Force IndiaThe team with the uber-rich Indian in charge are now making the ‘we’re focusing on 2009’ speech. So, things not going as well as they had expected in 2008 then?

They’re introducing a seamless-shift gearbox at the Hungarian Grand Prix and then that’s it, no more work to improve this year’s car, it’s all about ’09.

Mallya is likening his team to Ferrari in the post-Schumacher years; a team who is looking on to the future and seeing championship titles. Yes, well, watch this space I suppose. Let’s not get carried away. With the seamless-shift gearbox the team are hoping to find an extra tenth or two, which might help to promote them to getting through to the heady heights of Q2 on race weekend!

Fisichella, I should imagine, is probably as frustrated as you like, languishing as he is at the very back of the grid. I’m sure he wasn’t expecting to be leaping on the podium every other weekend, but he probably thought he would be getting to race with even the back end of the middle of the pack every once in a while.

Sutil looks like a genuine contender of the future. He would have given Force India a fantastic fourth through his own great driving ability in Monaco had it not been for the little shunt from a certain flying Finn!

Force India, at this stage in the season are pretty much where they were forecast to be from the beginning of the season; at the back. The only difference is, they haven’t even got Super Aguri to tussle with anymore.

Scuderia Toro Rosso

Red Bull Racing’s second team have had a rather unfortunate first half of the season. If you take a look at the results of the last ten races you’ll see an awful lot of DNF’s. Reliability issues have been a contributing factor; Bourdais could have finished fourth in his maiden Grand Prix had it not been for a technical problem side-lining him with only two laps to go. 

The two drivers have had a lot of opening lap run-ins which hasn’t helped. Vettel failed to go further than the first lap for the first three consecutive races of the 2008 season.Consistency really needs to be the key for this little team. They’ve shown occasional flashes of competitiveness when the drivers have had reliable cars beneath them. They’ve both seen Q2 along the way too which is always a healthy sign for the future. Now they need to find those extra tenths to complete Q2 nearer the top of the grid in order to perhaps reduce the risk of those first lap, back of the pack pile ups now know seem almost notorious for.

I have picked Vettel as a champion of the future. He will now continue on that path to greatness with Red Bull Racing, replacing David Coulthard. That won’t dampen any of his enthusiasm for pushing hard for Toro Rosso for the remainder of the season. After-all, they’re all singing from the same Red Bull song sheet.They’re new and know they’ve got a long way to go.

This feisty little team of Italian red bulls have plenty of passion and lots of possibility for increasing their pace. They have collected a few points so far. I’m sure they’ll collect a few more before the end of the season.

Honda

If I’d been writing this before Silverstone then the picture for Honda would be looking extremely bleak. Spot on strategies and a perfect drive in the wet from Barrichello saw the Honda team return to the podium for the first time since Brazil in 2006 (with Jenson).It was Barrichello’s first trip to the podium since USA 2005.

Other than that, this team puzzles me. I know it was going to take a while for the benefits of Ross Brawn to show, but really, this season they have been spending more time with the likes of Force India and Toro Rosso. You’d expect them to be going wheel to wheel with the likes of Williams and Renault, at least.

I’m also not quite sure where Jenson’s head is this season. I’d love to have a chat with him about it, to find out what’s going on with him. He’s such a gifted driver but he doesn’t seem to have hit the sweet spot with this season’s car at all so far and it’s not like him. Ruebens has been nipping at his heels far more than probably either of them had of expected since the beginning of this year.

I know the balance of a team shouldn’t rely on the push of one member of personnel but from here on in one can only presume everyone is looking at this 2008 season at Honda as a transitional period for the Master, Ross Brawn. Hopefully, once he’s settled in (and I don’t mean that he knows where the coffee machine is!) 2009 will see the benefits for Honda.

Renault

It’s been a bit of a slow burner for the team who once held a couple of championship titles but they do seem to be building a bit of momentum. They are a point ahead of Honda (few people aren’t ahead of Honda though, to be fair!) but their consistently, mainly at the hands of Alonso they’re muddling through.

That said Fernando is clearly frustrated with his under-achieving team. I adore the sulky little Spaniard (sorry, but I do!). He is a phenomenal driver and is single-handedly getting whatever performance he can muster out of that Renault. But he needs to knock the whole negativity thing on the head. All at Renault were overjoyed to get him back for 2008. Some of them might be re-thinking that now. Fernando might be regretting it too, but he has to keep on racing for the rest of this season and if he could just show some enthusiasm for being with Renault he might restore the rest of the team’s will to live and they might, collectively up their game a bit.

I can’t decide whether Piquet is suffering at the hands of the Renault or the Renault is suffering at the hands of Piquet. I’m disappointed with his performance so far this year. I don’t think the car is so far off the pace that he really hasn’t been able to get any more out of it. Magny-Cours has been the only race up until this point where he did manage to show some class. He needs to keep that up if he wants to progress further in Formula 1. 

Williams

Just a point in front of Renault Williams have just not been as on the pace as was expected this year. They have shown some great pace in qualifying but this has never seemed to manifest itself in to great race performance.

