[Racer Duck]

Racing series COMMENTARY F1 Date 2008-01-09
By Nikki Reynolds - Motorsport.com

Launch season is here and and McLaren, last year's front runners for the titles -- at least until McLaren got thrown out of one -- were the first to unveil their shiny new challengers. But will 2008 be another two-team battle between the old rivals or can anyone else get in on the act? Given and McLaren's dominance in 2007 it's hard to imagine anything but a repeat scenario, but you never know.

Take the phrases "the is a step forward" and "it's faster than last year's" and "I'm confident we're making progress" and repeat ad nauseum through January and that's launches in a nutshell. There are a few new twiddly aero appendages and the odd bit of surgery to the shape of the but at the end of the day the Ferrari is still red and the McLaren is still silver, although someone else is bound to come out with a livery that's totally vile.

Ferrari has altered the wheelbase on the F2008, while McLaren's MP4-23 has some weird vents that could possibly double as cheese graters, but to the casual observer the aren't startlingly changed. We'll only know how competitive they are once they get on track but, if for argument's sake we presume these two teams will be the front runners, there are one or two other things that could make a difference between Ferrari and McLaren this year.

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