The 2007 Champ Car Season Preview

The wait is almost over. The Champ Cars have arrived in Las Vegas for the series' inaugural race through the streets of Bugsy Siegel's Nevada oasis. It's the start of a 16-race schedule that stretches right through to December. There is plenty of change for 2007 - a new car, new regulations, new venues, new schedules and new drivers - so here is a synopsis of what to expect.

New Car

The Lola B2K has gone to be replaced by the Panoz-built DP01. (We're not allowed to call it the Panoz DP01 apparently). It needed another six months development time with an assortment of current engineers to get its bugs ironed out.

Instead there have been just seven days of testing (to slow down the progress of the Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing's over new boys like Pacific Coast Motorsports) and so the new car's growing pains have been executed rather too publicly.

The DP01's chief designer Simon Marshall has confessed that quality control is not what it should be, and that the company is working to remedy that. In the meantime, resolving a leaking fuel cell problem and building enough spares is the priority. After all, three races on consecutive weekends, all three of them street courses with half the field as rookies suggests spare parts might be in high demand...

Oh, the news isn't all bad: for one thing, the DP01 is fast, it's probably the safest single-seater in the world right now in the event of an impact, and it also looks fantastic - modern, but still retaining the classic Champ Car low line rear bodywork.

New Regulations

Standing starts looked more like stranding starts when the drivers practised using launch control in Laguna Seca. So why can't a driver rely on his own clutch control, as he does departing every pitstop? I have no idea. I don't remember that many drivers getting left on the grid at the start of Formula One races in the 1980s manual gearbox/turbo era. Whatever, the introduction of standing starts has been delayed until at least Portland.

In quite an unusual change, all races will be run to a set time limit, and as that time approaches, a signal indicating one lap to go will be displayed to the field, with the race ending the next time the leader crosses the start-finish line.

The rules on tyre usage have been changed too. Rather than being restricted to four sets of tyres in a practice or qualifying session, teams can use any of their weekend allotment in a given session.

They are also allowed to use only one car per driver in the course of a session - and switching to a back-up car mid-session is not permitted. Anyone who switches to a back-up car after he has qualified his primary car will have to start the race from the back of the grid. So expect drivers to leave quite a margin of error in Sunday morning warm-up. Some of them, anyway...

New Venues, New Schedule

There are six new venues on the 2007 Champ Car schedule. In date order, they are: Las Vegas, NV (street course); Mont-Tremblant, CDN; (roadcourse); Zolder, Belgium (roadcourse); Assen, Holland (roadcourse); Zhuhai, China (roadcourse); and Phoenix, AZ (streetcourse).

Axed are Monterrey, Milwaukee, Montreal and Denver.

Having originally been scheduled for May, the Chinese race will end up on the weekend either immediately before or immediately after Surfers Paradise, leaving a six week gap between rounds three and four. And before you ask, this is not to allow Champ Car teams to go and compete in the Indy 500. It would be interesting to see (a) who would, (b) what Champ Car's reaction would be, and (c) whether IndyCar would allow them to do well. Paul Tracy's got an interesting story about that...

Farewell to 'old' drivers

The eight rookies in the series are discussed in detail below, but it is the absence of familiar names that has been the talk of the series in the off-season.

Mario Dominguez got a last-minute (temporary for now) reprieve at Forsythe and Bruno Junqueira has won over Dale Coyne, but two of the most promotable previous race-winners in the series - Nelson Philippe and Oriol Servia - are currently without a ride.

Nelson has refused to bring family funding for a fourth season (fair enough) figuring he now deserves to be paid. Given that he won the last-but-one Champ Car race, and starred all year, he has a legitimate point.

He has, however, misjudged the market. Which team manager is going to turn away drivers with as strong if not stronger CVs (albeit outside this series) when they also bring a pot of gold? One can't help feel the Frenchman is being hung out to dry as an example to others, which is unpleasant, but it would be a shame too if his own stubbornness meant that his huge commitment, car control and charming personality were put to waste for a year.

