Gentlemen, start your engines.....(F1)

Rubens???
I reckon JP Montoya will do well in the new FW 26 (with its funny looking nose!) - Im hoping he gets both championships. It wouldn't surprise me to see Ralf kicked out after a while (given his recent moaning)
Given all of his mouthing Im keen on seeing Button perform. Will he live up to his spouting?
It wouldn't surprise me if Coulthard was given his P45 this year (assuming he drives like he did last year). I reckon Kimi will be their life saver again this year.
Another surprise team may be the Saubers who are using 2004 Ferrari power and with their own wind tunnel designs.
Meanwhile, I assume the fastest thing coming from the Jordan garage will be EJ's excuses and prophecies about their comeback.

It will also be interesting to watch how the new engines manage to keep to the neww 2004 regs whereby they must last the entire weekend. If a driver needs to use a different engine then they will be shifted down 10 places in the grid (this rule shouldn't affect the Jordans )

you're right about the one engine rule not affecting the lower placed teams. They might as well use a new engine for the race if they qualify last or close to last....a bit of a loophole in the rules here, probably designed to 'help' the slower teams.

BAR seems fast in testing and it would be great to see Button competitive, too bad for JV.

But I still think Rubens has the best car and if he performs like he did at silverstone last year, he will be untouchable, and I think the team will try to help him out a bit more this year than in the past, considering Schumacher has already made his mark.

But we'll see......it has been a tough off season for me, with all the excitement that last season brought, this reason should rock!

My money is on either Kimi or Montoya, although it wouyd be nice to see Button do well in the BAR. Also you can't discount Michael Shumacher.

As for Coulthard, it's time he hung up his helmet if you ask me.

Has anyone else noticed how the drivers that complain the most don't seem to do that well. Vielneuve spent all of last season mouthing off and came knowhere, Eddie Irvine couldn't keep his mouth shut and amounted to nothing and Coulthard spends most of his time complaining about the rules and whinging about Michael, but not winning. The ones that win are those that keep quiet, concentrate on what they are doing and get on with the job, ie Hakinnen, Michael Schumaker, Kimi etc.  

Oh and Barichello, not a chance. Ferrari won't let him beat Michael. As for the Saubers, or the Ferrari second team as they are also known. I'd put money on them not putting upo much of a fight if they have a Ferrari behind them.

I honestly don't think Michael would race if he was not going for the win. They might not make Rubens pull over and let Michael past this season (although I doubt it), but they definately won't make Micheal pull over to let Rubens win.

Bottom line is Ferrari want their driver to win the championship, Michael is the better of the two and has the best chance of beating the opposition. It would be nice to think that Rubens would be given an equal chance, but if Ferrari let the two of them really race each other then they reduce their chances of winning.   

Kimmi

why is the Ferrari delicate? Michael Schumacher finished a race in 4th position (I think) with one of the barge boards hanging off....so far they are the most reliable machines.

Unless you are refering to the new, almost bulldog, look of the Wiliams (very nice) compared to the slender Ferraris. McLarens are pretty slender too.......hmmm.....I wonder if we will see everyone shifting to a new nose after a few races.

It's DC's year - he's told us so

as he told us did last year

and the year before

and the year before that

and..............


for proper racing, look here >>>>>>> Days of Thunder

Thepits,

So driving around a big oval is proper racing is it. hmmm.........

Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello dominated the Formula 1 testing in Melbourne on Friday. The two Ferrari drivers were separated by a tenth of a second but were well clear of the opposition, the third fastest time being set by Jarno Trulli's Renault, a second off the pace of the red cars.
But the big question was whether or not the Ferrari team was running its cars without fuel loads or whether the gap really is that big.
Jenson Button gave the BAR-Honda team something to get excited about with fourth fastest but at the end of the second session the car stopped with a mechanical problem. Fernando Alonso was fifth quickest for Renault with the Williams-BMW duo of Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya comfortably placed in sixth and seventh places. The top 10 was completed by David Coulthard, Mark Webber and Kimi Raikkonen, the McLaren and Jaguar teams not loooking to be in a position to challenge the frontrunners.
Whether any of this is significant will not be known until qualifying on Saturday when we see the cars in qualifying trim - although the fact that the cars must be raced with the same fuel and tyres as in qualifying may mean that we will not actually know who is really competitive until the race on Sunday.

They are both different types of racing but require equal amounts of concentration and stamina.

The development of any of the gizmos in F1 and other forms of motorsport are slowly filtering their way through to modern cars - whether they should be allowed is difficult to say. Also the regulations are so easily twisted that it is difficult to police by the FIA.