It's Friday and at long last the 2010 Season is underway. In just a few short hours we will be up again, ready to watch Free Practice 1 and from then on, it's all about the racing. Well, hopefully. There's lots of good stuff and many threads to come today, so keep your eyes peeled so you don't miss a thing.
Jake has written another great blog post, this time talking about time spent with some of the drivers ahead of the weekend's action. I particularly find the Schumacher/Rosberg stuff fascinating because we've seen visual evidence of their distaste for each other now, and... it's scary stuff!
It's the last day to change your Fantasy Racers teams and whilst there will be a reminder post along later, I thought it was worth mentioning now. Particularly as I want to give a shout out for Pat's fabulous post about the different prediction and fantasy F1 games that are available at the moment. I had no idea there were so many!
All that stuff about McLaren's rear wing is coming to a head now the teams have gathered together, and there is plenty of discussion about the silver car's extra hole. Scarbs has the detail (for Mr C), whilst Autosport put it into English (for me). Ahh, controversy. Is it November yet?
In self-promotion news, Mr C wrote a great introduction to the Force India podcast which makes a triumphant return for 2010. More audio from teams is greatly appreciated. The man also posted a breakout regarding Renault's new sponsor, and he actually managed to create a picture with no red in it. Woohoo!
That'll do it for now. I know you're excited already, so instead, why not tell me how and where you are watching Free Practice, if you are. I'll see you in the comments.
In this second preview edition of F1 Digest we take a look through the entry list, focusing on the teams and their new cars. How have they performed in testing? What features are on the new machines? Who has a strong lineup? All that and more will get you ready for the season to come.
The Teams
From the non-existant teams such as US F1 and Campos to those who are determined to challenge for another championship - Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes. In some teams, the drivers overshadow the cars, but we spend plenty of time discussing front wings, sidepods and shark fin engine covers.
There are new liveries to discuss, and how the teams managed their launches, plus the relationship between teammates - those who have new faces to get to know, and those who are continuing with their fellow driver from 2009.
We also take a quick look at the battle between Virgin Racing and Lotus, from testing, reliability issues, air stewardess outfits and launches. Everything is going to be different this year, and it's going to be great.
Hi there. I'm a bit late writing today's daily post as I spent all of last night fixing my mother-in-law's power shower. It was in turns fun and a bit stressful, and I ended up quite damp, but the astonishing discovery is that I really quite like doing DIY. However, it is time to concentrate on Formula 1 related stuff, and here is some:
There's been a bit of a shuffle around at Campos as Colin Kolles - formerly of Force India - has become team principal, alongside new investor José Ramón Carabante. We have a breakout thread on the topic, and it's fair to say the news hasn't come as an enormous surprise, but it's good to see the team have some investment, and they may gain some momentum as we get closer to the season.
Webber was on top for the third day in Jerez this week, after finally a day with plenty of dry running. I haven't managed to do F1 Minute yet (see shower related issues above), but the sixty second catchup will be along as soon as possible. For the second day in a row there were four red flags, one of which was caused by the pace sitter Webber. Oops. Most of the attention was on Lotus vs Virgin Racing again, though, and it looks like Lotus are winning the pre-season battle.
Finally, and actually this is not F1 related, but Lady Snowcat has written us an excellent guest post reliving her recent trip to Sweden to watch Kimi rallying. The post includes some excellent descriptions of what it was like to be a spectator at the event, and I feel cold just reading about it!
That's all for now. Let us know what you're up to this weekend, and I will see you in the comments.
Coming up this week we discuss moonlighting, licensing issues, ideal tracks, self sponsorship, Virgin’s woes, and F1 fiction.
Intro
It's Valentine's Day and what are we doing? Making a podcast, obviously!
Good Week / Bad Week
A good week for Stefan GP because they still have the belief they will get onto the grid at some point in the first four races. Also a good week for Ron Dennis who was inducted into the Motorsport Magazine Hall of Fame. A bad week for Heikki Kovalainen who had to take a second job for Finnish TV during the Lotus launch, and for team bosses as Bernie Ecclestone would like to license them.
News and Views
Before we talk about the launches, there's a quick update on Silverstone who confirmed they would be running the new MotoGP layout for the race. Damon Hill is not impressed.
Three teams unveiled their new cars this week, with Force India the first to do so. Their online launch was barely a launch with just a few photos making an appearance. The car and livery look exactly the same as last year. Red Bull also have a similar car to last year, and also to Toro Rosso, but you can tell the (magic) hand of Adrian Newey has been on the case. Their launch was marginally better, as the car was at Jerez already.