The same is largely true of Oriol Servia, who spent eight years in the series and as recently as 2005 finished runner-up in the championship. The Miami-based Catalan still has lot to give in terms of pace - he set the quickest time at Sebring in January, driving the PKV Racing car.

But why has he not got funding? Is he too relaxed away from the track when he should be hunting and foraging for sponsors? Do companies just not give a damn about open-wheel racing in the US any more? Do potential sponsors figure Oriol has plateaued?

Probably a combination of all three perceptions - accurate or inaccurate - is why he's counting flowers on the wall at the moment. I don't think we've seen the last of Servia in this series (though Philippe may have gone for good), but right now there are three apparently funded drivers - Jan Heylen, Andreas Wirth and Nicky Pastorelli - ahead of him in the queue for the next ride that becomes available.

Team by Team

NEWMAN/HAAS/LANIGAN RACING

The name has altered in recognition of Mike Lanigan of Mi-Jack coming in as third partner, but expect the excellence to shine through like always. No team will learn the new car quicker, or prepare it better, and it is rare indeed for the squad to fumble pit strategy or for the drivers/engineers to be slow to hit the right set-up at a new track (of which there are six this year).

Sebastien Bourdais (F); Graham Rahal (USA)

He may not be everyone's glass of Orangina, but Sebastien Bourdais is a hell of a driver. Twenty wins in the last 41 Champ Car races proves that, and although now a daddy, he appears not to have slowed down a tenth. He can be entertaining company because in the right mood (or wrong mood) he can be as outspoken as his long-time nemesis Paul Tracy.

He can be utterly charmless on the rare occasions he is thwarted by a rival, Race Control or lady luck, but if Bourdais misses out on pole or victory because of a failure somewhere within the team, he shrugs it off and defends them, in the same way as he is unstinting in his praise when it all works out.

Quite how he gets on with fellow Formula One aspirant Rahal will be one of the more interesting sideshows in Champ Car this year, for this may prove Bourdais' toughest intra-team challenge yet. Neither Bruno Junqueira nor Oriol Servia - previous team-mates at Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing - has Bourdais' natural talent, but in Bruno's case he compounded that by letting his head go down. As for Servia, he came in mid-season in 2005 and well knew his role of second lieutenant.

Rahal, by contrast is on a learning curve and wherever he is in terms of pace compared to Bourdais right now is as far away as he's going to get. Most of the circuits Champ Car visit this year Rahal has visited before in his hugely impressive Atlantic season (five wins, ultimately runner-up in the championship), and the new ones on the schedule are new to everyone. So Sebastien will have little advantage in terms of circuit familiarity.

Given that at age 18, Rahal is 10 years Bourdais' junior, and is a rookie, if the American gets within an average of 0.3sec in qualifying, suddenly he will look like the more enticing prospect for F1 teams. Bourdais is smart and will have worked this out; Rahal is very self-analytical and he will do anything required to make his season a success, which for him means a victory or two, and pole positions.

FORSYTHE CHAMPIONSHIP RACING

Still the only team currently in the series to have beaten Newman/Haas/Lanigan to the Champ Car title, Forsythe have looked predictably swift in pre-season testing, with all the focus on star driver Paul Tracy. Switching back to a two car entry at the last minute will not have helped in the short term, but should aid PT's championship quest in terms of double the feedback. So long, that is, as his new team-mate behaves himself on opening laps...

Paul Tracy (CDN); Mario Dominguez (MEX)

Entering his 16th year in the series, there's still no question mark over Paul Tracy's commitment to winning or his race fitness. Some have queried his pace following his partnership with AJ Allmendinger last year, but then one-lap qualifying pace has never been Tracy's forte as he'll admit to anyone.

His strength has been his ability to string a series of qualifying-style laps together to set a formidable race pace and he can still do that, have no doubts. Generally he doesn't crack if someone's pressuring him from behind, and he's relentless in his pursuit of the guy in front.

