LAST YEARS PICTURE THIS YEARS OPTIMISM

By sessions
March 1 2013

Each day until Saint Paddy’s Day we will be green in the face from reading, debating and questioning our 2013 season opening results. All kinds of scenarios will have been bantered back and forth and some fans may have luck and call it right, but until then it will remain a mystery.

Well it’s that time of the year again when an array of speculation is in full bloom concerning the teams and how they will fare. Mercedes is almost at the top of the gossip list with all the unknowns. If one strips away as much here say as possible it comes down to” The Silver Arrows” require more than their share of pace to close in on the front runners. I and our little band of workers continually search sites that shed more fact than speculation, but we seldom gain sound confirmation of real evidence that would put us in the category of being a full-fledged championship competitor. The most positive information comes from reading between the lines of repeated statements. Everyone including Lewis and Nico are telling us the car is good and much better this year. Another encouraging sign is our completion of laps without failure is increasing indicating our dependability is getting better overall.

The down side of most conversations pertaining to our advancement is the lack of down-force being generated, which doesn’t allow us to gain pace in order to close in on the seconds we need to chase after the faster cars.

Lewis has also brought his share of optimism to the team’s future success. Nobody can say for sure how much his driving ability will play into the game. He no doubt will push as hard as he can to get results. There are so many variables it’s impossible to predict for certain how much of an asset he will be. His demeanour towards his team change so far looks as though it is running smoothly and both parties are into making progress.

Nico as well is yet another question mark. He handled plenty of pressure with Schumacher and will have to face it again with Lewis. It stands to reason Nico is more prepared to face Hamilton’s challenge today than he was in Michael’s case. He’s familiar with the car and has another three years of experience under his belt.

Hopefully the team and all involved with running it have also benefited from three years of learning the ups and downs of making headway.

Brawn according to Lauda is not going to be under a microscope and will have full reign in his position.

Everything mentioned above still leaves us with no assurances of how well we will do. Luckily, other than the quest for more down force which sounds like is the most sought after item by all teams, will only be resolved upon our departure from Aussie-land rather than our arrival.