Honda reveal their 2008 F1 car: the RA108

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Honda actually revealed their 2008 F1 racer earlier this week – I’ve only just been able to get some pictures of it.

This is one of the most important cars on the grid this year. Honda desperately need to recover from an awfully poor 2007. Boss Nick Fry has made the right staffing moves – he’s hired Ross Brawn and Alexander Wurz – but if the car’s no good it will all be for nought.

The new RA108 has been testing this week in a blank livery. The definitive colour scheme will be revealed on Tuesday, and there’s no word yet on whether they’ll be keeping the Earth Car design.

Photos copyright: HondaRacingF1.com

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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13 comments on “Honda reveal their 2008 F1 car: the RA108”

  1. You just know it’s going to fail miserably again.

    Here’s hoping it does, anyway.

  2. Not a Honda fan, Rohan?

  3. It can’t be worse than last year – or can it?

    I’d like to see it at least in the top five at the end of the season

  4. I don’t see a repeat of 2007 for Honda. But it will be a lot like 2005.

    Their car will be dismal in the 1st half of the year. Although test times mean little, you shouldn’t be TOO far off the pace either. They’ve been 3 or more seconds off at recent tests.

    But once Ross and the gang start getting the proper parts out, they’ll be challenging for points regularly (and maybe even the odd wet race podium) towards the end. They’ll finish P7 or P6 in the championship, P5 if they’re lucky.

  5. Atually, looking at the times they did in Valencia this week it seems they did not got rid of the problems they had during last season. I hope for them Ross Brawn will bring new energy and ideas, but when you have a poor car, strategy cannot save your season.

  6. Judging by Valencia times, it will be another dog of a car, but we can still dream that they can take the fight to Toyota…

  7. Valencia testing times were consistently at the bottom. Let’s hope that the car isn’t as bad (or worse!) than the RA107!

    The car itself looks very slick and efficient. Hopefully it will be everything the RA107 wasn’t – fast on straights, sticky on corners, consistent and reliable.

    Like Keith said, Nick Fry has made the perfect moves for staff, hiring Ross Brawn and Alex Wurz – 2009 will be the first proper year that it will make proper impact, but a certain amount of progress needs to be made now.

  8. Indeed I am not Keith – I stil regard them, Super Aguri, Red Bull and STR as cheats for their contravention of the Constructor/customer car rules.

  9. It seems like every year there’s a team that massively underperforms – in 05 it was Ferrari, in 06 it was Williams, and last year it was Honda. I think that just by having a better-run team (thanks to Ross Brawn), they will do a whole lot better than last year.

  10. The Ross Brawn effect probably won’t come into play for this year, think of it as a transitional period.

    As Rubens has already pointed out in the testing post, it’s not hard to be better than last years car.

    The all-white livery reminds me of the Stewart F1 team, for which Rubens also drove for.

  11. I think even Honda can’t afford to run sponsorless livery for 2 years in a row. It is bye bye “myearthdream” livery, let’s just hope do come up with something other than the red/white Honda corporate colors

    I would not judge this car based on Valencia test …

  12. Not certain we should go by Valaencia test times either, however I do feel the numb ties at Honda should have something to prove and should have been fast of the bat. The fact that they are not spells disaster, I think this car has every opportunity to be worst than last year. WE have to face it guys the Japs can build good engines but good cars not a hope.

    The Ross effect will take a year at least to have any real effect, and by then RB will be retired and JB will have wasted another year at a no hope team. Honda should stick to what they do best making slow cars for old people to go to the shops in. Why not paint it brown it’s a pile of sh*t in anycase.

  13. Just hope last weeks Valenca test was not the how the season is going to go for Honda we need Jenson to be at the front.

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