F1 launch date optimisms.

[ph123]

I'm always taken at this time of year with the flurry of new season F1 team launches, with the idea that one or two teams will go forward with their new cars, with the excitement of challenging for higher positions than before ... and therefore, some must go in the opposite direction.

I mean: Toyota with only 2 years, Button with Brawn, BMW must be challenging for race wins, all India expectant, Alfonso back home at Renault.

But none of them can go up, without a team or two going in reverse. Winners and losers then ...

If the above are the close season winners, what does that make Williams, Honda 2, Red Bull 1 & 2 ? The racing seems to spoil things!

[jon-]

With each year of stable rules we move closer to 22 equal cars on the grid.

This year no one might go down in raw performance, but if everyone in the mid field is on the same level it will come down to what team can extract the best performance from the weekend.

[uktrailmonster]

It's all about the relative pace of improvement. Nobody in F1 is standing still on development, but the bigger, more stable teams generally make bigger gains over the winter. Usually the biggest unknown is how well the new car aerodynamic package will perform on the track. Will it match the tunnel predictions or will there be a few nasty surprises in store? Reliability is the other key to success. Cars don't make much progress when they're in pieces in the garage or worse still smashed up in the armco. Then there's the drivers of course! Will they motivate their team or piss it off and vice-versa?