I have written before about the pressure the arrival of new and talented young drivers puts on the old guard of F1. Even recent arrivals like Mark Webber must be looking at the hype surrounding such hotshoes as Kubica, Kovalainen, Sutil and Hamilton and wondering where their next drive is coming from.

The first few races have put some of this into perspective, with Kovalainen and Kubica struggling to make an impact at first, but Hamilton’s amazing form has upped the ante for everyone, including the young ones. Suddenly every team owner wants another Hamilton and the pressure transfers to the new arrivals to prove that they, too, can work miracles.

No doubt reality will break through eventually and everyone will breathe a sigh of relief as Hamilton makes the occasional mistake or suffers a run of bad luck (he had both in GP2 – it will happen in F1 too). But the benchmark for new drivers has moved higher than ever before and will stay there.

Like him or loathe him, Michael Schumacher has become the model for drivers to be measured against now. The extreme levels of fitness, commitment, technical ability, tactical astuteness, public persona and speed he demonstrated are now expected of all drivers and we may have seen the last of the drivers who rely only on a God-given talent to see them through.

Hence the pressure on Raikkonen at the moment; he is seen as supremely talented but uncommitted to his task and his early departure from the Barcelona GP is cited as evidence of this. Rumors abound that Scott Speed is about to be replaced at Toro Rosso (by Vettel, of all people) and the denials by Berger and Tost do little to quell speculation. The pressure on drivers mounts to the point where the message becomes “deliver the goods by mid-season or you’re history”.

It is all faintly ridiculous and ignores the fact that many champions have taken time to find their feet in F1. Nigel Mansell was one and it took Keke Rosberg years to be offered a competitive drive. We need to face the fact that not every potential champion is a Schumacher, that many great talents of the future will have other approaches to their task.

All of which is leading up to another plea for Speed not to be dismissed. I have already pointed out his excellent performance at Barcelona, in spite of bad luck preventing any fulfillment of the promise. Here now are the midday practice times from today’s testing session at Paul Ricard:

1. Webber – Red Bull – 1:29.687
2. Raikkonen – Ferrari – 1:30.051
3. Speed – Toro Rosso – 1:30.053
4. Barrichello – Honda – 1:30.108
5. de la Rosa – McLaren – 1:30.457
6. Montagny – Toyota – 1:30.478
7. Rossiter – Super Aguri – 1:30.575
8. Kovalainen – Renault – 1:30.917
9. Kubica – BMW – 1:30.931
10. Wurz – Williams – 1:31.324
11. Winkelhock – Spyker – 1:32.756
12. Albers – Spyker – 1:32.960

Enough said.

Update – Final Times from Paul Ricard, 3rd Day:

Raikkonen, Ferrari – 1:28.833
Speed, Toro Rosso – 1:29.039
Kovalainen, Renault – 1:29.070
Kubica, BMW – 1:29.157
Webber, Red Bull – 1:29.179
Montagny, Toyota – 1:29.205
Wurz, Williams – 1:29.359
de la Rosa, McLaren – 1:29.528
Barrichello, Honda – 1:30.108
Klien, Honda – 1:30.235
Rossiter, Super Aguri – 1:30.286
Albers, Spyker – 1:32.245
Winkelhock, Spyker – 1:32.756

When it comes to giving the fans what they want, some teams are better than others. Renault have long led the way in reaching F1 fanatics, with an active team club, excellent information on the website and an openness that puts other teams to shame.

Now they have re-instated their podcast in a new format and it is well worth a listen. You can hear it by clicking on this link. This time round Pat Symonds, Steve Nielsen, the Sporting Manager, and Jeff Fullerton, Machine Shop Manager, are interviewed on such subjects as the car’s performance, the rise of young drivers in F1 and the quality of TV coverage. They pull no punches, giving their views frankly and without avoiding sensitive issues.

Full marks to Renault for such an excellent innovation.

Rumor has it that one of Prodrive’s drivers in 2008 will be Gary Paffett, presently a test driver for McLaren. Although there are a lot of young drivers around at the moment who look like future GP winners, Gary is one that I reckon you can bank on. Take a look at his career on Wikipedia and you’ll see what I mean.

The man was Schumacher-esque in the lesser formulas – wins the Formula Vauxhall Junior Class B Championship with 13 fastest laps, 13 poles, 13 races out of 13 races (how’s that for boring monotony?). Not content with that, he does it again in the Scholarship class of F3 – 13 wins, 13 fastest laps, 13 pole positions.

It gets a bit confused after that but it does seem that, whatever car you put him in, he’ll drive the wheels off it. Competition for Lewis Hamilton perhaps?

When I started this site, I knew that I could not compete with the news sites. They have access to information much earlier than I do, some info sources only release news to “the accredited press”, and there are lots of writers working on most sites whereas I am just lil ol’ me.

So I had to offer something different and, cheekily enough, that had to be the only other thing I have to offer – my opinion. F1 fans love to debate the finer points of the sport, however, and so my approach has been to say what I think but allow plenty of room for others to disagree. At times we have had lively debates in the comments system as a result (and yes, I do drop everything else and hurry over to F1 Latest when I see a comment arrive).

The fact remains that I am still only one person, however, and Dan M has asked that I post more often. At times I do come across more than one item of interest in a day but time constraints usually prevent me writing more than one post daily. So I am going to continue with the regular posts but add snippets with perhaps a brief comment as they occur.

There are other sites that offer news and comment on F1, food for the ever-hungry fan, and I have my own list that I visit daily. Since I believe that we all offer something slightly different and are not in competition therefore, here’s a sneak peek at the ones I consider the best:

F1 Fanatic dot co dot uk. In my opinion, easily the best F1 blog on the net (with the possible exception of F1 Latest of course!), Keith Collantine does most of the articles but Ben Evans contributes his own occasional insights as well. More newsy than my own blog, it still offers plenty of scope for comment and discussion and the writers are extremely knowledgeable and fair. Lots of extra goodies available too.

Pitpass dot com. A really quirky but entertaining site, not really a blog since it has no comments system but has a forum (which I have never visited – I don’t usually “do” forums but more on that in a moment) where views can be expressed. The mix of news and humor is unique and highly effective, the writers well informed and authoritative. Again, there are plenty of extras provided.

Autosport. The best of the news magazine sites. If it’s not in Autosport, it’s usually not worth reading. Their format is the best, too – straightforward design, not too many graphics to slow down loading yet plenty to interest.

F1-Live dot com. Pretty much the same news as Autosport but occasionally they get something that’s been missed. Very comprehensive site but they come second in the news stakes because the heavy loading with graphics, animated advertising and inducements to other parts of the site make it slower to get where you want to be.

Grand Prix dot com. A news site with a difference. They pick and choose as to which stories they’ll run and often have stuff that the other sites don’t reach. Mike Doodson does occasional articles for them and he’s very good. And then there’s the Mole – very wry British humor but not updated often enough.

The Pitlane Club Forums. My first foray into forums. I picked this one because (a) they invited me, (b) it was new and looked to have potential and (c) the owner is doing everything he can to keep out the trolls. So far it has been very good with interesting topics and not too much silly invective thrown around. If you want to chat about F1, it’s worth a try.

Finally, there’s Patrick. His site is a straightforward blog, Motorsports Ramblings, and he doesn’t update nearly often enough. But when he does, he’s worth reading – writes well and very knowledgeable. I recommend taking a look and then going back occasionally to see if there’s anything new…