McLaren in contrast have been a little bit lacking in reliability in recent years, but what they have got is a new hunger. They have a different driver line-up and they have acquired a great asset in
Fernando Alonso.
He comes already with two titles under his belt and I am sure he would like to put a third one there very quickly. But what he brings to the team is an understanding of what it takes to get world championships won in this era. That is something that McLaren need. They know how to do it, but they did it quite a while ago.
I think there is a breath of fresh air across the board at McLaren - and it is starting to show through with
Lewis Hamilton, GP2 champion from 2006, on board. It is all positive stuff.
Renault has been on one of those cycles, where everything has gone very well for them and they have been an extremely capable team. They have had all the right ingredients. I think this will be a tough year for them to try and maintain that though.
It is going to be difficult for them without Alonso. He definitely picked up some points and scored some results, which were down to him behind the wheel.
Giancarlo Fisichella therefore has a lot of pressure on him to make sure he delivers. He is definitely going in as the number one and as one of the most experienced guys down the pit lane, he should be able to deliver and lead the team.
But he will have a tough season with
Heikki Kovalainen alongside him. Heikki is very quick and once he gets settled, he will keep Fisi honest.
BMW Sauber has taken a huge leap in performance, but they may be a little bit fragile. But that is the compromise you have trying to make sure you balance out performance, reliability and durability.
At Sauber - and last year with BMW connected - they were very reliable. But now they are trying to push ahead and gain a bit more performance and so maybe it will be a bit up and down slightly. However when they do hit a sweet spot they will be very competitive - and maybe they will worry quite a few people.
As for the likes of
Toyota,
Red Bull Racing and
Honda the early signs aren’t especially good.
Toyota is somewhat disappointing because they brought out their new car quite early in comparison to most of the others. It has got to the stage that there really should be something to show there now considering all the amount of efforts and resources that have gone in.
The performance from them still seems quite stagnant though. They just can’t break through to go the next step.
Honda is quite disappointing too, because they don’t seem to have anything there which will allow them to compete against
Ferrari and
McLaren.
