The State of the Nation (part 2) Red Bull, Honda, Toyota, STR, Force India, Super Aguri

I know of course I left out Red bull in 'part 1' and I've already been abused to that effect. So what can we expect from Red Bull? Like Williams the ingredients are there although not quite the racing pedigree and not at all the results and experience - as a team. Looking into the depths of Red Bull we have a multiple race winner in David Coulthard, we have a brilliant designer/aerodynamicist in Adrian Newey, an excellent and proven race and championship winning engines in Renault. Other people in place like Geoff Willis should be able to do the job as well. The question marks are of course Mark Webber, blisteringly quick over 1 lap, very experienced now but hasn't won a race yet and this will be bugging him endlessly, he needs to do it to prove he can, then we will really see him emerge as a top driver. The other question is, have Red Bull got on top of their terrible reliability woes from '07. Red Bull could just get lucky this season when it all goes wrong at the front but they will have to battle off Williams, BMW and Renault to take advantage.

The team that under performed the most last season was of course Honda, with not quite the mega bucks of compatriots Toyota but with much more F1 knowledge, Honda seems to have really lost its way and or totally underestimated what it takes to win in modern F1. The engine shouldn't be a problem. The drivers are world class, Rubinho has won 9 GP's and Jenson is easily in the top ten at the moment. Maybe the problem was the management structure (both of the big Japanese teams are struggling with their management) and now with Ross Brawn who helped manage Michael's 7 world with Ferrari and Bennetton just maybe they will be the dark horse once we get stuck into the season. They can only go up .

Toyota? What is going on there? I cannot see them doing better than they did last year. For one, Honda are going to get past them, the Red Bulls look strong, STR were going well at the end of the year. Toyota may just keep themselves in front of Super Aguri and Force India...

The other Red Bull team, STR are starting the season with last years chassis and so should have good reliability in the beginning of the season and could pull off some good results. It's going to be fascinating to see which Seb comes out on top.

Force India. So much change. Good engines, good engineer, Fisichella is a known quantity but don't expect him to lead the team down victory lane any time soon.

Super Aguri have been struggling in the off season, they have only just got their car crash test approved and they are running on a very tight budget. They are surrounded by all sorts of buy out rumours etc. Some people don't expect them to make to the end of the season.

The RAT - Feb '08

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