Finally, Lotus showed them all how it was done with a real life London launch, and the green/yellow livery caused no end of debate. They also have a podcast starring none other than Ted Kravitz (and some Lotus people...).
Here's the updated table of our launch scores:
Team Launch
Christine's Score
Mr C's Score
Mercedes
3
4
Ferrari
6
4
Williams
0
6
McLaren
8
6
Sauber
2
4
Renault
2
4
Toro Rosso
1
3
Virgin Racing
-5
0
Force India
2
2
Red Bull
3
4
Lotus
5
6
We move on to testing talk, but really it was not as exciting as last week due to the weather. Virgin Racing had a terrible time, Michael Schumacher prefers to eat at Ferrari, and they like to run out of fuel on purpose.
Feedback
I'm keen on starting a Mailbag show, but for now, two voicemails kick off the Feedback section. RG is not at all impressed with this year's liveries, whilst Adie had a minor breakdown when the doohickey malfunctioned.
Luis tells us how Formula 1 is in Portugal, Myles credits Ted, Sandy confirms he will photograph the marmots for me, Alberto talks F1 and music, and Steve points out McLaren's latest initiative for bloggers and fans. Also, happy birthday to Zoe.
Housekeeping
The wiki is in a state of disrepair at the moment but I'm working on it. Also I have started writing some fiction, in which you can vote on the outcome.
Outtakes
Not really an outtake, but something you wouldn't expect Mr C to say:
Whilst Mr C and I have settled for discussing the launches briefly in the podcast, and scoring them out of 10, new guest writer KerbRider has taken a more detailed look at the teams we've seen so far.
2010 has promised to be a great year for F1 since Sebby V took the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi. The off season has now ensured this will be the case.
A lot of people have gotten excited over the game of musical chairs the drivers like to play every few years. Some even more so because a certain driver, I like to call Voldemort, decided he wanted to play again.
Although all these changes have been great to see, and have whet my appetite for what is promising to be a great season, the real excitement for me is launch season.
I love the smell of Duco in the morning!
The reason I love launch season is because I'm a 'details' man. I will study photos of the new cars for hours on end to see their subtleties and nuances, and speculate as to why they did this, or that, and then formulate how I think a particular design philosophy might work.
Different strokes for different folk I guess.
I'll start with the fundamentals of design philosophy, and I'll thank Mr Codling for his insightful article in this months F1 Racing. Cant wait to get the book.
The way I see it, the fundamental concept of designing a quick car is to have the air under the car moving a lot quicker than the air on top. This is basic aeronautics. What an F1 designer must try to achieve is to have four separate airflows to make a car work effectively. Underneath, above, and the two sides of the car.
The idea is to keep these "chunks" of air as independent of each other as possible. So in other words, we don’t want air flowing from the side of the car bleeding into the air flowing over or under the car. As there are four big black squares on a car, the philosophy is to minimise this "bleeding" as much as possible.
It all about compromise.
So on to the cars that have been launched to date.
Ferrari
Ferrari seem to have a simple and sleek design. Quite an attractive car I think, and it hurts me to say that. Love the lighter red colour, and the white wings are bearable for sponsorship purposes. Not a bad deal for Ferrari to get Alonso basically for free, when Santander are obviously footing the bill for him. So can we now class Fernando as a pay driver!
Average height for the nose. Not as high as others and about even with Mercedes. The all important front wing is clearly not as detailed as Mclaren, Red Bull and Sauber, but maybe it doesn’t need to be because the rest of the car deflects the air where needed. Fat, and weighty sidepods are well streamlined, and have the bulk purely for side impact crash testing. A feature most cars have this season.
Where I think Ferrari have excelled is the rear end. Although they haven't chosen to go the "sharkfin" path, there is so much free space at the back for clear airflow over the rear wing. Of course the "sharkfin" is subject to crosswind buffeting that can affect pitch and yaw mid-corner, and more importantly, under braking. What might let them down is the lack of cover over the rear suspension. This may cause turbulent air affecting the air that exits above the diffuser.
McLaren
For one, I am glad McLaren kept their silver and red livery. Its effective, sexy, and unique. Even if the Mercedes has tried to replicate without copying.
McLaren have boldly copied the splitter/divider underneath the nose that Williams had last year but strangely decided to opt against this year.
If we look at a front on view on the MP4-25, it is clear that this device will divide the air to flow more cleanly through the suspension arms and steering column, and swiftly into the sidepods. It will have the effect of forcing more air faster into the sidepods, which explains in a fashion as to why they are so small compared to other teams.
"The front wing is, in layman's terms, off its face!"
