Not strictly a "Totally Biased Season Preview" but Pete Fenelon wrote this about the 1992 season.
This is the latest list of entries for this year's World Championship. The details are current as of yesterday (13/2/92); the opinions are my own! Note that everyone's on Goodyear tyres this season and there won't be any special qualifying rubber. Honda Marlboro McLaren 1 Ayrton Senna 2 Gerhard Berger McLaren MP4/6-Honda until Brazil; MP4/7 may be introduced there. Usual colour scheme, i.e. dayglo red/white. Obviously one of the teams to beat; McLaren remain one of the most stable and awesomely competent teams in F1, and with drivers, engineers, designers and management all superb it's obvious that they're going to remain major contenders... Senna should be a safe bet for a fourth Championship, and I hope Berger has a better season (i.e. wins something of his own accord!) in '92. Tyrrell 3 Olivier Grouillard 4 Alessandro Zanardi Tyrrell 021-Ilmor V10 Probably dark blue, since they've just landed ELF sponsorship again! Not a bad pairing of drivers, although both are new to the team. The Ilmor engine started to show some promise last year, and recent Tyrrell chassis have been fairly good (although 020 was effectively stillborn when Postlethwaite jumped ship). Can't see them being major competitors but should pick up points. If Grouillard can stay on the road he's quick, and F3000 ace Zanardi looked very good in the Jordan last season. Canon Williams Renault 5 Nigel Mansell 6 Riccardo Patrese Williams FW14-Renault (FW15 from midseason) Probably similar colour scheme to last year. Probably McLaren's major competitor, again the technical team (Head and Newey) is stable, the engineering is superb and the money is there. Renault seem to be a match for Honda and the addition of a now-debugged active suspension system to FW14 seems to suggest serious benefits. Should be a classic Williams-McLaren battle this season. Mansell seems happy at Didcot, which is unusual for him, and is driving mightily; Patrese must be (after Berger!) the best #2 driver in any team and I think we'll see wins from both of them this season... Brabham 7 Giovanna Amati 8 Eric van de Poele BT61-Judd V10 Not sure at all about sponsorship/colours Last year's Yamaha linkup really seemed to mark the end of Brabham as a serious F1 team, with Yamaha pressing the eject button and going to Jordan... The team has staff problems, money problems, and driver problems - first choice Akihiko Nakaya couldn't get a Superlicence; yet, with worse F3000 results, lady driver Giovanna Amati managed to land the seat there. Without wishing to sound sexist, Nakaya had a better record and deserved the drive more... Van de Poele is extremely good -- he was great in F3000 -- but last year's disastrous Modena Team disguised this. I hope something good comes of all the trouble, and that van de Poele gets some attention from big teams. Footwork-Mugen 9 Michele Alboreto 10 Aguri Suzuki FA14-Mugen V10 Footwork sponsorship, white/red colour scheme One car will have to prequalify. Driver not yet named. After last year's Porsche fiasco, Footwork lost all credibility. Suzuki has enabled the team to secure Mugen (Honda) V10s and this may help the team to stagger away from the scene of the crime, although the engines didn't do much for Tyrrell last year. Alboreto is now in the undistinguished and rather sad twilight of a career which had many high spots -- remember him in '85 -- and I expect that Suzuki, who is often very quick, will be the driver looked to for the best results, if any... Team Lotus 11 Johnny Herbert 12 Mika Hakkinen Various sponsorship. Cars are BRG/yellow (although were BRG/yellow in '91 preseason they raced in white/BRG) Lotus 102D-Ford HB for first few races, Lotus 107-Ford HB later Last season's rebuilding programme continues, with Herbert (their first choice for '91 #1 but unable to do the full season) and Hakkinen (very quick and confident) in updates of last year's car at first -- then a new and probably fairly radical actively-sprung car later on in the season. I expect some success this year, but not with the basically two-year-old car with which they're starting the season. Team should be _really_ back in '93, but something good should come of this season. Fondmetal 14 Andrea Chiesa 15 Gabriele Tarquini Fondmetal -- black/red/grey (very smart!) Fomet-1 for early part of season, then TWR-built car One car will have to prequalify. Driver not yet named. Although Fondmetal have split from the Fomet design studio (see Central Park Venturi-Larrousse) they will run last year's car for the first few races before switching to a new TWR-built chassis. The driver lineup is fairly respectable - Chiesa wasn't bad in F3000, and Tarquini has lots of (albeit tail-end) F1 experience. I wouldn't expect miracles, but the odd points finish could be on the cards. March Formula One 16 Karl Wendlinger 17 Paul Belmondo Although no longer Leyton House, will retain aquamarine colour scheme. March CG921-Ilmor Now _nothing_ to do with the March Group, or Leyton House, a completely independent March F1 team picks up the cudgel and tries to go it alone. Wendlinger could do well -- although no Schumacher he's pretty good too -- although the choice of Belmondo (son of the film star) is presumably more closely related to $$$ than to his F3000 record, which one could charitably call unimpressive, although he has done some F1 testing... Can't see March doing too well, which is a pity, because I'd like to... Camel Benetton Ford 19 Martin Brundle 20 Michael Schumacher Yellow/Blue colours, Benetton and Camel sponsorship B191B-Ford HB ``until V12 is ready''... I hope Tom Walkinshaw can unlock the potential at Benetton; they have all the right ingredients but have lacked direction in the past. In my opinion they have the third or fourth-strongest driver pairing (after McLaren, Williams and maybe Ferrari) and one of the best engines; the forthcoming Ford (possibly Jaguar-badged) V12 should put them in a _very_ strong position indeed. Brundle has FINALLY landed a really good F1 seat, and should be in a great position to score his maiden F1 win, and Schumacher is... well, the new Villeneuve, in my opinion. Should win something this year... Note that there's a cloud on the horizon - Peter Sauber intends to enter F1 next season and wants Schumacher and Wendlinger as his drivers.... _more_ Schumacher contract wars! Scuderia Italia 21 J J Lehto 22 Pierluigi Martini Red/white, Lucchini & Marlboro Dallara BMS192-Ferrari Quite a promising team, Scuderia Italia/Dallara have done more to impress than many of the other recent Italian arrivals in F1. If the Ferrari engines are better than those supplied to Minardi last year I'd expect some very reasonable results (thirds, etc.) to come their way. Both drivers are good, Martini in particular having both depth of experience and a pleasing turn of speed, and Lehto has often demonstrated large amounts of raw talent and bravery... this could well be the season in which the team breaks into the big time... Minardi 23 Gianni Morbidelli 24 Christian Fittipaldi Probably black/yellow/white again... SCM sponsorship, plus M2000 from C.F? Minardi M192-Lamborghini Still making progress, although the Ferrari honeymoon was very short and Minardi are now stuck with Lamborghini engines (which _must_ have improved...) but have a _very_ good driver lineup -- Morbidelli drives with an admirable maturity, and Fittipaldi's handling of his F3000 Reynard last year showed that he seems to take after his uncle Emerson rather than his father Wilson... Should be fairly consistent points-scorers if the engines hold up, but I don't expect miracles... Ligier 25 Thierry Boutsen 26 Erik Comas Blue, with the usual Gitanes Blondes sponsorship Ligier JS37-Renault Politics rather than competitiveness won Ligier the Renault deal, and the new technical team under Ducarouge have responded to the new engine by building a near-Williams copy! By all accounts it's a lot better than recent Ligiers, and Alain Prost has been putting in a lot of miles in it -- current rumour is that he _will_ be seen in the cockpit at Kyalami, probably displacing Comas... which is a pity, because Erik looked at least as good as Boutsen in last year's lumbering lorry of a car... Thierry deserved better; perhaps this year's Ligier will at least get him some points... I would be extremely surprised if the season was a _total_ failure and would expect some reasonable results... Ferrari 27 Jean Alesi 28 Ivan Capelli Red!!!!! Usual bits and pieces - Agip, Marlboro, Pioneer etc. Ferrari F92A A new era (hence the new designation scheme)! This year's car is the most radical F1 Ferrari since the original 639 3.5-litre prototype, with extremely distinctive aerodynamics (the ``F15 Fighter'' sidepods etc.; you'll see photos of them everywhere...) which are, as they say, beyond the scope of this article... New management -- Luca di Montezemolo, Claudio Lombardi and (Return of the Prodigal?!) Niki Lauda (who will be an ``adviser''). Alesi will have to start winning in '92 to justify the faith placed in him, and should manage this as he is _very_ talented, and it would be nice to think that Capelli could match his team leader, as he is no mean driver himself -- think back to some of his March/Leyton House performances, like France '91, or anywhere in '88... If Ferrari go two seasons without winning anything I'll be shocked, not just surprised! Central Park Venturi Larrousse 29 Bertrand Gachot 30 Ukyo Katayama Venturi-Larrousse LC92-Lamborghini Blue/Yellow/Red, Central Park and Venturi sponsorship Both cars will have to prequalify An interesting re-birth for the old Larrousse team, now mostly owned by French sportscar manufacturer Venturi. The Fomet design studio has been bought, and Robin Herd and Tino Belli have designed a very neat car; the weak link is probably the Lamborghini engine.... We all know how good a driver Gachot is, it's great to see him properly re-established in F1, and Katayama is supposed to be pretty good too. All looks very promising and I'd expect some strong points finishes this season... Sasol Jordan Yamaha 32 Stefano Modena 33 Mauricio Gugelmin Jordan 921-Yamaha Blue/white, SASOL and Barclay sponsorship Can Eddie Jordan's team win in only their second year of F1? The new chassis is a development of last year's superb one, the Yamaha engine was showing much promise in the Brabham and the new sequential (motorcycle-style) gearchange sounds like a neat hack... new money from SASOL (the South African oil company) and Barclay cigarettes, who've been sponsoring the EJR (really Middlebridge) F3000 team for the last season. An interesting driver lineup, Modena's first win is long overdue -- Jordan could well be the team to give it to him -- and the chance to assess Gugelmin's talent in something other than the rather variable Marches/Leyton Houses which are all he's driven in F1 to date should be interesting.... Yes. I think they'll win something. Andrea Moda Formula 34 Alex Caffi 35 Enrico Bertaggia Last seen in black/white, Andrea Moda sponsorship Will start with revised Coloni C4, then will use Simtek chassis. Judd V10. Both cars will have to prequalify. The former Coloni team has been bought by an Italian shoe magnate and re-launched. It looks like a rather more serious effort, and the purchase of the Simtek chassis (built for an abortive BMW F1 project last year) should mean the end of the rather blacksmithed Coloni line. (The ousted Coloni is building his own F3 car this season!) Simtek is a serious outfit, owned by respected aerodynamicist Nick Wirth and FISA president Max Mosley... Not a brilliant driver lineup, Caffi has done little to impress since his early Dallara days, and Bertaggia has occasionally impressed a little in minor formulae... The team should at least be _serious_ about F1 and with any luck will do better than before...