by Rob Wilkins
The dust may have only just started to settle on the 2006 season, but since the chequered flag fell on the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos on October 22, all thoughts have turned to 2007. 2007 promises to be a very different year - if only, because the man who has dominated the sport for so long, a certain
Michael Schumacher, will no longer be competing and out on the race track.
Here
Crash.net columnist
Mark Blundell puts on his thinking cap, grabs his crystal ball and gives us his thoughts on just what
might happen in the coming year...
Q:
Mark, what do you think we can expect in 2007?
Mark Blundell:
I believe we are going to have a good season. We have got a control tyre and in some ways that will make it easier to compare the performance of car, driver and engine packages as there is a common denominator between all of them.
I think we will see the birth of some new superstars with some credible results coming out of them, with the likes of
Robert Kubica and maybe people like
Lewis Hamilton stepping up the plate and giving us something to cheer about.
There are a lot of new team-driver packages for '07 as well and that has a level of excitement attached to it. Will
Fernando Alonso make it work at McLaren? Will
McLaren supply him with something to get the job done? Will
Ferrari and
Kimi Raikkonen gel and go off into the distance?
Anthony Davidson is coming out of a test role after some five years too: does he have what it takes to go and race - because testing is one thing and racing is another. We saw his grand prix debut [with Minardi back in 2002] and it didn’t go according to plan, but will he actually step up and deliver as well?
