Honda have revealed their new livery for 2008 and, to be kind, it is not quite as bad as last year's. The Earth Dream concept is retained but now the globe has shrunk to become just a blue and green circle over the engine cover. The rest of the car is white with red trimming.
Honda RA108
It is always a matter of taste, of course, but I think the car still looks a bit nondescript in these colors. What really matters is how it performs on the track and its poor showing in Valencia is probably explained by Barrichello's insistence that they were merely shaking down the car, making sure that everything worked. Later tests will give us a better idea of how much improvement there has been.
And there has to be some improvement, even if the car is not going to be a world beater from the start. Too many hopes ride on this after the disaster of the RA107. Reputations too could be made or broken by the RA108, most notably Ross Brawn's; even though we join in the consensus that it will be a while before his influence is felt, there remains an expectation that he be the miracle worker, the man who can turn the team into winners in very short order.
He is being cautiously optimistic and his explanation of the RA107's problems seems to make a great deal of sense. The car's aerodynamics produced a lot of downforce but in an aggressive, unmanageable way, apparently. The new Honda has been designed to be much more driveable, with downforce that is delivered smoothly.
This reminds me immediately of the Arrows A2 of 1979 and confirms me in my opinion that the Honda's problem was the same as that long-forgotten experiment's. I can do no better than to quote an article of mine from the period when the RA107 was introduced:
Theoretically, the A2 should have blown away the competition. The front wings had disappeared and stubby winglets appeared above the front suspension instead. The bodywork was basically a box extending right to the back of the car and incorporating the rear wing, thereby maximizing the area of low pressure under the car. Intakes and protuberances were kept to a minimum. It really ought to have stuck to the road like a giant sucker.
Arrows A2
In practice, it scared the drivers silly. Yes, it had plenty of downforce but this varied according to the ground clearance under the car, so that every bump in the road altered the car’s handling. The area of maximum downforce wandered around too and the car would porpoise down the straights, alternately sucked on to the track and then released.
It became clear that positioning and control of downforce was more important than masses of suction. The designers went back to the drawing board while the drivers, Riccardo Patrese and Jochen Mass, struggled on with the A2, finishing the year with only 5 points between them.
Sounds very familiar, doesn't it, those meager five points? Honda may have bettered it with their six in 2007 but I suspect the whole saga was a repeat of history. Let us hope that Honda do not continue to follow in Arrows' footsteps, that long descent from the midfield to the rear of the grid and eventual surrender.
Next week the testing of the RA108 begins in earnest and I'm sure that the best wishes of most F1 fans will be with Honda. It was not pleasant to watch the embarrassment of the team last year.