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[Denthúl]

It's possible Toyota are going to in fact win a race.

They are my dark horses for this year.

I believe they are very fast, the question is who is better? Glock or Trulli?

In my opinion, Glock, because he seems to have a very consistent race pace and doesn't need everything to fall in to place. I really think Toyota will be strong this year because, unlike previous years, their car seems to go fast in warm and cool conditions. Plus it has some good general speed in it and great reliability, too. They may have cracked it

[7UpJordan]

I think Glock is miles better and has far more potential. Trulli whilst is good in qualifying and does well (but only when EVERYTHING is perfect) in races sometimes, the rest of the time he's either whinging or being a mobile chicane not seen since the 1990's.

[EwanM]

It will be interesting to see what happens. I am slightly concerned that if Toyota produce a winning car their drivers may not fully capitalise upon it. No disrespect to Glock or Trulli, but neither are considered as truely great drivers yet... time will tell of course.

Is anyone thinking what i'm thinking? That Heidfeld is the dark horse for the title this year?

[Denthúl]

It will be interesting to see what happens. I am slightly concerned that if Toyota produce a winning car their drivers may not fully capitalise upon it. No disrespect to Glock or Trulli, but neither are considered as truely great drivers yet... time will tell of course.

Is anyone thinking what i'm thinking? That Heidfeld is the dark horse for the title this year?

My money is going on him. It's just a shame that the best odds I can get now are 25/1. Before Christmas it was 35!

But yeah. The BMW Sauber looks quick, seems reliable and Nick is putting in some pretty good laps. His height and weight advantage should pay off when the KERS system is fitted. If they can manage to get theirs in the car for Melbourne, I think they will have a good race. He does seem to be going faster than Kubica at the moment, but of course it's impossible to compare without knowing what they are working on.

[cap-dude]

It will be interesting to see what happens. I am slightly concerned that if Toyota produce a winning car their drivers may not fully capitalise upon it. No disrespect to Glock or Trulli, but neither are considered as truely great drivers yet... time will tell of course.

Is anyone thinking what i'm thinking? That Heidfeld is the dark horse for the title this year?

Heidfeld? I've said it before, he beat Kubica in 07. Theres nothing stopping him from doing it again, all he needs is the car underneath him.

[EwanM]

It will be interesting to see what happens. I am slightly concerned that if Toyota produce a winning car their drivers may not fully capitalise upon it. No disrespect to Glock or Trulli, but neither are considered as truely great drivers yet... time will tell of course.

Is anyone thinking what i'm thinking? That Heidfeld is the dark horse for the title this year?

Heidfeld? I've said it before, he beat Kubica in 07. Theres nothing stopping him from doing it again, all he needs is the car underneath him.

I think so too. Hopefully this could be his year. He AT THE VERY LEAST deserves to win a few races before his career ends.

[scotty]

It's possible Toyota are going to in fact win a race.

They are my dark horses for this year.

I believe they are very fast, the question is who is better? Glock or Trulli?

Two very evenly matched and very good drivers in my opinion, although their strengths differ. Trulli did score more points than Glock last season though...

It will be interesting to see what happens. I am slightly concerned that if Toyota produce a winning car their drivers may not fully capitalise upon it. No disrespect to Glock or Trulli, but neither are considered as truely great drivers yet... time will tell of course.

Is anyone thinking what i'm thinking? That Heidfeld is the dark horse for the title this year?

Definitely. Most likely (and hopefully) BMW will get a couple more wins this year, if the promise from testing proves to be true. However if i had to choose just one driver for the title i think my money would be on Raikkonen.

[EwanM]

Everyone's favourite journalist James Allen has been at the Barce test and he made some interesting comments about today's track action.

Kimi Raikkonen said that the Ferrari team has not yet pushed for the ultimate lap times, implying that there is more to come, but from what I saw in Barcelona there is little to choose between the top three teams on pace. Certainly when the BMW does similar runs to the Ferrari, it sets similar lap times. When it comes to racing, Toyota may have a slight disadvantage from not running KERS at some tracks early on, but they are adamant that the decision, taken early, not to start the season with KERS was the right one. Their car is very driveable, predictable and consistent. Jarno Trulli thinks he can do great work with it

To my eye Kovalainen was having to wait another 30-40 metres on the exit of a corner to apply the power and that is lap time being dropped. The McLaren car seems to have less grip than the others and that would also explain why they weren’t very quick in the wet at Jerez last week.

They did make some leaps forward in lap time, such as yesterday afternoon when they went from doing mid 1min 24s laps to doing mid 1m23s. It could have been a lighter fuel load, but the general performance suggests otherwise. The Ferrari at the same time was also doing 7 lap runs and was lapping in the high 1m 20s and low 1m 21s, while Trulli did a super consistent long run with 10 consecutive laps in the 1m 21s.

