Williams don’t seem to be giving anything back in terms of development and progress. That is really starting to show halfway through the season. We always said at the beginning of the year they would be at there strongest early on because the resources and budgets of their rivals would overcome them. That seems to be what has happened and they have dropped off the pace. It is a bit of a disappointment to see but maybe the home factor will aid their cause.
We will be expecting a bit more from some of the other teams such as
Renault. I imagine they were quite disappointed in France after starting from the second row and not then pulling up into a podium position. That looked like it was on the cards.
But there will be some hope there and some level of contentment I guess with
Nelson Piquet Jr scoring his first points. Maybe that will kick start his season. He needs to get some more points under his belt. But he raced well in France and overtook his illustrious team-mate
Fernando Alonso. In many ways he was stronger over the whole race because he started from lower on the grid. That should have given him hope and confidence.
As for
Honda, they seem to be on a downward spiral at this point and it is a problem. There doesn’t seem to be much hope of it improving in the short term and they have put all their eggs in one basket for 2009. I would have expected slightly more, but I think they have turned off the ‘08 situation and are focused on next year when the rule changes could shake things up.
Maybe something will come together for them and there will be some wet races which could help
Jenson Button and
Rubens Barrichello. It’s going to be a long season for those two.
Toro Rosso meanwhile is a different team since debuting its new car at Monaco. They seem to be getting to grips with it well, but it is a shame it is only
Sebastian Vettel up there.
Sebastien Bourdais is having a torrid season. He is not really living up to the expectations of what everyone thought was possible coming across from the USA with such great credentials.
