2012 Car Launches thread

dnhrudi · Post by **dnhrudi** » 04 Feb 2012, 05:13

If ever there was a year to listen to Grand Prix on the radio, then this is it. Still, anything to screw over Rupert Murdoch......

dnhrudi · Post by **dnhrudi** » 04 Feb 2012, 06:00

I just thought, if the rules for 12 had included that all cars had to carry a 12'' imitation paper staple just before the front wheels.. they could re-name them formula centerfolds. After all, cars have looked like this in the racing mags for years...There you go... a little lateral thinking can calm the mind hehe

solarcold · Post by **solarcold** » 04 Feb 2012, 12:40

I predict: the only cars with classic nose along with McLaren will be Merc and Williams

14 Hundred Hours · Post by **14 Hundred Hours** » 04 Feb 2012, 12:43

mario wrote:
14 Hundred Hours wrote:I saw the Force India stepped nose over the summer when they were testing in the windtunnel- I thought it was a mistake or they'd forgotten to put an extra part on! I was also surprised when I was told most teams were expected to have something similar, and hoped they were wrong. So much for hoping...

Interesting - how did that come about? Were you being given a tour of the facilities at the time?

They gave me work experience and I spent a couple of days in the wind tunnel. I thought they'd have sworn me to secrecy about their new designs but they didn't seem too bothered!

Jocke1 · Post by **Jocke1** » 05 Feb 2012, 11:03

Pointrox · Post by **Pointrox** » 05 Feb 2012, 16:22

Just 10 minutes left to the presentation of Lotus E20...

EDIT 16:59
Woah, the site is loading very slowly now... and 504 Gateway Timeout popped out!

EDIT 17:02
The website is pretty much down. Well done, Lotus! :lol:

EDIT 17:04
The website is back, but the front page is still sporting the teaser.

EDIT 17:08
The website is down again - this time with 503 Service Unavailable. However, the photos of E20 are circulating

And the presentation video is now up... uploaded 4 hours before the launch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjgSaYQ_GeY
It's hard to tell, but it looks pretty much like the R31 with a new nose. And a good-looking one, too!

14 Hundred Hours · Post by **14 Hundred Hours** » 05 Feb 2012, 16:23

Jocke1 wrote:

These look better than the actual cars!

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 05 Feb 2012, 16:31

It's not bad, but it's hardly the sort of adventurous car they need to get them back to the front. I don't see anything on there that made me think it was anything special, like for example the McLaren exhaust exits and smooth nose, or Ferrari's sidepods, and their exhausts too.

We'll have to wait until there's a bit more technical info on it I guess before making any accurate judgement though.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 05 Feb 2012, 18:02

Without a doubt the best looking stepped-nose car so far. Doesn't bulge like the Caterham, doesn't look like it was smashed into place by a chisel and hammer.

seleucid23 · Post by **seleucid23** » 05 Feb 2012, 18:12

Are we experiencing anti-publicocrap? Teams aren't exactly thinking big...

Lotus Renault - We're targeting fourth!

Force India - We're targeting fifth!

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 05 Feb 2012, 19:52

seleucid23 wrote:Are we experiencing anti-publicocrap? Teams aren't exactly thinking big...

Lotus Renault - We're targeting fourth!

Force India - We're targeting fifth!

That's a good point there! Go big or go home, that's what I say...

Meh, axe the red and that's the second best looking car so far.
What's with online releases being disastrous since the server keeps crashing?

Pointrox · Post by **Pointrox** » 05 Feb 2012, 20:30

JeremyMcClean wrote:What's with online releases being disastrous since the server keeps crashing?

IT guys (or whoever maintains Lotus' website) underestimated the amount of people that wanted to watch the presentation

Minardi Man · Post by **Minardi Man** » 05 Feb 2012, 20:33

Least disgusting stepped nose car so far, although I despise total for ruining that otherwise beautiful livery!

the Masked Lapwing · Post by **the Masked Lapwing** » 05 Feb 2012, 20:45

I much as I hate them right now, it is the best looking car at the moment.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 05 Feb 2012, 21:45

JeremyMcClean wrote:

Meh, axe the red and that's the second best looking car so far.

What happened to the Magnum and Coca Cola sponsorship?!

nome66 · Post by **nome66** » 05 Feb 2012, 22:37

meh, the stepped nose on the Bahar-Toleman isn't nearly as bad as the ferrari or the force india. the Toleman look more like HRT's chassis did last year.
anyone think they might go for two separate rear wings this year like '84?

