This week’s Podium or Pits is brought to you by a number of us from the Sett – our regular columnist Tess Tarossa is currently otherwise engaged! With the week being packed with launches and testing, it’s time to see who’s on the podium and who’s in the pits in our regular good week / bad week of Formula One.
Ferrari – for their patriotism. While we at the Sett knew the Ferrari colours this year were pretty set in stone (if it’s ever not red and white, we’ll eat our hats), there are a few nice touches. The Italian flag on the underside of the rear wing is one, harking back to the days of national racing colours. Would other teams follow suit? A union jack on the back of this years McLaren would be super-duper.
Sauber – Kobayashi’s new chariot, and after the sponsorship announcement that a certain Tequila brand would sponsor the Swiss squad, we couldn’t wait to see the new paint scheme. When the covers came off it was a different story, with the Suaber looking more like an expensive trainer, and the Tequila logos nothing more than bumper stickers. They could have at least worn sombreros!
Merecedes – they’ve bought out the remainder (around 25%) of the team from Ross Brawn and co to make the team one of the few proper manufacturer teams. Is this a good idea or not – it’s an age old debate, do you miss the manufacturers? It’s on the podium because it shows that Merc are dedicated to the sport and happy to invest, so that can only be a good thing – oh and Mrs Brawn can now have that kitchen she wants!
Adjustable rear wings – ok, more overtaking will be superb and very well received, but contrived overtaking is worse than none at all – here at the Sett, we’re a little pessimistic about these fancy new wings – see the video below, looks like a dodgy boy-racer effort (no offence intended Mr Sauber designer) and well it’s yet another variable in a sport where there are already too many. The new Pirelli tyres which rapidly degrade will improve racing already – meaning drivers have more of an input, whereas these moving wings (that can only be used for certain times for only so long) are just too playstation-esque for us. Agree?
Badger – yep, we’ve gone and given ourselves quite a major revamp and gone for a tasty British Racing Green and made the site a lot more usable and of course fun – in keeping with the Badger ethos! What’s more, as we edge closer to Bahrain, there’s more new stuff on it’s way, including our own Grand Prix Encyclopedia (aka GPedia), a new forum, extra features and of course the new Fantasy GP championship!