Perhaps the most interesting little nugget I picked up in my two days at the test was the start practice the drivers did at lunchtime and again at the end of the day. On one occasion, Kovalainen lined up just in front of Raikkonen and when the McLaren launched, the Ferrari went too. Within 300 meters the Ferrari was in front. It was that noticeable. Now Kovalainen could have been playing games, knowing the Ferrari was behind him and watching, but it didn’t sound that way. That pesky rear grip problem again. Unless McLaren come up with a quick fix, Lewis Hamilton is going to have a tough start to his title defence.

He is saying the same what many of us have on this thread and others on the forum, however it does add much to the debate.

[darwin dali]

It will be interesting to see what happens. I am slightly concerned that if Toyota produce a winning car their drivers may not fully capitalise upon it. No disrespect to Glock or Trulli, but neither are considered as truely great drivers yet... time will tell of course.

Is anyone thinking what i'm thinking? That Heidfeld is the dark horse for the title this year?

Heidfeld? I've said it before, he beat Kubica in 07. Theres nothing stopping him from doing it again, all he needs is the car underneath him.

I think so too. Hopefully this could be his year. He AT THE VERY LEAST deserves to win a few races before his career ends.

Would be about time, wouldn't it? 152 races and no win - I believe that's an all time record behind Andrea De Crasheris and Martin Brundle...

[JackBauer]

It's possible Toyota are going to in fact win a race.

They are my dark horses for this year.

I believe they are very fast, the question is who is better? Glock or Trulli?

Two very evenly matched and very good drivers in my opinion, although their strengths differ. Trulli did score more points than Glock last season though...{

It was Glock's first season! Towards the end of the season he was very good especially in Hungary. Toyota are another team who have surprised me. I think Glock will prove if he can cut it with the big boys this season.

Still think it will be Ferrari and McLaren with BMW though at the top. Although the whole McLaren situation is pretty worrying.

[scotty]

It was Glock's first season! Towards the end of the season he was very good especially in Hungary. Toyota are another team who have surprised me. I think Glock will prove if he can cut it with the big boys this season.

Yep, i agree, he did take a few races to settle down, but at the same Trulli got taken out of strong race positions on at least 2 occasions through no fault of his own.

[Rivelution]

It's possible Toyota are going to in fact win a race.

They are my dark horses for this year.

Here is an answer from Ron Dennis in the February issue of F1 racing.

With the new regulations in 2009, which team do you see as a serious threat, other than Ferrari?

Ron: Hmm... there's obviously some well financed teams, who should have the ability to hit the ground running next year. It's likely that BMW and Renault will be two of them, but there'll also be a dark horse. I'm not sure who that'll be yet, but there will be a dark horse...



To be honest the dark horse(s) can be anyone right now, but Toyota is a pretty safe bet.

[darwin dali]

It will be interesting to see what happens. I am slightly concerned that if Toyota produce a winning car their drivers may not fully capitalise upon it. No disrespect to Glock or Trulli, but neither are considered as truely great drivers yet... time will tell of course.

Is anyone thinking what i'm thinking? That Heidfeld is the dark horse for the title this year?

Heidfeld? I've said it before, he beat Kubica in 07. Theres nothing stopping him from doing it again, all he needs is the car underneath him.

I think so too. Hopefully this could be his year. He AT THE VERY LEAST deserves to win a few races before his career ends.

He appears to go all out:
F1live:
Nick Heidfeld, already one of the two lightest men on the Formula One grid, lost a full 2.5 kilograms ahead of the 2009 season.

The diminutive BMW Sauber driver, who topped the timesheets at the end of the first day of Barcelona testing on Monday, now tips the scales at 58 kilos, Germany's Bild newspaper reports.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa is also believed to weigh 58kg, with the pair set to benefit most from the introduction of heavy KERS systems this year.

"Never in my life had I counted calories. I would not have thought I had anything to lose," Heidfeld said.

"But this winter I paid attention to taking in less carbohydrates and fat and I trained harder than I ever have before," the 31-year-old added.

[Malibu327]

Hey, everybody, I'm back. I know you McLaren fans missed me...

I am very excited about the winter testing so far! It's becoming clear that the drivers are going to be in more control of their own destiny, which is always nice. And the rules changes have allowed for some of the teams that should have been more competitive to catch up a little. I really like the idea that the teams who learn the most from their race-day performances will advance the most during the season. Now, if we can just get the FIA to leave the same set of rules in place for a few years maybe we could get some old school excitement and surprises back into the sport...

I say look for BMW to storm out of the gates... good team, good drivers... all they've been lacking is a competitive car.

[texasmr2]

Were the heck have you been?? Almost five months without a reply, pm or phonecall .