The front wing is, in layman's terms, off its face! Incredibly detailed, and obviously Mclarens' philosophy this year was to not be caught out by last year's mistakes. They learned a lot last year as a design team. Although they seemingly have "borrowed" ideas from RBR and Brawn, they have made them uniquely Mclaren. The Sharkfin is high, and long, and a bit fatter at the bottom. This is to accommodate the exhaust exits that, again unique to Mclaren, exit horizontally, rather than vertically like the rest of the grid. It will be interesting to see what benefit this has. The MP4-25 is vastly different in appearance to anything else this year which means that this year Mclaren will go either one of two ways - that is poor, or win the lot.
Mercedes
My overall view is that I'm largely unimpressed by Mercedes. I was expecting big changes in this year's car. The Mercedes livery is average, and hopefully will be updated next year.
They have gone with a higher nose than the Brawn, and the design remains largely unchanged. Of course as Ross alluded to last year, the nose has the air channelling veins. This seems to be a large talking point, although I think its effectiveness is overrated. I can only assume the concept was born out of a need to direct airflow away from the drivers helmet, which is a rather large obstacle.
The most noticeable change is the air box. Low and broad with a splitter. There is a semi-sharkfin, and I expected tighter packaging at the rear considering they have had a year with the engine and drive train. All this being said, I still believe they will be a top four team.
Sauber
This one gets me excited. BMW obviously did a lot of work before the withdrawal. A great looking front wing that should be successful in diverting airflow around the front wheels and into the rear sculpted body work. A high nose to increase the amount of air flowing underneath the car, and unique sidepods that have the idea of moulding airflow back inward toward the rear wing.
A large and bulky sharkfin as per Mclaren, but inspiringly sculpted sidepods and tight rear packaging. All in the name of rear stability and front end grip. I believe the Sauber should have great traction with the low sitting rear, and as F1 is mainly made up of slow to medium speed corners, this will be a great advantage over the course of 19 races. I think they will be the surprise of the year. Kubica left too early. Which leads me to...
Renault
U-G-L-Y they aint got no alibi, its ugly!! For a team that pulled out as late as they did officially, I think they must have pulled out mentally beforehand as this year's car will be the joke of 2010. My heart sinks for Kubica, it really does. Ugly cars rarely do well in F1, and I don’t think this year will be any exception.
Of course I'm saying this under the impression that this is the car that will actually race.
It looks quite uninspiring, and a bit too bulky at the sides. Like a driver, the car needs to be fit, and trim the fat. It looks shorter than the rest, as does the RBR at first glance. Go Renault engine efficiency!!
"I expect design changes early on in the year"
The rear wing is left of field, and might suit their own philosophy, but I expect design changes early on in the year, if not before Bahrain. The front wing endplates are also a tad bland, and are the least detailed of the already established teams.
Let's not expect much unfortunately.
Williams
I always hold high hopes for Williams. Shouldn't everyone? Real racers, battlers and sadly of late, the perennial underachievers. This all stems from their brief encounter with a walrus, and they have never recovered fully from that.
I'm a bit befuddled as to why they went with a clean sheet, as last year's car was quite decent, and an evolution of that may have pushed them up the grid. I hope it works for them, but as strange as it sounds, the car seem too clean to be a top performer.
It seems as of late, to find real performance and aero gains, a car needs to look messy. But I guess the 2009 Brawn put that to rest too. Nose is high, which in the past meant high centre of gravity, but with the double diffuser malarkey, this is necessary to maximise air flow underneath the car. I suspect that with this year's cars most performance will be found from the floor, and suspension geometry.
Interesting to note the Williams front wing sits backward from the mounting pillars, whereas the other teams have their mounting pillars attached closer to the front of the front wing main plane. There are some interesting components on the end fences that look successful in dispersing airflow around the tyres.
Toro Rosso
Nothing to see here folks! Keep moving. Seriously, not much change from last years RBR. Not expecting great feats from the driver pairing, although Buemi has some potential. I expect them to be toughing it out with Williams and or Renault at best, Virgin and Lotus at worst.
Virgin Racing
There will be some bad headlines printed about this team this year. My impressions of the car are that it might surprise. Well packaged at the rear, and sidepods of a Mclaren nature. The real sticking point will be suspension geometry and heating the tyres in unison. The front wing looks large, and dual channel end plates look as though they will get the desired result there. Except for one fine point. Sure the CFD would have calculated big downforce levels, but as our friend Mr Saward mentioned in a podcast last year, how will it go in turbulent air? There are no intricate details that suggest it will cope well in traffic, and there is a massive space behind the front wing that has no details to direct air straight toward the floor splitter and onward and downward toward the diffuser.
