2018 Preview : CBA Racing

One of the newest teams on the grid have had an interesting career so far across two different formats with the modern day not quite seeing the immediate success for CBA Racing compared to the 90s. Although his identity was initially kept a secret, CBA made an appearance in the commentary box and was revealed to be FJR team boss James Brickles’ dad. His microphone skills were somewhat unpolished, but he seems to have settled in well amongst the FF1M paddock.

Best Season: 1993

In canon, CBA Racing’s first season came in the middle of the 90s technological race with active suspension, traction control, and semi-automatic gearboxes already in force. To aid their first season, the AFIA awarded double development for any new teams that took part in the pre and mid-season quizzes, and CBA took full advantage of this. Their season started off steadily with two 4th places for Rubens Barrichello before a double points finish at Donington which also included a podium finish for the Brazilian. A brief lean spell occurred before Monaco, the turning point of the season.

Over the next four races, both Barrichello and Alessandro Zanardi took a total of six podium finishes between them, but a race win remained elusive until Spa where avoiding the chaos during the second round of pitstops helped Zanardi to his maiden FF1M win, holding off the charging JJ Lehto in the final laps. In the very next race, Barrichello took his first FF1M win despite being spun round on the first lap and both drivers and the team were in strong championship contention come the final race at Adelaide. It looked as if Barrichello would win the Drivers Championship after a dominant drive from pole position, but he inexplicably crashed out with two and a half laps remaining. The main beneficiary was teammate Zanardi, who despite being nine points behind championship leader Riccardo Patrese going into the race, left Adelaide one point ahead and the 1993 champion. This was also enough for CBA Racing to win the Teams Championship on their first attempt by a single point from Tornado. Were they tempted to do a Sex Pistols and say ‘Right, I’ve won that, I’m off now’?

CBA: After being a ‘rookie’ team in 1993 and winning it, there was no intention of just doing a runner. The team ‘burned the midnight oil’ to clinch the championship.

Worst Season: 2017

To call this CBA’s worst season is a little inaccurate, more by default as it wasn’t a particularly terrible season, but it also wasn’t exactly a team that CBA had any control over as they inherited Exolite’s entry after James Whiteley found himself ‘accidentally’ locked up in a basement whilst promoting some Love Honey products.

CBA: After inheriting Exolite, I felt it was in bad shape and needed a bit of a shake up. The Albanian State Washing Machine Company could outrun them! Obviously, the team had to have a rebrand and overhaul with a new sense of direction. CBA Racing is here to shake up the world of racing.

The somewhat lopsided partnership of Kimi Raikkonen and Tomas Gonzalez proved good in some races and ropey in others. In particular, Raikkonen was starting to show his age with some poor performances that resulted in his dismissal two races early in favour of the first Kiwi to race in FF1M, Mason Taylor.

The high points came in the first race where Gonzalez finished 2nd, Road America where the Argentine inherited 3rd on the final lap after Nolan Bryant and Lewis Hamilton collided, and Raikkonen rolling back the years with a podium at Monza. The main low points were a lack of reliability from the powerful but brittle Megatron engines, and a steady drop off in performance as the season went on which resulted in 9th in the Teams Championship.

Present day

CBA Racing chose to abandon development at the earliest opportunity in order to focus on the brand new CBA-18 chassis. They may start the season off more slowly compared to those teams who have carried over their chassis instead building a new one from scratch, but they should theoretically progress towards the frontrunners as the season goes on. Gonzalez and Taylor will be teammates again for 2018, a dynamic young line-up, but they’ll have a new engine to play with as CBA have switched from Megatron to Judd, with Judd’s willingness to provide full ERS in races being the main selling point. CBA are hoping that this profits them in 2018, and they are optimistic on their chances.

CBA: Any questions about 2018 will be answered fully when the format, etc, has been discussed with the team, but we expect to do very well with Judd as development is ongoing and we have access to full power potential. We’re here to kick ass!