2011 Car Launches

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 03 Dec 2010, 13:07

The first launch will be in less than 2 months' time, on my dad's birthday! (This seems to be a very common date in recent years for car launches, give or take a few days...)

Autosport.com wrote:Sauber announces 2011 car launch date

By Pablo Elizalde Friday, December 3rd 2010, 10:13 GMT

The Sauber team has become the first Formula 1 outfit to announce the launch date for its 2011 challenger, which will be unveiled on 31st January.

The Swiss squad said on Friday it will present the Ferrari-powered C30 car at the Valencia circuit.

Official testing will kick off the following day at the Spanish circuit.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/88558

patrick · Post by **patrick** » 03 Dec 2010, 13:22

I can't wait. I love F1 cars. And the liveries especially. And the 2010 cars looked pretty good, I hope they're not all RB6 clones this year.

Jeroen Krautmeir · Post by **Jeroen Krautmeir** » 03 Dec 2010, 13:45

Co-incidentally, I was browsing through the 2010 Car Launches thread earlier today. Loved it! The comedy, pictures, the facts and the comments.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 03 Dec 2010, 14:26

Are there high expectations of this thread to match that then, eh, Jeroen?

Jeroen Krautmeir · Post by **Jeroen Krautmeir** » 03 Dec 2010, 14:31

dr-baker wrote:Are there high expectations of this thread to match that then, eh, Jeroen?

Nah. For starters, there aren't any new teams, so they wont be as much excitement, at least, for me.

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 03 Dec 2010, 14:57

True but we should have some nice new liveries, I'm expecting some good things from both Sauber and Williams, and Lotus are meant to be switching to a black and gold scheme this year aren't they?

Jeroen Krautmeir · Post by **Jeroen Krautmeir** » 03 Dec 2010, 15:26

AndreaModa wrote:True but we should have some nice new liveries, I'm expecting some good things from both Sauber and Williams, and Lotus are meant to be switching to a black and gold scheme this year aren't they?

Totally forgot about new liveries!

I'm really interested in what Sauber and Williams are going to reveal, and hopefully thanks to their sponsor changes, we'll see something 'new and fresh'. It's nice to see that Lotus are returning to Black and Gold, but I hope this time they'll stick to it for a while, instead of switching to the Imperial Tobacco colours, or Camel or the Shionogi/Loctite one after just a season. I have a good feeling they will stick, since none of the others mentioned are as iconic, at least, in general. I'm pretty tired of McLaren's chrome/silver livery. I hope they go back to the Marlboro ones, just that Vodafone takes over the place of Marlboro. I really liked the old Toro Rosso livery with the big bull on it, so here's hoping it returns. Renault better stick with their current one, I can't think of anything else being better! Mercedes really should have more silver on it, and the Petronas cyan (or whatever colour it is) looks horrid. Hopefully Virgin will remain the same.

Shizuka · Post by **Shizuka** » 03 Dec 2010, 16:54

I think Mercedes and Williams will keep their liveries, and Sauber will add some colours onto their current livery.

Aerond · Post by **Aerond** » 03 Dec 2010, 19:54

HRT can improve A LOT as well.

JohnMLTX · Post by **JohnMLTX** » 03 Dec 2010, 23:00

This goes without saying, but I'm predicting fairly conservative changes to the red bull and italian red bull liveries.

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 04 Dec 2010, 01:29

Hopefully Merc and McLaren will change up their HORRID liveries of theirs. And orange shirts? No thanks.

F1000X · Post by **F1000X** » 04 Dec 2010, 01:57

JeremyMcClean wrote:Hopefully Merc and McLaren will change up their HORRID liveries of theirs. And orange shirts? No thanks.

Dude, know your history. Orange IS Mclaren's colors. That dates back to when Bruce was alive and running in Can-Am. In fact a couple years back, McLaren ran their cars in Orange colors for winter testing, and it was sick.

Peter · Post by **Peter** » 04 Dec 2010, 05:17

Found them:

Look appalling to me. Keep the silver and red.