The car itself looks fantastic. I love the livery, the addition of the Yorkshire rose is just brilliant. I'm Australian, and it means nothing to me, but it’s a beautiful design. For me it harks back to the first Jordan in '91. Clean and unpretentious (even though it is a Branson baby). I think they will score points for sure, but not more than 10 unless they get lucky in the wet.
Red Bull
The one we were all waiting for. The thread for the launch was full of negative comments which surprised me. Sure it looks like last year's car, but they were the quickest last year, so the only thing they had to concentrate on was the rear end because they missed the double diffuser boat. Additionally if RBR can get Total to incorporate into blue, why did Renault insist on that hideous red?
"The rear end is even more tightly packaged than last year"
Firstly the front wing. Equal in development man hours of the Mclaren I would imagine, and running in turbulence was an issue for them last year until they introduced the stepped top wing. The nose is almost round once we get past the yellow tip, and the airflow channels on top are more pronounced and sharper at the front than other teams who have copied the idea. The rear end is even more tightly packaged than last year and it looks low thanks to the pull rod suspension geometry. This will assist with traction out of the slower corners, as last year, the RBR was an oversteer car compared to the understeering Brawn.
The sharkfin has now been filled in underneath the rear wing, and comprises the rear wing support post. It should be quick, but will it be the quickest?
Force India
With the Mclaren association, I am expecting big things from this team this year. The front wing is nicely detailed and there is plenty of space under the high nose to get lots of under the car and into that diffuser. High chunky sidepods like the Ferrari, and the rear packaging looks too high. First impressions are that it has a higher centre of gravity than the others as the exhaust exits sit high in the bodywork.
No change in livery, which is fine by me. Its effective, if not attractive. I'm also expecting over the course of the season for Liuzzi to beat Sutil resoundingly.
It really is all up in the air this year, and anyone who thinks they know who will win at this stage is kidding themselves. There will be some good guesses only in prediction land, and I for one am predicting a Lewis WDC and a Red Bull WCC.
The second round of 2010 F1 testing gets underway today, this time at the Circuito de Jerez located in the city of Jerez de la Frontera, Spain. Red Bull will likely be the star attraction, unveiling their RB6 chassis to the media for the first time, before action gets underway.
Update: The Williams team today launched an official live timing page for up to the minute test information. This includes driver position, gap, best time, most recent time for both the Williams car and for the rest of the field. See the team's website for more detail.
Credit: f1photos.org (creative commons)
Jenson gets a soaking.
Virgin Racing will be the first "new team" to turn a wheel at a test, when Timo Glock sizes the VR-01 up against the competition. Force India will also be on track, running the VJM03 that was revealed to the world, yesterday.
Tyres will be of specific interest to teams and drivers as the aggressive layout of this circuit will stress rear tyres to a greater extent than last week. Additionally the weather will like play a key part as rain is expected to fall in the region at some point before the end of the test.
On track action begins at 9am CET (8am GMT).
Credit: f1photos.org (creative commons)
Alonso finds little grip in Jerez
Circuit Information
Track length: 4.428km
Corners: 13
Lap record: 1:23.135 (Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Williams, 1997)
Circuito de Jerez is located to the South of Spain, close to border of Portugal.
Drivers and Teams Attending
The following teams and drivers are confirmed for testing on Wednesday
Twitter has become the medium for accessing up to the minute testing insight. We recommend keeping an eye on James Allen's Twitter service, as well as the following accounts.
Testing begins in earnest today, with all the teams we've seen already in action returning, and hopefully some new ones! We had so much information coming out of the last test that we know as much as it is possible to know, with the usual caveat of fuel loads applying. More of the same today, please!
Talking of new things, Red Bull are due to launch today. We're expecting big things from Adrian Newey, but I have a sneaky feeling that it's going to be very similar to last year's car, just like the Force India did yesterday.
King of the Twitpic during the last test was Craig Scarborough, as we discussed in this week's F1 Debrief. Now, Scarbs F1 has set up his own blog, and you need to head on over and subscribe right now. It all goes over my head, obviously, but I recommend it to all!
I mentioned in yesterday's F1 Minute that Jean Todt has been talking about all things F1, and whilst he drew short of making any plans, he had some interesting things to say. He's disappointed KERS was scrapped, is in favour of cost cutting but not budget caps, and won't stay forever like a certain Mr Mosley tried to.
That should do for now. We'll have threads for testing and the launch today, so I will see you in the comments.
The Force India F1 Team officially unveiled their 2010 challenger during an online-only launch on Tuesday. The team's website carried details of the new car which takes many design cues from last year's chassis.
Credit: Force India
The VJM03 debuted with minor revisions to the livery and a different nose, but what is hiding at the rear?