Rosberg hasn’t done as good as job as I was expecting; looking forward to even. He’s had quite a few crashes along the way. The team has sixteen points but half of these have come from new boy Nakajima who has been doing a great job of keeping Rosberg honest by putting in some good, solid performances.

Frank needs to get his team moving. Renault is clawing its way up the time sheets and Red Bull Racing is coming on in leaps and bounds. Williams needs to be careful they don’t get left behind.

Red Bull Racing

The charging bulls do seem to be making good head way in 2008. They have a healthy 24 points in the constructors’ championship.

David Coulthard made it back to the podium after a superb race from the retiring Scotsman in Montreal. The start to his season has been littered with incidents, preventing him from claiming more points. Qualifying hasn’t been an immense success for him either which is an area that needs to be improved on, if only to help him move away from that troublesome area at the pack of the grid where he keeps getting involved in shunts with the charging pack. Of course, the big news from him is that this season is going to be his last as a racing driver, though not his last working for the team. He’ll be making sure he gets the maximum out of every race that he has left.

Mark Webber is having a great season. He’s scored points in all but two races so far. He and his car seem to be hitting a sweet spot in 2008 which looks likely to continue throughout the rest of the season. Good for him too. The Man from Down Under deserves a break. He’s a wonderful driver and it’s about time he got a break from the horrendous run of bad luck he had last season.

Toyota

Is Toyota finally settling in a bit? Their consistency and reliability are much improved. Jarno Trulli is even managing to perform as well in the race as he does in qualifying. They’ve quietly managed to pick up some half way decent points.

But twenty of those points came from Jarno whereas Glock has only managed five. The car doesn’t warrant it from where I’m sitting. He hasn’t performed well at all at the tracks he’s unaccustomed to. He’s picked up a bit since Formula 1 returned to Europe. With a bit of luck these next few races will be where he’ll show Toyota they’ve done the right thing in signing him up.

BMW

There is a new edition to the front runners in Formula 1. BMW have swiftly moved themselves out of the best of the rest pack to play with the big boys and they’ve settled in very well there.

They could be doing even better though if only Nick Heidfeld was having the same success in his car as Robert Kubica is having in his. There has to be something wrong with Heidfeld’s set up in his BMW. He’s a great driver so it must be the car, which is puzzling when you consider how his team mate is doing. Let’s face it, that can’t be helping either. All of a sudden it’s all about Kubica and that must be somewhat demoralising for the German.

Kubica is having a blinding season though. He took his maiden win in Montreal and there are surely going to be plenty more victories for him. I’m not sure he’s got enough consistent pace to actually take the drivers’ championship title this year. Hamilton and Raikkonen are still that bit more ahead of him in both consistency and pace.The team have certainly come far enough in to this season now to show that their improvement with their cars isn’t a fluke. They are quick and will remain so. Certainly a force to be reckoned with throughout the rest of the season.

Ferrari

The Scuderia seemed to have all the answers after Australia was done with. People began to wonder if this was going to be another Ferrari white wash this season where they would dominate throughout. But, although they are obviously extremely fast, it hasn’t been plane sailing for the boys in red.

Raikkonen has shown that racing in the rain is not where he likes to be. His race in Monaco was atrocious and he didn’t go too well at a wet Silverstone either. This time last year he was about to embark on his title fight back and it was great to watch. There seems to be less passion about him this year; as far as driving is concerned, obviously; not in his interviewing finesse!

Massa is finally proving a force to be reckoned with. At long last he has found that consistency that he has lacked over the last few years. Again though, Silverstone was a total disaster for the Brazilian. He will be hoping for nice hot, sunny races from here on in.

It has to be said though, certainly to win the constructors’ title you need both drivers and both cars be running at optimum performance and these guys are doing just that. Ferrari are fourteen points clear at the top of the constructors table. Massa and Raikkonen have had their off days but predominantly they are both bringing it home for Ferrari. No other team has that luxury at this stage of the game.  

McLaren

I’ll get the negatives out of the way first. McLaren are trailing BMW by ten points. There are a few reasons for this. Lewis has made the occasional error or two along the way, it has to be said. Kovalainen, although he is putting up a valiant effort is not getting as much out of his McLaren when compared to his superstar team mate. That’s another issue too. Hamilton has had plenty of other things to sort out in his head rather than it all being about the driving. He’s young and new to the idol bit so of course it is going to be tricky to deal with.

Having said that though, the cars are reliable and very quick. Kovalainen has shown that his has spirit in him. He loves a good fight through the pack, which is not only entertaining to watch but shows that he wants to win and wants to get those points for his team. He’s committed, something that might have been lacking from Lewis’s team mate last season!

Hamilton is a phenomenal driver. He also looks to be faster than the Ferrari’s of late. Certainly he had the edge in Hockenheim during testing last week which bodes well for this weekend’s Grand Prix. If he can remain consistently brilliant for the rest of the season as I am sure he can then there is no reason while he cannot walk away from this season as Champion.

The constructors’ title is going to be harder fought though. Ferrari have two drivers who are constantly making trips to the podium which is something McLaren need to improve on if they want to get plenty more points. It’s certainly do-able though. They have a great package in Hamilton, Kovalainen and the MP4-23. Bring on the rest of the season.  

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