Honey, I shrunk the wing!

Formula One teams have decided that if you cannot emblazon the name of a massive tobacco company on the back of your rear wing then there is no justification for it being quite so big. Actually, that is not quite true. The real reason for the drastic change, being sported by a Williams at testing in Jerez above, is to do with new regulations being brought in by the FIA for the 2009 season.

The reduction in wing size is one of a host of initiatives aimed at making overtaking easier for F1 drivers. The theory is that the smaller rear wing would allow drivers to get closer to the car in front without disadvantaging themselves. Nobody likes change and the new look has been criticised by F1 fans.

Alonso’s murky future clears…

Nando Alonso is set to sign a £7.6m deal which will see him drive for Honda in 2009 - but the Japanese manufacturer won’t be able to stop the Spaniard joining Ferrari in 2010 - that is a done deal.

Honda chief Ross Brawn has been after Alonso for several months and now it seems he will get his man, if only for a stop-gap season. Alonso is the best development driver on the grid, and Brawn hopes that in one year, Alonso can be instrumental in transforming cash-rich Honda into a podium team.

Spanish Sulk bemoans lack of luck, Honda may swoop

Fernando Alonso couldn’t summon up the grace to congratulate Renault team-mate Nelsinho Piquet on his podium finish at Hockenheim. In an interview with Spanish newspaper Diario AS, the ex-world champ made it very clear that Piquet’s shock success was mostly down to luck:

“It was quite a bad weekend for Nelsinho, but suddenly he got a safety car on the best possible lap for him and he is on the podium… This is the safety car lottery. Without luck we can only be aiming for seventh or eighth.”

Translation: why the hell did the rookie catch a break, and not me.

A brighter future for Ross Brawn and co.?

HONDA
Drivers Jenson Button (GB) & Rubens Barrichello (Brazil)
Championship points 14

Read Grid Crasher’s verdict on Honda below:

Honda’s chief geek reveals what Alonso really wants

Amid speculation that cash-rich Honda could be Nando Alonso’s next destination, Ross Brawn, the team’s principal, admits that “every team” would be interested in signing the former double world champion for 2009 - hmm, not sure Ron Dennis would agree, but we take Brawn’s point.

“Honda is no different, of course,” Brawn told the Swiss publication Motorsport Aktuell.

“Fernando is a very good driver that everyone would like to have sitting in their car,” said the man who was formerly Ferrari’s technical director.

“(But) I know what team he would like to go to, everyone does [i.e. Ferrari]. The reality is that, before we can talk seriously with him, the situation with Ferrari must be resolved.”

Former team boss claims Lewis is NOT one of F1’s top-four drivers

The Lewis Hamilton backlash continues apace. In the past few weeks, the McLaren driver has been criticised by the media, other drivers… hell, everyone except Ron Dennis and his dad, it seems.

Now Giancarlo Minardi, founder of the Minardi team (duh), has added his thoughts on Lewis’s difficult second season. Minardi claimed that Hamilton was not one of the four best drivers in F1: “Robert Kubica has committed no errors, with his only tally of zero points in Australia with the collision with Nakajima; that was not his fault… Without that, he would be far ahead in the championship,” Minardi said.

“Another one, certainly, is Fernando Alonso, who even with an uncompetitive machine always shows something. And, of course, the two Ferrari drivers [Kimi Raikkonen and Massa].”

Motorsport news to make your mouth water

Ferrari has unveiled the new A1GP car, which every team will use in 2009. The car (pictured above, in a nasty neutral yellow trim) is based on Ferrari’s championship-winning F2004 F1 chassis. [TSN]

France’s GP could be absent from the F1 calendar in 2009. Wee Bernie Ecclestone, who wants a street race in Paris, told L’Equipe that this year will be the last visit to the widely unpopular Magny Cours venue. [F1 Live]

Honda boss forced to wear unflattering trousers

Ross Brawn, Honda’s team principal, is a pretty big man and he’s out of shape – not massively so, but enough that we can accuse him of sporting a set of man boobs and not expect a call from his lawyer. It’s not the moobs that caught our eye on this occasion; it’s the green action slacks, and what lies beneath. We’ve suddenly lost our appetite.