The first 2012 Formula 1 cars have arrived..

[Ferry_vO]

..And thanks to new regulations most are just Fugly! The FIA has decided the noses of the cars should be lowered to make collisions safer, but the results are somewhat dubious..

First was the new Caterham CT-01 (Formerly known as Team Lotus); notice the kink in the nose:

McLaren was next with the MP4/27, which looks actually pretty good!:

Next was Ferrari's latest, the F2012, which I can only decribe as an abomination:

And the latest car is Force India's VJM-05, which looks somewhat better than the Ferrari..:

Tomorrow we'll see the new Lotus (Formerly Renault) and on Monday the new Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Sauber, and on Tuesday the new Williams, and then it's time for the first test of the season. No date set yet for the launch of the new Mercedes, HRT and Marussia (Formerly Virgin) cars.

 

[wombat666]

Shame vast amounts of money is spent on such devices.
'Fugly'!
Ferry, you practising your 'Australian English'???
I think the regulations covering the 'Flat Floor' are being severely tested when you look under the front sections of the car, there seems to be more and more 'stuff' there than before.
Time I went back to rF2 and the 1960s.
:ernae:

 

[Panther_99FS]

..And thanks to new regulations most are just Fugly!

"Free reign" of designers ended around the late 80s.....Since then cars increasingly become more kit-like....Add in HP/speed reductions and they'll be like IndyCar in 10yrs or so....Looks like IndyCar is trying to pull away from "stupid" & at least brought back the turbo-charged engines this year...

 

[Ferry_vO]

The next batch; first the lotus Renault E20:

The Sauber Ferrari C31:

And the Red Bull Renault RB8:

Note that Newey used the hump in the nose to create an additional air intake.. Wonder where it directs air to...

 

[Ferry_vO]

"Free reign" of designers ended around the late 80s.....Since then cars increasingly become more kit-like....Add in HP/speed reductions and they'll be like IndyCar in 10yrs or so

I guess the designers themselves are partially responsible for the current regulations, as their cars keep getting faster and faster every year despite all the restrictions.. The first Monaco GP in 1950 had a pole time of 1:50.2, in 1970 it was 1:24.0, by 1990 it had dropped to 1:21.3, in the year 2000 it was 1:19.5 and last year's race it was 1:13.6!

Without restrictions it would have been less than a minute perhaps..

 

[Naismith]

Fangio must be turning in his grave seeing these leery paint schemes.

 

[Panther_99FS]

Without restrictions it would have been less than a minute perhaps..

Not necessarily a bad thing in itself.
The majority of champions have always stated that they want more power & all were quite aware of the inherent danger in the sport. Senna was one of those who always wanted more power.

Dan Wheld died arguably due in partial part to the cars not having enough power (and conversely too much grip) to "drive away" from a bad situation or distance themselves from the pack

 

[wombat666]

Not necessarily a bad thing in itself.
The majority of champions have always stated that they want more power & all were quite aware of the inherent danger in the sport. Senna was one of those who always wanted more power.
Dan Wheldon died arguably due in partial part to the cars not having enough power (and conversely too much grip) to "drive away" from a bad situation or distance themselves from the pack.

A very astute observation P.

 

[demorier]

Still way to many braking parts to fly off the front of this modern machinery. At least they are toning down those silly winged mirror things.

 

[Wing_Z]

Trust Newey to come up with something...


Testing is underway at Jerez - Raikkonen came out fighting and set fastest time in the new Lotus E20.

 

[wombat666]

I absolutely refuse to call that bloody RENAULT a 'Lotus'.
Rather like the time it was expected we should refer to a Lotus 72 as a 'JOHN PLAYER SPECIAL'.
But it is a pleasure to see Raikkonen giving the Renault a good serve.

 

[Wing_Z]

OK... Lotus Renault E20 it is, then.
Mind you, if you say JPS referring to an F1 car, everyone knows EXACTLY what you are referring to!

Actually, it's Pirelli that has the most radical approach to F1 this year.
Wait 'til you see their rain tyre...

 

[wombat666]

Michael Schumacher has ended the second day of the 2012 Jerez Winter F1 test quickest, however it was Australia’s Red Bull Racing driver, Mark Webber who was the quickest of the new 2012 specification machines – with fellow Australian, Daniel Ricciardo right behind in third.
Schumacher – in the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 W02 (2011) car – set a best time of 1:18.561 in his 132 laps. Mercedes AMG F1 will not release it’s new car for at least another two weeks. The German squad is using this test to evaluate the 2012 specification Pirelli tyres in comparison to last years.
“We made the most of a reliable car today to do lots of laps and learn a lot about the new Pirelli tyres, and how they perform on longer and shorter runs, and with different set-up configurations,” Schumacher said. “It was a good and productive test, full of lots of useful information for the season ahead, and I am now looking forward to driving our 2012 car for the first time at the next test.”
Most of the times came in the morning, with the afternoon’s running focused on longer race-style runs. Webber’s 1:19.184 in the RB8 was half a second quicker than Kimi Raikkonen’s best on day one. Raikkonen again impressed – ending the day fifth despite a couple of excursions into the gravel (one triggering a red flag and forcing the Lotus team to change the skid plank on the black and gold machine).
“It was pretty good today. I think we’re making good progress although, as I keep saying, it’s still very early days in the concept of the car and we have a lot to get through before we race it,” Webber observed. “But it’s the same for all the teams. We did well on the mileage today, I guess we could have done a bit more, but it was positive overall and the conditions were good to test in.”
Jules Bianchi in his first test for Force India finished the day in an impressive fourth placing – with team-mate Paul diResta (6th), Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, McLaren’s Jenson Button, Sauber’s Sergio Perez, WilliamsF1′s Pastor Maldonado, Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham) and Pedro de laRosa (HRT) rounded out the runners.
Significantly, Kovalainen’s day’s testing was the first time that the Caterham (nee Lotus) team had used the KERS system.
Testing will continue tonight Australian time with Sebastien Vettel taking the reins from Webber at Red Bull.

 

[Wing_Z]

Just a week to go 'til Melbourne!

"There have never been six world champions on a Formula One grid.
That’s how special 2012 will be, with 25 per cent of the field having at one time or other held the crown and accounting for 14 titles between them."

At the very least there will be some interesting mid-field tussles.
Force India looked strong, and Lotus - or perhaps Rotus out of respect for Wombat's feelings - posted some of the quickest times in testing.

I do hope Ferrari can mount a challenge... used to be that the road cars were only built to fund the racers, now it seems the F1 car is there to help sell keyrings.​

 

[Panther_99FS]

Yep Wing.. - the stars are definitely aligned for an interesting season!

 

[Ferry_vO]

It's hard to make predictions based on the pre-season testing sessions, but Red Bull and McLaren seem to be in the best shape. Ferrari seem to be looking at another difficult season, with Pat Fry already admitting that 'podiums will be difficult' at the first races! Mercedes are very content after the tests, Lotus did well too (Though they lost a few days when a front suspension problem sent them back to the factory.).
Right behind this top eight will be a close battle between Toro Rosso (Two young and unexperienced drivers though!), Sauber and Force India. Caterham seemed to have made a step forward and will come closer to Williams; HRT and Marussia will fill the last two rows, provdiding they'll even make it that far with two untested cars!