The F1 2012 Car Launch Thread

It seems a bit early but I thought that It would be a good idea to get this started seeing that Caterham will be the first to launch their new car this Thursday (In the F1 Racing magazine of all places)

Heres a list of the launches (of which I know the dates of)

JANUARY 26th: Caterham
FEBRUARY 1st: McLaren
FEBRUARY 3rd: Ferrari, Force India*
FEBRUARY 5th: Lotus*
FEBRUARY 6th: Red Bull*, Sauber
FEBRUARY 7th: Toro Rosso
FEBRUARY 21st: Marussia

TBA: Mercedes, Williams, HRT

*To be launched on teams website

I love seeing all the new cars, who stayed the same and who went more radical on designs. Add to that all the comparisons, speculation and rumors, and it makes things interesting. Personally I don't think any of the previous amounts to much at all.... it's like practice times.

Yes I'm looking forward to seeing the new cars too. Last year I bet on Vettel to win the WDC and Webber to be in the top 3 based purely on the RB7 launch pictures. I'm not sure "looking fast" is necessarily a reliable indicator of "being fast" but it worked out well for me on that occasion!

Some hints about the Ferrari:
Some indiscretions from Italy about the new Ferrari F1 carJames Allen on F1
Apparently they've switched to pull-rod rear suspension, and di Montezemolo thinks the car is ugly.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by henners88

Strange side pods

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What do you mean?

The radiators aren't exposed, that's just an inset!

The winglet infront - massive!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by henners88

but not quite as innovative on first glance as I was expecting after Stefano's claims,

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Well they've gone for undercut sidepods, narrower coke bottle and along with pullrod suspension to expose the floor and feed more air around the diffuser. Could be a be a trend to make up from the trick exhausts.

The exhausts are also angled towards underneath the rear wing. Likely another trend as Williams test this in Abu Dhabi IIRC.

It's hard to tell when you're the first to be let out of the bag so probably we'll have to wait what Newey comes up with as he has been the trend setter in recent years!

The 2012 Caterham

http://www.brettdunsmore.co.uk/pics/Caterham.jpg

My eyes....

I think now we know what Luca di Montezemolo why his Ferrari is ugly!

The front nose looks hideous but what can you do if its there to serve an aero purpose when the 2012 regs calls for a lower nose?

Quote:

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The most obvious rule change for 2012 is the lowering of the front of the nose cone. In recent years teams have tried to raise the entire front of the car in order to drive more airflow over the vanes and bargeboards below the nose.

So now the area ahead of the front bulkhead must be lower than 55cm. However the monocoque behind this area can remain as high as 62.5cm. Thus in order to strive to retain the aero gains teams will keep a high chassis and then have the nose cone flattened up against this 55cm maximum height. Thus we will see these platypus noses, wide and flat in order to keep the area beneath deformable structure clear for better airflow.

F1 2012: Rules, Designs and Trends | Scarbsf1's Blog

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Formula 1

Wow the Caterham is hideous. I suppose it's the only one we'll see with a visible step in the nose cone area though.

[img]http://www.brettdunsmore.co.uk/pics/Caterham.jpg[/IMG]

http://images.planetf1.com/12/01/800...01_2707656.jpg
http://www.factzoo.com/sites/all/img...pus-diving.jpg