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 04 Dec 2010, 06:25

The orange would work for me if it was a darker shade and more black was put into it. That just looks like a poor man's Ferrari :lol:

the Masked Lapwing · Post by **the Masked Lapwing** » 04 Dec 2010, 06:32

Peter wrote:

I immediately went "Formula GT" when I saw that...

F1000X · Post by **F1000X** » 04 Dec 2010, 17:35

I actually wish they had went more dayglo Orange.

patrick · Post by **patrick** » 04 Dec 2010, 18:00

I'm not really a fan of McLaren's orange. This is how it's done to be honest

That said, I hope McLaren change their livery. Some people have suggested they might bring in some white, like the garages.
Williams may incorporate some red due to maldonado's PDVSA sponsorship, unless maybe they have a new title sponsor lined up. Likewise sauber will probably have some light blue/white/black going on from perez' telmex sponsorship.

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 04 Dec 2010, 18:06

F1000X wrote:
JeremyMcClean wrote:Hopefully Merc and McLaren will change up their HORRID liveries of theirs. And orange shirts? No thanks.
Dude, know your history. Orange IS Mclaren's colors. That dates back to when Bruce was alive and running in Can-Am. In fact a couple years back, McLaren ran their cars in Orange colors for winter testing, and it was sick.

I actually kind of like the McLaren livery, but I wish they would incorporate the red/orange of Vodafone a bit more.

The Mercedes livery from this year was horrendous. Teal and silver can work together, but they did it wrong. Two cars in my YouTube show have those as the primary colors and I think they work (it helps when The Onion sponsors one of those cars...).

I hope Renault's Killer Bee livery stays, I love it.
I also hope HRT gets rid of the old Ryan Hunter-Reay William Rast livery, that looked bad. Aren't Spain's racing colors red and yellow anyway? Just steal Helio Castroneves's new Shell V-power livery if you're going to steal an IndyCar livery! Or better yet, steal Danica Patrick's GoDaddy colors from this year, nothing stands out more than eye piercing lime green on black with orange highlights!!

Faustus · Post by **Faustus** » 04 Dec 2010, 19:05

patrick wrote:I'm not really a fan of McLaren's orange. This is how it's done to be honest

That said, I hope McLaren change their livery. Some people have suggested they might bring in some white, like the garages.
Williams may incorporate some red due to maldonado's PDVSA sponsorship, unless maybe they have a new title sponsor lined up. Likewise sauber will probably have some light blue/white/black going on from perez' telmex sponsorship.

Ah, my beloved car, how I miss you... I still have the front wing endplates and a few other bits and pieces, but how I wish I still had the rest of the car...

I think you're right, Sauber will probably end up with quite a bit of light blue to reflect Telmex sponsorship.
I hope Renault/Lotus/whatever-the-hell-they're-going-to-be don't go black. Black cars look cool, but they look terrible on television and they're a bitch to incorporate multiple sponsors.

JohnMLTX · Post by **JohnMLTX** » 06 Dec 2010, 18:34

i know this may just be a fantasy livery on an old cart chassis, but still, those colors on next year's sauber?

YES!

ADx_Wales · Post by **ADx_Wales** » 06 Dec 2010, 18:40

Its the RENAULT-Lotuses that will be Black and Gold a-la Lotus Renault of 1983-86.

Team Air Asia/1/Malaysia/Tune Group/ Racing.....White and Red probably.

Sauber? Burger King and Telmex? A sickoning array of White, Yellow, Red, Blue and Light Blue?

Hispania, More Red and Yellow please!

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 06 Dec 2010, 20:18

ADx_Wales wrote:Team Air Asia/1/Malaysia/Tune Group/ Racing.....White and Red probably.

Reminiscant of the Gold Leaf Lotuses? All they need to do is sign up Josh Hill, grandson of Graham Hill, and it would be perfect. As would Senna as teammate to Kubica! Hill and Senna in Lotuses again!