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 05 Feb 2012, 22:47

nome66 wrote:anyone think they might go for two separate rear wings this year like '84?

Careful... don't shout "two separate rear wings" too loud, or we might end up with this instead, the CDG wing that was nearly introduced for the 2007 season...

...incidentally, was this idea ever actually tried on a hack car, or was it just the result of a few CFD experiments?

Meanwhile, I am imagining a the Ferrari F2012 with the CDG wing on the back, and I am trying desperately to keep my dinner down.

AdrianSutil · Post by **AdrianSutil** » 05 Feb 2012, 23:57

That stepped nose is still glaringly obvious, BUT it's certainly not as bad as Ferrari or Caterham. Is this supposed to be a brand new car? Apart from the nose I can't tell any differences between last years and this one.

nome66 · Post by **nome66** » 05 Feb 2012, 23:59

i'm with you here other than no Lada sponsorship i can't find any differences here.

razta · Post by **razta** » 06 Feb 2012, 07:15

Mclaren FAKED their launch car!
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/boss- ... s/?v=2&s=1
Martin Whitmarsh has admitted that the launch version of McLaren's new MP4-27 car featured a dummy diffuser and 'plastic' exhaust exits

CoopsII · Post by **CoopsII** » 06 Feb 2012, 08:25

razta wrote:Martin Whitmarsh has admitted that the launch version of McLaren's new MP4-27 car featured a dummy diffuser and 'plastic' exhaust exits

Another reason why these launches are a bit of a waste of time, even when theres a new livery to look at. I think the teams should rock up at the first test and unveil them then.

Although at least the launches arent as bloated as in days gone by, Mclaren and the Spice Girls anyone?

razta · Post by **razta** » 06 Feb 2012, 09:03

CoopsII wrote:
razta wrote:Martin Whitmarsh has admitted that the launch version of McLaren's new MP4-27 car featured a dummy diffuser and 'plastic' exhaust exits

Another reason why these launches are a bit of a waste of time, even when theres a new livery to look at. I think the teams should rock up at the first test and unveil them then.

Although at least the launches arent as bloated as in days gone by, Mclaren and the Spice Girls anyone?

Oh god!

That's why agree with what Merc are doing.. just turn up to the test with the new car, and TEST IT

Post by **mario** » 06 Feb 2012, 09:10

AndreaModa wrote:It's not bad, but it's hardly the sort of adventurous car they need to get them back to the front. I don't see anything on there that made me think it was anything special, like for example the McLaren exhaust exits and smooth nose, or Ferrari's sidepods, and their exhausts too.

We'll have to wait until there's a bit more technical info on it I guess before making any accurate judgement though.

I have to agree that, at first, the E20 doesn't look like a significant departure from the R31, or at least not as much of a departure as, for example, the F2012 or MP4-27 are from their predecessors (the front wing looks like a version used on the R31 late last season). The reaction does seem fairly muted to the car overall - Autosport, for example, have dubbed it as a "more traditional" design - although Boullier is claiming that most of the changes are smaller and not outwardly visible which might explain the slightly conservative bodywork.

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 06 Feb 2012, 10:07

It's very hard to screw up with black IMO but Sauber have just done it here.

Post by **mario** » 06 Feb 2012, 10:21

Well, here is another shot of the Sauber from a slightly different angle, and what is striking is that Ferrari and Sauber have both gone for a very similar nose cone shape (a very wide, thin "wedge" for lack of better words) with the transition from the nose to the front bulkhead being remarkably similar as well, albeit with a few slight changes since Sauber have a pushrod front suspension layout. The back end of the car, or at least what has been shown of it, looks much more along the lines of what Renault and McLaren have been doing rather than the undercut sidepods of Force India and (probably) Toro Rosso, or the sculpted sidepods of the F2012.
Yet again, though, we have to be careful about reading too much into this car - Sauber are already saying that this is a simplified version of the C31 which the team will use as a baseline in testing.

eagleash · Post by **eagleash** » 06 Feb 2012, 10:24

Tend to agree; the least attractive so far.....

Ferrim · Post by **Ferrim** » 06 Feb 2012, 10:26

My bad, Sauber manage to make each of their liveries worse than the previous one.

It reminds me of a Stoddart-era Minardi!

eagleash · Post by **eagleash** » 06 Feb 2012, 10:35

Side on view....

According to Scarbs, the exhausts exit in the top of the side-pods, near the red line & blow over the rear body work. He described them as neutral.

