfeld (BMW) 01:17.156
3 L. Badoer (Ferrari) 01:17.381
4 P. De La Rosa (McLaren) 01:17.584
5 O. Panis (Toyota) 01:17.642
6 L. Hamilton (McLaren) 01:17.748
7 R. Barrichello (Honda Racing F1 Team) 01:17.920
8 M. Webber (Red Bull) 01:18.249
9 N. Piquet Jnr (Renault) 01:18.309
10 A. Davidson (Super Aguri) 01:18.370
11 C. Klien (Honda Racing F1 Team) 01:18.383
12 D. Coulthard (Red Bull) 01:18.525
13 H. Kovalainen (Renault) 01:18.772
14 R. Kubica (BMW) 01:18.778
15 A. Wurz (Williams) 01:19.009
16 S. Speed (Toro Rosso) 01:19.114
17 V. Liuzzi (Toro Rosso) 01:19.227
18 K. Kobayashi (Toyota) 01:20.597

Looks like the Ferrari team is off to a fast start….

I saw in the news today that Mika Hakkinen is going to do some testing for Mclaren. Ron Dennis says that Mika asked the Mclaren team to let him get familiar with a modern F1 car.

Dennis feels that Hakkinen’s experience in F1 can bring some added value to the team’s 2007 preparations. Perhaps this is the case but Mika hasn’t driven an F1 car since the 2001 Japanese Grand Prix so I wonder how large the gap in knowledge is going to be.

There is no doubt that adding another Experienced driver to their test stable can only help in the run up to the 2007 Formula 1 season.

Well… I’m excited. Winter testing has begun in Barcelona for the Formula 1 teams. Now we can begin to hear the rumors about how well or badly the testing is going for each team.

For some it will be the first time working with Bridgestone tires, that should be interesting I think.

It looks like Honda has returned to the nice Black livery on their cars.. at least for testing…

I can almost hear the engines screaming already…

Earlier this week there were reports that Fernando Alonso and his girlfriend Raquel del Rosario had a wedding in the Maldives.

It seems these reports may not have been accurate after all. Alonso’s manager is now claiming that it is not the case at all and is rather pissed at the Spanish media for treating poor Fernando so badly.

Personally, I’m more interested in how he drives rather than who he drives….

Now, If they were reporting that Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher were getting married, that would be newsworthy.