Saturday, January 27, 2007

So much has happened in just a week...

Gosh, so much to report on. Let's see... where do I start?

Jenson's back in form, which is the best news of all. His ribs are healed up, and he looks to be in top shape.

"Although I have been out of the car for a while, I am very pleased with my return to the cockpit and also my fitness level, which I have been working hard on since
Christmas."

That's from Jenson talking about his immediate future with Honda, as he hopes to move closer to his first ever F1 Title. He also talked about his plans further up ahead (like at age 34) in "the Times", a copy of which is in the official forums I think.

Jenson really does look set to present a serious challenge for this year's championship, and others are taking notice as well. Here's DC proclaiming, Jenson Button's gonna conquer F1". From a fan's perspective, that's a pretty good headline if I ever saw one. Hehe. And I am praying and hoping that it holds true.

He's a man on a mission this year. And I hope the entire Honda team does get behind him and challenges for the top spot. Honda seems ready enough, and they've recently launched their new car (sans the new livery, which happens next month) at Barcelona. Jenson was able to drive both the RA106 and the new RA107 for some direct comparison, and he looks to have come away feeling good about the new car. It did stall on his first lap out, but once Jenson got going he was able to put in a well-driven 86 laps.

That about does my week ending report for now. For all that you've missed, you can catch up by checking out Honda's offical site at HondaRacingF1.com, or at Jenson's official site at JensonButton.com. To make things easy, you can also Google News for the latest on Jenson (I've set the link to already filter things out).

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Honda RA107 shakedown!

Honda's launch is less than a week away (Thursday, January 25)! Wohoo!

Even better, their shakedown is set for this Monday at Silverstone.

Honda will shake down their new Formula One car at Silverstone next week before shipping it to Barcelona for the team launch.

The team's senior technical director Shuhei Nakamoto told autosport.com that the new car will have a shakedown at Silverstone on the morning of Monday, January 22, just to ensure there are no niggling problems before its first serious test at Barcelona.

After the shakedown the car will be transported immediately to Spain.

Reporters'll very likely be there to report on how the car goes... and looks, even if the livery hasn't been set yet. You can check out the thread at the official forum here.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Happy Birthday Jenson Button!!

Happy Happy Birthday Jenson!!


May your 27th year bring you all the very best!

For those who haven't yet, you can send him your greetings/birthday wishes at the Happy Birthday Jenson forum thread.:)

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Jenson's latest video message

NOTE: Whoops.. sorry, forgot to publish this one. :P

Jenson's got a new video message! You can watch it over at his official site, www.jensonbutton.com.

I'll post a vidcap as soon as I can. :)

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

What if F1 had similar cars for all the teams? :P

Just browsing through news articles from last year. Here's an exerpt that got me thinking, from when Jenson said he could do better than Schumi:

"I'd be devastated if I didn't win the championship because it's what I've always wanted to achieve," he added. "I work so hard - harder than people realise. If I didn't win the world championship in the future I won't be able to live with myself, probably. But Honda won't leave F1 until they win the championship.

"I'm not satisfied because I'm disappointed to have spent so long not winning races. I've been asked the question so many times about not winning in 100 races. But nobody would have won a race in the cars that I had in those 100 races. I'm 100 per cent sure of that."

Don't you just wish there was a way to test how these drivers would perform given similar machinery, ala A1? I know part of what makes F1 great is too see just how far these manufactures can take and develop their cars, given all the rules and technology at hand. But it's about the drivers too. Wouldn't it to have been nice to see just how fast Alonso already was in his Minardi days compared to the rest of the field? Or even Jenson in his Benetton days, for that matter.

Maybe F1 could do a sprint race, where they all race similar machinery, like in A1. Hahaha. So you'd have a race of drivers. And then you could follow that up with the drivers stepping in their team cars for the feature race. :P Or even just a one-off race at the end of the year where they race cars made somewhat according to the winning manufacturer's specs, or at the start of the year even, using a car patterned after the previous season's winner. :P

Just wishful thinking. :)

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

New cars, new looks, same contenders

From the official (see the likes of McLaren's MP4-22), to the not so official (see Renault's R27 racer), new cars are rolling out for 2007, giving us sneak peeks into what the cars will look like once they take to the circuits for a brand new season of Formula One racing.

It's all very exciting to see what shapes and liveries the new cars take on, and even seeing the drivers in their all new looks and do's as well. Fernie with his new haircut and Vodafone suit, Kimi in red (which I personally find not to be his color at all). Unfortunately for us Honda and Jenson fans, we have and will continue to be waiting a tad longer to see what the new car will look and drive like (RA107 launch is late January, with the livery to follow at a yet to be announced date the following month). And because of Jenson's injury, we have also yet to see Jenson suit up and drive during winter testing.

No matter though, a lot if it should still stay the same for Honda and its drivers. It's arguably got the most continuity and stability going for it among the top teams (Gil de Ferran has gone on record saying that it is a positive, as has Nick, although we best not get our hopes up too much). Fernando Alonso echoed these sentiments recently, when sharing how he "fully expects" Jenson to be one of his main rivals for this year's championship (*knock on wood*).

So has anything really changed? In terms of who's favored, probably not. Jenson, Kimi and Fernie are still up there; Massa and Fischi are bound to be mixing it up as well. It's all speculation at this point anyway. But, as a fan, I do hope 2007 will be more exciting, and have more surprises in store for us. And hopefully for Jense fans, it'll be of the good kind - plenty of exciting racing capped by both expected and unexpected wins galore.

Anyone got a fast forward Button? :P

Friday, January 12, 2007

Hill drops a word on Button, too

Here's former world champion Damon Hill dropping a word on Jenson, as he talks about Britain's current crop of hopefuls for the 2007 season:

Hill said Button, who took his first grand prix win in Hungary last August, was a much stronger driver than the appearances suggested.

"This year has to be the best chance we've had since I won the championship for there to be another British world champion," he said.

"I have great faith in Jenson. I think he has a whole team around him so you can compare his position quite well to that of Michael Schumacher at Ferrari...He's got a very good chance of winning on a regular basis."

I can't wait for the season to start. These outlooks and predictions are wearing thin. I wish the actual racing would get on soon. And I do hope Jenson's completely healed up from his injury by now. Can't wait to see him back behind the wheel.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Back to blogging for the new year!

Internet's back! Wohoo! Well, sort of at least. So sorry that I've been unable to update for the past two weeks. I feel like I've missed out on so much already.

So to start off the new year, I'll just be posting some links to some stories that came out the past weeks that might be of interest:

Kimi mentions Jenson as a possible contender, behind Fernando and Felipe.

Honda to unveil RA107 on January 25. Sorry though, it's going to be coming out in its testing colors (likely black). The livery launch will be held at a later date, sometime in February.

Jenson on how winning has... or hasn't changed him.

Button urging Honda to make relaxed predictions. Less time with the press, more time with the car? :P

Blundell on the Brits. With an excerpt (sorry, just couldn't resist with this one :P):

ITV-F1.com: Jenson certainly finished the year with some classy performances following his first win; do you expect that level to continue into the coming season?

Mark: It has to continue.

The raising of his game highlights the increased confidence following his win.

Whenever you get a result like that your confidence level does grow.

And now in the eyes of everybody he is exactly what it says in the history books – a grand prix winner.

He goes into next year with that mindset and that’s the level he has to work from to go and achieve something greater.

There are no ifs and buts any more; he has now achieved what everybody has been waiting for over the past few years.

Britain’s next best hopes are now waiting in the wings, so the current hope needs to deliver the results.

and last but not the least, Honda convinced of competitive engine.