Post by **mario** » 06 Dec 2010, 20:22

ADx_Wales wrote:Its the RENAULT-Lotuses that will be Black and Gold a-la Lotus Renault of 1983-86.

Team Air Asia/1/Malaysia/Tune Group/ Racing.....White and Red probably.

Sauber? Burger King and Telmex? A sickoning array of White, Yellow, Red, Blue and Light Blue?

Hispania, More Red and Yellow please!

Actually, you've got it the wrong way around - Team Lotus (which is the name that Fernandes has lodged with the FIA, and has been accepted) have confirmed that they will use the black and gold livery associated with the JPS Lotus racing cars of the late 70's and early 1980's. http://www.f1technical.net/news/15697

Incidentally, even if Proton do purchase a major share in the current Renault team (as that deal is by no means assured), Joe Saward points out that they might not be able to change the name to include Group Lotus, even if they wanted to. Because the team is committed to the 2011 season, in the existing contracts they are listed as Renault F1, and they have already submitted their application to the FIA under that name.
If they wanted to change their name before the start of the season, they will now require the permission of all of the other teams - and there is fat chance that Fernandes would agree to letting Proton use the Lotus name in conjunction with F1. Alternatively, if Proton was desperate to rename the team, they could do so at the cost of losing all of the TV revenue associated with the Renault F1 name - but that would cost them about $50 million in lost revenue, and you'd have to be pretty desperate or foolhardy to throw away that sort of money. http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2010/12/ ... situation/
So, at the moment, I strongly suspect that Renault F1 will be turning up with a similar black and yellow paint scheme next year, which is no bad thing - it was one of the better liveries that Renault have had in recent years.

As for the Sauber livery, you can take Burger King off the list - that the sponsorship deal was just for the Spanish and European GP's, in conjunction with Burger King's Spanish retail division. You're more likely to see white, light blue (for Telmex) and black (they dropped the use of a darker blue after BMW pulled out), so you could easily end up with something like the livery shown above (which, by the way, I think looks fairly good).

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 07 Dec 2010, 16:16

dr-baker wrote:Reminiscant of the Gold Leaf Lotuses? All they need to do is sign up Josh Hill, grandson of Graham Hill, and it would be perfect. As would Senna as teammate to Kubica! Hill and Senna in Lotuses again!

Hill and Senna in Lotuses as teammates!

...

Driving for Tony Fernandes!

JohnMLTX · Post by **JohnMLTX** » 07 Dec 2010, 18:28

what about helio castroneves' indycar livery on next year's hispania?

that is, if any of them can convince shell and pennzoil to sponsor them.

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 08 Dec 2010, 21:37

JohnMLTX wrote:

i know this may just be a fantasy livery on an old cart chassis, but still, those colors on next year's sauber?

YES!

How did you do that? Please explain...

Also, look at this. The red ruins the livery!

patrick · Post by **patrick** » 08 Dec 2010, 23:54

Enough liveries! How about some snaps of an actual 2011 car?

Well, it's nothing special but it is supposedly the mp4-26a with our jense getting his seat fitted.
from @TheFifthDriver and "View from the Factory"

The mp4-26 has also possibly been caught on camera before - but there is not much to see and it is just another tub.
(click the link if you want to see pics of the ueno clinic '95 le mans winning Mclaren f1though 8-)

!)

So, anyone got any sneaks of the other teams' cars?

Phoenix · Post by **Phoenix** » 08 Dec 2010, 23:59

Not a lot of the car can be seen, I fear

patrick · Post by **patrick** » 09 Dec 2010, 00:04

Phoenix wrote:Not a lot of the car can be seen, I fear

I'd like to think the second picture of jenson shows the car is slightly slimmer but I doubt there will be many similarities between the tub they use in that picture and the finished product. It is enough to satisfy my lust for now, however.

Post by **mario** » 09 Dec 2010, 00:29

patrick wrote:
Phoenix wrote:Not a lot of the car can be seen, I fear

I'd like to think the second picture of jenson shows the car is slightly slimmer but I doubt there will be many similarities between the tub they use in that picture and the finished product. It is enough to satisfy my lust for now, however.

