The latest round of testing has now been completed with all the main challengers having turned the wheels of their new cars in anger.
Curiously however, the two considered protagonists for this coming season, Ferrari and McLaren have both extolled the virtues of each other’s cars, while cautiously appraising their own performances out in Spain these past few weeks.
Over the weekend, even Ferrari’s Felipe Massa played down the scarlet team’s progress claiming that McLaren, but in particular BMW-Sauber, had made significant strides forward over the winter months.
Conversely, double world champion Fernando Alonso, was espousing something similar last week when he complained that his McLaren was anything but championship winning material at the moment.
This is a far cry from previous years where teams would have been singing the praises of their new machines, talking up their chances for the coming season.
This year however, a more cautious approach would appear to have been adopted. No one is quite prepared to go out on a limb and nail their colours to the mast and predict their title chances.
Only Alonso, back in Valencia when McLaren launched their car, did he make any such bold statements of intent, predicting six victories, one less than last year with Renault.
Williams too, for obvious reasons, have deferred from making any wild promises following their disastrous season last year.
And yet Ferrari, McLaren, BMW-Sauber, Renault and Williams have all at one time or another during the past few weeks topped the time sheets in Spain during testing.
Is this the beginning of a new era of Formula One becoming more guarded in respect of the team’s prospects for fear of looking bad in front of the corporate backers, or the teams and drivers just playing mind games and sandbagging, holding their cards close to their chests in anticipation of the opening round in Melbourne in little over a month’s time?
I suspect it is a little of the two. The prospects of making bold statements during pre-season testing has famously come back to haunt various teams in the past. Honda and Williams both suffered last year after just such assertions.
As are Toyota who are another team who have constantly proclaimed’ this year would be their year’, only to find they had made little if no progress whatsoever, despite reportedly having the largest single budget in Formula One.
Has bragging now gone out of fashion, are the team’s new reserved approach a derivative of corporate inclusion which has stifled the free thinking, free spirited approach we have all come to love and cherish over the years?
Again, I believe there is an element of truth here. It would be wholly irresponsible and ill advised for any CEO of a leading blue-chip company to come out and promise the earth only to fall flat on his face. It is bad for the image of the company and more crucially bad for the shareholders.
So, with Formula One becoming more and more akin to a blue-chip company travelling at break-neck speeds, the need to adopt a more responsible approach is desirable.
This is just another despicable aspect of the manufacturers’ influence taking hold of a sport, which in days gone by was carefree and even reckless. I think you all know where this is going…
Sir Frank Williams has to be applauded as the only racing team left in Formula One with no other agenda other than to win races for the sheer joy of winning.
His bemoaning the fact that both Super Aguri and Toro Rosso must be prevented from running with an off-the-peg car, provided by Honda and Red Bull respectively, has to be commended and endorsed by the sport’s governing body, the FIA.
Sadly however, it would appear that FIA president Max Mosley is of the other persuasion even deriding Williams’ views as out-dated.
It is a sad reflection of how the sport is being dragged towards a manufacturers series, which in the end will spell the death of the independents.