What he does do is get overambitious when it comes to overtaking: not only will he dive into 50/50 situations, he'll try on 30/70s against. That works on certain drivers, but not on Bourdais, hence their spats over the last four seasons. Still, up against the mighty machine that is Newman/Haas/Lanigan, Tracy's reasoning is that you have to both take and make opportunities.

For the first three races at least, Paul's new team-mate is an old team-mate, Mario Dominguez. Sometimes Mario's on it, and his style is one very much suited to street circuits with their proliferation of 90 degree corners.

Don't be surprised if he occasionally out-qualifies Tracy. In testing for RuSPORT at Sebring this year, Dominguez's pace suggested that he and the new DP01 get along rather well, and at Houston last year he took the only pole position of his Champ Car career.

He might have won too, but cracked under pressure from Bourdais - and that's the problem. He can be a liability, as team-owner Jerry Forsythe knows only too well - which is why he got booted out four races into last season. You never know what you're going to get with Mario: mediocre and steady, quick and wild or, on occasion, both composed and quick.

The important thing is for him to now show his good side. If within these opening three rounds the Mexican gets a podium or two - of which he is eminently capable - then hopefully the sponsors will agree to a full term. However, if he goes on to win the championship, this author promises to attend the end of season Champ Car Banquet wearing a sombrero. Only a sombrero.

PKV RACING

This team has changed faces in a big way over the off-season. Gone are 2006 drivers Oriol Servia and Katherine Legge, gone is co-owner Dan Pettit (more later) and arriving on the scene are Red Bull, Neel Jani and Tristan Gommendy.

Mark Johnson remains Team Manager - possibly the most inspired move that remaining co-owners Jimmy Vasser and Kevin Kalkhoven have made. And also newly arrived is a sense of optimism that they can add to the victory Cristiano da Matta scored back in June 2005. Their testing pace has looked that good.

Neel Jani (CH); Tristan Gommendy (F)

Jani has proven in off-season testing that he will be the man to beat in the 'Rookie of the Year' honours. The ex-GP2 ace doesn't make many mistakes while going very fast indeed, and he is not one to be intimidated, as anyone who witnessed his practice standing starts alongside Paul Tracy at MSR Houston will attest. He describes the Champ Car as "completely different from GP2 but great fun because of the power", yet not once has he looked intimidated by that power.

That's hardly surprising: he has tested Formula One cars with aplomb - in terms of both pace and feedback - and he has serious aspirations to return there. That should give his battles with fellow Formula One hopefuls Sebastien Bourdais and Graham Rahal an extra edge - for being Red Bull-backed, Jani wants to be top of Christian Horner's list to drive a Renault-powered Adrian Newey-designed car in the future.

Where Jani might lose out is in terms of his team-mate's feedback. No question, he would have benefited enormously had he been paired with series veteran Oriol Servia. Instead, he has to rely on a fellow rookie. That's not to knock Gommendy, whose CV boasts a French F3 Championship and a Macau GP win. It's just that Tristan only drove the car for the first time in Laguna Seca, so he was all about getting himself up to speed rather than improving the car.

Meanwhile, his fitness - given his lack of single-seater action in the last nine months - was way off where it should be, and it is unlikely to have improved to the necessary degree in just a month.

However, there is good talent there and podiums are possible by season's end if PKV look as sharp as they have in pre-season testing.

RSPORTS

Right, a quick summary. Last autumn, Dan Pettit - formerly the 'P' of PKV - purchased RuSPORT from team founder Carl Russo. After testing both Mario Dominguez and Oriol Servia in pre-season testing, he elected to cut the squad back to a one-car effort.

Meanwhile, Rocketsports Racing's owner Paul Gentilozzi had already elected to follow that route (his squad always operated best running just one car), and these two series co-owners, being friends, elected to form a technical partnership.

Now they've elected to put on a united front which makes a lot of sense from the marketing point of view, but could get tricky considering one half of the team is based in Loveland, Colorado and the other finds home in Lansing, Michigan.