Jocke1 · Post by **Jocke1** » 06 Feb 2012, 10:42

razta wrote:Mclaren FAKED their launch car!
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/boss- ... s/?v=2&s=1
Martin Whitmarsh has admitted that the launch version of McLaren's new MP4-27 car featured a dummy diffuser and 'plastic' exhaust exits

the article wrote:McLaren and Ferrari will, of course, have to run real diffusers and exhausts this week at Jerez, where the first of just three pre-season tests begins on Tuesday.

Why? Just drive the cars with the plastic bits during the test. See how it goes...

Ferrim wrote:It reminds me of a Stoddart-era Minardi!

Blasphemy!
The Minardis looked good, better than this Sauber at least.

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 06 Feb 2012, 11:11

razta wrote:Mclaren FAKED their launch car!
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/boss- ... s/?v=2&s=1
Martin Whitmarsh has admitted that the launch version of McLaren's new MP4-27 car featured a dummy diffuser and 'plastic' exhaust exits

You can't go yelling faked like that. You almost made me believe that they had presented a beautiful car only to revert to ugly nose version in testing. Don't scare me like that again dude. Obviously it is not real. The teams will not want to give away secrets too early.

Hoping for McLaren to kill them all showing that by not going ugly is the best choice. The Lotus car is the best of broken nose cars because of the livery IMHO. Sauber is the worst for the same reason. Ok, perhaps still not as bad as Ferrari...

eagleash · Post by **eagleash** » 06 Feb 2012, 11:13

& this is alleged to be the nose of the new STR

(Via Scarbs F1)

Post by **Londoner** » 06 Feb 2012, 11:24

Oh dear me. Why can't Sauber use some Telmex blue on their liveries, rather than that horrible black. Makes it look like the front end of the car has been dipped into tar, or has been involved in a race with Ramilton and Paul Tracey...

CoopsII · Post by **CoopsII** » 06 Feb 2012, 12:27

I am so bored of looking at and reading about F1 nosecones.

James1978 · Post by **James1978** » 06 Feb 2012, 12:28

The Sauber nose looks like a cross between the 2001 Ferrari at Monza and a duck.

Post by **mario** » 06 Feb 2012, 12:40

CoopsII wrote:I am so bored of looking at and reading about F1 nosecones.

How about a few shots of the rear of the Sauber C31 to distract you from that then?

Looking at the car, I think I can spot a new opening beneath the airbox, plus the changes to the sidepod intakes and the fin next to it - also, according to scarbsf1 the rear of the car is quite tightly packaged as Sauber have access to the new, slimmer gearbox that Ferrari have developed for the F2012.

Added to that, there seem to be some interesting shots from HRT's garage on the F1Technical forums that seem to confirm that the team are switching to a gold and white livery:

the Masked Lapwing · Post by **the Masked Lapwing** » 06 Feb 2012, 12:43

I like the Sauber, the black masks the nose better than Ferrari. It just needs a bit more red.

eagleash · Post by **eagleash** » 06 Feb 2012, 13:09

The RB8 has been revealed with a rather un-revealing video. Prettier nose though.

http://www.redbullracing.com/cs/Satelli ... 3158945543

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 06 Feb 2012, 13:21

eagleash wrote:The RB8 has been revealed with a rather un-revealing video. Prettier nose though.

http://www.redbullracing.com/cs/Satelli ... 3158945543

This year, we invented a scale of ugliness which goes from the "OMH I went blind!" going through "awfully ugly", "tragically ugly" and "downright ugly" until we arrive to the "nice livery but still ugly" (McLaren exempted from all this). Given your prettier nose evaluation which I concur, we shall come up with the "The fans standard is so low now that this car is almost not ugly."

Having said this I must drink a few pints before watching a race. If it works for members of the opposite sex, it should work for cars too! :lol:

Collieafc · Post by **Collieafc** » 06 Feb 2012, 13:45

The Sauber nose just looks like the front of an ironing board painted black

Sauber010 · Post by **Sauber010** » 06 Feb 2012, 13:47

I could be completely wrong here, but I'll point it out regardless.

You can see in this image (Found on Autosport) that the nose is obviously 'stepped' up. But it looks to me that rather than being a somewhat smooth incline there is infact a 'lip' on top of the lower nose?

I'll reiterate, I'm probably wrong.

EDIT: That might have been close to right! Found this image on the F1 Tech. forums.

Is it simply driver vent incorporated, or something more?