It might tie in with rumours that the front of the car may look a bit like the TF110, at least in terms of design philosophy if not necessarily in execution.
To be honest, the pictures of Jenson in the tub aren't giving us that much detail - at this stage of development, the chassis is probably going to be a fairly crude affair (relatively speaking). It might even just be a dummy chassis, mocked up so Button and Hamilton can give their feedback in terms of driver ergonomics. Also, at the moment what we are seeing are the parts that are mostly standardised (the removable bodywork around the cockpit, and the padding to protect the head area) - the more interesting bits, relating to the upper crash structure and air intake, are notably absent.

What is more interesting, though, is the last shot, showing the team working away on a tub. Given that it is slightly blurry, and the angle from which it was taken, it is hard to make out the full details, but it does look like it could possibly be a very early iteration of the MP4-26. Perhaps, and this is just a hypothesis, this is an early version being prepared for crash testing, so Mclaren can assure themselves that they are heading in the right direction.
It would make sense if that was the case - we know that Sauber are going to launch their car towards the end of January, so the teams will be working on getting at least one chassis, and preferably two, ready for late January to early February, when the testing season kicks in. So, if they had a chassis ready now, and crash tested it in the next week or so, that would give them enough time to have another ready and built up for the presentation and testing sessions.

JohnMLTX · Post by **JohnMLTX** » 09 Dec 2010, 03:09

JeremyMcClean wrote:
JohnMLTX wrote:

i know this may just be a fantasy livery on an old cart chassis, but still, those colors on next year's sauber?

YES!

How did you do that? Please explain...

Also, look at this. The red ruins the livery!

1. It's photoshoppery for RFactor. I didn't make it, This guydid.
2. That red is TOTAL bullshit. along with proton/group lotus/ whatever the bathplug they are's whole shenanicrap with this other lotus-renault team.

Waris · Post by **Waris** » 09 Dec 2010, 06:14

JohnMLTX wrote:

i know this may just be a fantasy livery on an old cart chassis, but still, those colors on next year's sauber?

YES!

How many shades of blue are on that car? o.o

JohnMLTX · Post by **JohnMLTX** » 09 Dec 2010, 06:16

Waris wrote:
JohnMLTX wrote:

i know this may just be a fantasy livery on an old cart chassis, but still, those colors on next year's sauber?

YES!

How many shades of blue are on that car? o.o

Not enough.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 17 Dec 2010, 12:27

Toro Rosso have now announced their launch date as 1st February.

So for now, we currently have:

Sauber 31st January
STR 1st February

Peter · Post by **Peter** » 17 Dec 2010, 14:46

First time in a while Ferrari hasn't been the first to launch their car. Guess they're busy working on something to kick Red Bull and Newey's ass, and stay ahead of McLaren.

Henrique · Post by **Henrique** » 17 Dec 2010, 15:03

Hmm. I was hoping STR would get bought before 2011 or something. I don't know what they're doing in F1.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 17 Dec 2010, 15:05

Peter wrote:First time in a while Ferrari hasn't been the first to launch their car. Guess they're busy working on something to kick Red Bull and Newey's ass, and stay ahead of McLaren.

Nobody's launched their car yet. Ferrari may yet be the first, by going for 30th January. Maybe. So far we have just had just two teams announce when their launch WILL BE.

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 17 Dec 2010, 21:29

Well Luca di Montezemolo has said that Ferrari's 2011 car will launch between January 25th and January 31st.

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 17 Dec 2010, 22:14

So far we have:

Ferrari Jan 25-31
Sauber Jan 31
Virgin Late January*
Toro Rosso Feb 1

I would guess Ferrari's launch date would be close to Sauber's.

EDIT: Thanks to CaptainHammer for Virgin.

Captain Hammer · Post by **Captain Hammer** » 18 Dec 2010, 06:29

We also know Marussia/Virgin will launch in Moscow some time in late January.