Of the 2007 season

Its been quite sometime since I last posted something. Looking at my last post, I was predicting on the new Renault livery and it looks like I had that nailed *gloat gloat*.

More importantly, we are onto the final round of testing before the season starts and boy, is it bad news for Renault. Ferrari and McLaren are noticably faster. BMW is fast but have reliability issues and even Williams look promising to a certain extend. Looking at the testing results and the testing programs they were on, Ferrari and McLaren are quite close in pace and are in a league of their own, closely kept honest by BMW. A further 5/10th away lies Renault, Honda & Williams. Toyota, Redbull, Toro Rosso form the next set.

This could all change though. Renault are traditionally known to stick to reliability tests and not to do pure performance runs over the tests, but I still don't see them fighting the likes of Ferrari and McLaren. BMW could improve vastly if they solve their reliability problems. Honda with their new earth livery could spring a surprise towards the latter half of the season. Renault really have to take this as a transition year. I have been saying this all throughout last year. 2007 will probably see Renault 3rd or 4th in the constructors. They have to look ahead to Nelson Piquet Jr. instead of Fisico in 2008 and launch a proper title challenge.

Performance aside, the new Renault livery brings mixed emotions. The car is beautifully designed, and probably amongst the best looking of the'07 lot, however the paint job leaves much to be desired. Maybe its a matter of getting used to it. The earth livery launched by Honda, though ugly, sounds an interesting concept. A thought that did pass by is to have a picture of the new Ra007 sitting in the pits being refuelled. 12 gallons of petrol per second going into a car with an 'eco friendly' livery that gives you 3 miles to the gallon. Oh, the irony.

Come what may, this season promises to be very exciting. The likes of Kovalainen, Hamilton and Kubica should provide for some explosive young talent while Raikonnen and Alonso lock horns for the drivers championship.