Justin Wilson (GB); Alex Tagliani (CDN)

Third in the championship in 2005, second last year, there's only one way for Wilson to go, right? Hmm... It hasn't looked so good for him in winter testing. Paul Tracy, in his most recent Paul Position here on Autosport.com, wondered aloud whether the Briton's wring-the-car-by-the-neck driving style is not suited to the new DP01, but added that Justin is too good to not overcome this.

Justin disagrees with the first part (presumably wholeheartedly agreeing with the second) and says he likes the feel of the new car. However, he agrees that the team don't look like race-winners at the moment.

The inevitable disruptions within the squad over the last five months have been unsettling, and he and new engineer Mike Talbott (ex-Wilson engineer Todd Malloy has joined Newman/Haas/Lanigan) are still settling into their relationship, with Talbott taking the race engineer role for the first time.

And there is also a weight problem. Yes, Justin is tall and by race-driver standards, heavy, but there have been strange weight disparities from chassis to chassis so how much ballast and where to use it has been a moveable target for Justin's half of the team. Champ Car has raised the minimum weight limit by 10lbs, but by the law of diminishing returns, that gives the light guys even more ballast to play with.

This writer recommended Tagliani as Wilson's team-mate over six months ago, though the twists and turns by which it came to be were fairly unpredictable. On the other hand, I can't claim to have endorsed the Canadian's return to Rocketsports; it's a harsh regime there and Tag gives his best in a team where he knows he's loved.

But having seen Champ Car veterans like himself struggling to find seats in this new era, one has to conclude he was eminently sensible to jump at the opportunity of a paid ride with a team he knows. Team owner Paul Gentilozzi has said before that letting Tagliani go was one of the two biggest mistakes of his motorsport career. (Sorry to be a tease, but the second one is off the record). The chance to remedy that has not only fulfilled Gentilozzi's ambition, it has also boosted Tagliani's confidence.

Being able to measure himself against Wilson is also very handy for Alex's reputation within the paddock, and the fact that he matched the Briton in testing at Laguna will send him into this season brimming with self-confidence.

No driver works harder out of the cockpit on the engineering side than Alex, and if that makes him high maintenance, it also makes his feedback invaluable. He and Wilson could be the best pairing in the series this year. But will that be enough to push them up into Newman/Haas/Lanigan territory?

TEAM AUSTRALIA

If not quite the form team at the end of 2006 (that's always Newman/Haas, isn't it?), this was the squad that made the most progress through the season. Will Power's pole in Surfers Paradise and third place finish in Mexico City were perhaps less than the team deserved.

That was the Lola B2K era, of which these Reynard-faithful only caught the tail end. Now Derrick Walker, Craig Gore and the squad have to do it all over again with the DP01, but if testing performances are accurate it looks like they're well on the way.

Will Power (AUS); Simon Pagenaud (F)

Here is a pair of drivers surrounded by questions, but those questions are all of the positive kind. Can Will Power win races? Can Simon Pagenaud win the Rookie of the Year title? The answer to both is yes. In fact, you might get worthwhile odds on Power taking the championship; it's not out of the question, and neither is Pagenaud winning a race.

Power has looked as superb in pre-season testing as he did in most of the latter half of last year. And as his pace has increased, the mistakes have also become fewer. One gets the impression he lacks a little imagination - he can look pretty lurid when making his cars dance between concrete walls, but what the hell? It hasn't done Paul Tracy any harm, has it? May have cost him a title or two, but it has also made him a hit with the fans.

Remember that new level Power appeared to reach in front of his home crowd in Surfers Paradise last year? Well should he repeat the process across North America, he should not only get wins but also end up in the top five in the championship.

More than a few pondered whether Pagenaud was the worthy champion of Atlantics last year, having racked up only one win to Graham Rahal's five - a harsh if predictable summation of someone who plays it smart and does just enough. Just as well Simon did it though. Rahal was graduating to Champ Cars for 2007, title or no title.

Pagenaud, by contrast, needed that $2m. Which team would have gone out of its way to bring another talented but penniless Frenchman into the series? Jeez, nobody did the same for Jon Fogarty and he scored two Atlantic championships, and he was American.