The rear of the car though, is of key importance to the team. Design director Mark Smith noted that the car was very much an evolution of last years chassis, but also that "the double diffuser is a key development aspect of the car", and the team had gone into the 2010 season much wiser as a result of lessons learned in 2009. Smith also pointed out changes to refuelling regulations heavily impacted the design of the car.
"The removal of refuelling from races increases the amount of fuel needed to be stored in the cars – almost twice the amount we ran in 2009. There is a compromise now: either make the car much longer or wider, or, as we have done, a combination of both. This of course has influenced the mechanical design solutions and also the aerodynamics, specifically with respects to the diffuser and bodywork."
Last year the car handled well on the low downforce tracks, but struggled elsewhere. The VJM03 has been designed to be an efficient car under all conditions.
Credit: Force India
Staring down the nose of the VJM03. It would appear a lot of work has gone into the front wing detailing.
Like all drivers, Adrian Sutil is looking forward to competing this season, and he sounds very pleased with how things within the team have been progressing.
"It's the first time we have been completely on schedule so I feel this will be the first season when I can show from the beginning to the end what is possible with the car and what I can do. Of course we will have updates and performance packages from this point on but I hope we will be strong from the first practice session rather than compromising at the start."
Others might argue the team are still effectively behind those who ran at the first test of the year.
Credit: Force India
A look at the 2010 Force India chassis and livery from the side.
Finally, Tonio Liuzzi remains realistic, as this will be the first time he starts a full season with the team.
"My objective is to be as strong and consistent as possible and give good feedback to the team to help them improve. For sure scoring points as many times as I can is going to be the key and you never know, perhaps we can get something more as well if everything comes together."
In addition to providing static images, the official Force India YouTube channel uploaded the following video to accompany the launch of the car. Sutil, Liuzzi and recently confirmed Friday test driver Paul di Resta all feature.
The car will begin its first track test on Wednesday, at the second official F1 test of the year. Tonio will handle driver duties for the first two days before handling over to Sutil for days three and four. Paul di Resta won't take to the cockpit until 17 February.
Tuesday is here and with it brings our first action of the week, in the shape of a Force India launch. The team are going online with their new car, so let's hope they are more successful than Virgin were. Keep an eye out for the breakout thread ahead of the action at 9am. Meanwhile, here are some of the things we're talking about:
F1 Debrief is up and ready for everyone to listen to, and I would warn you of two things. Firstly, there is quite a lot of Twitter talk, and whilst we both find the service leaves a bad taste in our mouths, it is revolutionising F1 coverage all the time. Secondly, I try and be down with the kids a couple of times and it's quite embarrassing. Enjoy!
Adam Cooper has been delving into the history books to find out some of the stories of other new teams, in this case Mastercard Lola. It's fair to say that fiasco is an understatement, but it makes fascinating reading, and like the comments say, let's hope for more history from Mr Cooper.
I may have started another blog yesterday, and whilst that may not make a change, the content is certainly a bit different to our normal offerings. After thinking about it a lot, I started writing fiction again, and I've posted the beginnings of an F1 story that you get to control. Hopefully it is self-explanatory, but head on over to Ten Step Stories and cast your vote.
That should do it for now. Hopefully, you've had a good start to the week, let us know, and I'll see you in the comments.
Thankfully there were no announcements from Autosport International yesterday that made us scratch our heads. I mentioned in the comments that in prepping for the offline podcast this week, Mr C couldn't stop swearing when it came to talking about the rankings. Stay tuned for whether he manages to tone it down in the podcast or not! Meanwhile, here's what we're talking about:
Pat has done the sensible thing and moved his website over from Blogger to Wordpress, and with a new title as well: I Watch Too Much Racing. Make sure you bookmark his new home on the web. Likewise, my own personal blog has made the switch back to hosted Wordpress, but it shouldn't affect your rss feeds, if you subscribe. Yay for Wordpress! (You don't hear that often round these parts so make the most of it!)
It looks like Steven's wish could soon be granted and Paul di Resta will make the step up to Formula 1. At the moment, though, he's looking like filling the situation vacant as Force India's reserve driver, which doesn't really get a lot of miles under one's belt. Still, getting into the paddock is the first step, and di Resta is confident that's about to happen.
A new blog has been brought to our attention in the best way possible - Ken asked if he could use one of our Flickr pictures as his header. You certainly can, Ken. He also has an interesting idea to compare the qualifying results rather than races - well, qualifying is the best part of the weekend, so I can't blame him.
That should do it for now, hope your weekend is going smoothly, let us know either way and I will see you in the comments.
