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The wait is almost over as
the F1 circus heads to Australia

The 2008 Formula 1 season gets underway on the 16th of March at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia. Over the course of the past few months, the 2008 contenders have been launched, endlessly tweaked and tirelessly tested in anticipation of this race. It's time to finally set aside the speculation and see who really has the edge in 2008.

All signs indicate another epic battle between Ferrari and McLaren for supremacy. Initial testing form seemed to indicate that the 2008 Ferrari had the legs on all its challengers, including the McLaren. However, on the final days of testing, it was McLaren that edged ahead. You can bet, however, that both teams are keeping their real form close to their respective chests – only to be revealed in Australia. Most still believe that Ferrari will have a slight advantage in race pace. Albert Park, Melbourne, in itself is a bit of an anomaly – it's an unusual track, and we may have to wait until Malaysia to get a real sense of the season ahead.

One of the key factors that all teams have been working on to get absolutely right from the first race itself is reliability. Along with many of the other teams, the Force India F1 team, which debuted their new car in Mumbai early in February, has completed a successful race weekend simulation.

Their two drivers, veteran Giancalro Fisichella and Adrian Sutil, have been quite pleased by the progress made by the team in the past few months. Technical Director, Mike Gascoyne, an aerodynamisit himself, has ensured that the teams' two wind tunnels in England and Italy have been working non-stop to extract every possible hundredth of a second of performance.

The teams performance in testing, on the whole, has been very promising, and they’ll be expected to compete consistently in the mid field from the first race onwards. However, Gaincarlo has warned that, though the basic ingredients may have fallen into place, the first few races could prove to be challenging – with performances improving later in the season. Either way, they’ll have a billion plus Indian hearts egging them on.

PWRC

Naren Kumar to lead
'Team SIDVIN India’ into World Rallying

Team Sidvin India (TSI), with help from multiple world rally champion Tommi Makinen, will take on the worlds’ best in the 2008 Production World Rally championship.

If you remember our November 2007 issue, there was a detailed interview with six-time Indian National Rally champion, Naren Kumar.

At the time, Naren had just experienced his first taste of a PWRC car in Wales, and you can bet that he enjoyed it. With continued support from Sidvin Core-Tech India Pvt. Ltd., Naren is now leading India’s first PWRC team. The team will run a Group N 2008 Subaru Impreza rally car supplied by Tommi Makinen Racing, owned by the four-time World Rally champion.

Join us in wishing TSI and Naren the very best as they make their PWRC debut at the feared Acropolis rally in June.