Pagenaud, however, was tested by Forsythe in the Lolas pre-Christmas and outperformed higher profile names - and his momentum has continued now that Team Australia (with whom he won the Atlantic title) have done the obvious and kept hold of him in his graduation.

There is still a question mark over Simon's aggression in a wheel-to-wheel situation, but that can be worked on. The fundamental pace is there, which could be enough to frequently put him ahead of fellow rookies Neel Jani and old rival Graham Rahal.

TEAM MINARDI USA

Paul Stoddart has purchased a majority ownership of what was CTE Racing-HVM and has brought the Minardi name (and the two-seat F1 cars) with him. He has simultaneously increased the profile of the team, increased the profile of the series as a whole, and thanks to employing his former Formula One employee Robert Doornbos, increased the marketability of the races in Assen and Zolder. Credit all round.

In his wisdom, 'Stoddy' has also let co-owner Keith Wiggins get on with the day to day running of the team. The fact that Michael Cannon has returned from his brief sojourn at Forsythe can only be a boost too.

Robert Doornbos (NL); Dan Clarke (GB)

Robert Doornbos arrives in the series with a reputation for being fast if a little wild. That's fine; he's come to the right place. Everyone expects errors from a rookie, and Wiggins is more tolerant than most (as Dan Clarke discovered last year). To paraphrase Mario Andretti, 'you can teach a fast driver to be calm, you can't teach a calm driver to be fast.' Doornbos will blow hot and cold this year, but in a bumper year for rookies, expect Robert's light to burn brightly on several occasions.

What can we say about Dan Clarke that hasn't been said before? 'He's Britain's answer to Fernando Alonso' would be an obvious place to start. In all seriousness, Clarke did a lot of growing up through his rookie season, and that wasn't just a result of Wiggins' brow-beating. Not only did the British driver equal his more experienced team-mate Nelson Philippe in qualifying (7-7) despite being new to all the circuits except Portland, he also reduced the number of mistakes he was making.

Considering he leapt straight from 220bhp Formula Three cars to 750bhp Champ Cars, it was inevitable that initially the car would be driving him. The fact that in between incidents he was impressive enough to retain his ride speaks volumes for his talent. He was a deserved runner-up in the rookie standings.

Now he has a new mountain to climb, because the first time he drives the new car will be in free practice in Las Vegas, a circuit new to everyone. But Clarke constantly has the capacity to surprise, and that goes for his out-of-cockpit behaviour too.

While some colleagues bitched and moaned in the off-season about how and why they had missed out on rides, and how the series had shafted them, Clarke remained positive, he and his manager set about finding funding and didn't once denigrate Champ Cars. Such things count in the end.

DALE COYNE RACING

Here's the team that should stand to benefit most from the introduction of the new car - and certainly the pace shown by both cars in testing suggests regular top six finishes are possible. Dale Coyne brings out the best in his drivers whether they're on the way up or the way down, and if the squad can overcome its principal problem from last year - tardy pitstops - there is no reason why podium finishes should not be possible.

Bruno Junqueira (BR); Katherine Legge (GB)

Junqueira has to accept that he is just one of those drivers whose head goes down too easily when things are running against him. However, that has been amplified while partnering Sebastien Bourdais, because even at his best, Bruno could barely beat the Frenchman's 'regular' mode. Yes that's harsh - but it's also true. That would still put him in the top six drivers in the series, but there are fresh faces coming on stream now - Power, Jani, Rahal - who can knock the nine-time Champ Car race-winner out of a position of prominence.

Yet Junqueira, on form, is still bewitching to behold. If he finds a set-up that suits him, he has silky skills that can extract great pace while apparently putting in the minimum effort and extracting the minimum out of his tyres. That may yet prove a boon in the DP01. In addition, joining a team that relies largely on his input to guide its developmental path is an ego boost.

At Newman/Haas, the team was largely governed by Bourdais' wishes, with unsurprising results to Junqueira's motivation. It's a frequent occurrence in motorsport that Junqueira may gain more credit from helping a smaller outfit reach the top six than by reaching the podium several times with the best team.

Legge has it all to prove. Her fairy godfather Kevin Kalkhoven has ensured she has a Champ Car seat for a second year, and considering she was often a second or more slower than PKV team-mate Oriol Servia in qualifying last year and the Catalan doesn't have a drive this year, she is going to face accusations that she's only there because she's a girl. But that is only a third of the story.

Considering she graduated from Atlantics a year too early (everyone involved admits that) PKV understandably largely based their set-ups around what Servia wanted last year, and he likes to flick a car into a corner and catch the tail. That's emphatically not going to suit Legge, who likes to caress the car on turn in and lean on the rear.

Coyne - who has now worked with both - reckons there is no way you could hit a set up that suited both, and Legge has said the new car is far more to her style than the Lola. Testing times would appear to verify that. She's not the next Nigel Mansell (thank God - the facial hair would prove a huge problem for those marketing her), but if she fulfils her potential, she could retain her place in the series in 2008 for reasons other than Kalkhoven's chequebook.

For any remaining resentful Servia fans, let's point out that Katherine has ended up in a Dale Coyne Racing car - an opportunity Servia spurned in pre-season testing, because he felt it would harm his chances with PKV and RuSPORT.

PACIFIC COAST MOTORSPORTS

"Every time we're struggling with a technical problem, I don't get mad about it. I just think, 'We're in Champ Cars, man!'" Those words come from Champ Car's newest team chief Tyler Tadevic, whose enthusiasm strikes a warm note when counterparts from other teams are bitching about sundry aspects of the series.

Graduating from Grand Am, the team has a lot to learn about Champ Cars, but coming in at the start of a new era at least puts them on the same learning curve as everyone else. Naturally they are the slowest to resolve technical difficulties, but PCM is realistically happy to learn baby steps before attempting to run.

Ryan Dalziel (GB); Alex Figge (USA)

The drivers who need the most track time have unfortunately had the least in the ratio of 'track days:laps recorded'. The combination of new car problems and rookie team problems has been hard to overcome. But if this had to happen to anyone, it's as well that it happened to two of the better balanced figures within the sport.

Ryan Dalziel, of course, is not entirely new to this, having made his race debut for Coyne back in mid-2005. But that was inconclusive.

Neither he nor team-mate and friend Alex Figge are new to all the circuits, either, having a combined total of five years in the Atlantic championship. But a Champ Car is an animal, even if the DP01 is slightly tamer than its predecessor, and both need a consistent machine before they can start fine-tuning its set-up and start hurling it with brio between concrete walls.

Dalziel is a natural; Figge has to work harder at it and takes longer to build up his confidence. By year's end, the Scot should be able to get top six finishes, the American top eight.

CONQUEST RACING

This team has had more downs than ups in the off-season, and a lack of money prevented Eric Bachelart's squad from even attending the first test. His use of Nelson Philippe in the second test at MSR Houston angered Minardi top brass, who were in negotiations with the Frenchman at the time, but Nelson and his manager said he was a free agent, and needs must. Since then, Bachelart has found a driver of similar talent with a promising sponsor, and suddenly the world looks bright again in the Belgian outpost of Indianapolis.

Matt Halliday (NZ)

Forget that he has one of the most impressively varied resumes, which includes A1GP, V8 Supercars, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, and Renault World Series. Forget that he tested for Conquest in 2005 at Sebring.

Forget that he took pole at the Monaco Formula Renault V6 Eurocup in his first visit to this most demanding of circuits...actually, don't forget that last one, because therein lies the clue to his impressive pace in his first encounter with the DP01 last month, and therein also lies the reasoning behind Eric Bachelart's employment of him.

Matt just gets in, quickly figures out the limits of his car, and nails it - which differentiates him from one of Conquest's drivers last year, namely Charles Zwolsman, who took too long to build up his confidence. Halliday also works hard outside the cockpit, which distinguishes him from Conquest's other driver for the last two years, Andrew Ranger.

The end result is that this marriage of convenience could also be a match made in heaven. Don't be surprised to see Halliday drive Conquest to the podium this year.

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