The F1 2015 thread…

It appears the present front wing designs take their inspiration from one of these:

OK, here’s my theory (aka wishful thinking).

They uploaded a vid to youtube yesterday with JB and FA doing a Back to the Future routine (with added cheese).

So here’s McL going back to the late 90s.

Next step will be the the full reveal, going back to the 80s and red/white colour scheme.

It would at least fit in with the rumours which suggested a black car (well almost) today followed by the proper launch later on.

Fingers crossed.

Ahhhh, Red Bull, the little team that could.
Or was that Jaguar?
Or Stewart?

Yes, the upstart team that is entering it’s 19th season of F1 … makes me laugh every time I hear that they went from nothing to winning the title in a few years.

That McLaren doesn’t have many sponsors does it. Although supposedly Ron refused to lower the cost of sponsorship, which I suspect is a killer for a mid-table team. If the Honda works out tho I would imagine people will flock to them

Interesting change in design philosophy for McLaren

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/117500

The arrival of chief engineer Peter Prodromou from Red Bull last year has served as a force for change on this front, and his views on taking a new approach have been embraced by McLaren.

The priority is no longer in pursuing theoretical peak downforce figures – it is about achieving maximum useable downforce.

In simple terms, being able to use 100 per cent of 700kg of downforce is better than only being able to use 80 per cent of 750kg.

That kind of fits in with what we’ve seen with McL for the last few years – a confidence that the car will be good followed by turning up at the track and it not being as good as they expect followed by headscratching and frustration as to why they’re slower than they expect. It’ll be really interesting to see how that pans out.

The priority is no longer in pursuing theoretical peak downforce figures – it is about achieving maximum useable downforce.

Blimey I’d have thought that was pretty obvious. Maybe the focus on peak theoretical downforce was a limitation of their modelling tools in some way?

Next step will be the the full reveal, going back to the 80s and red/white colour scheme.

Did you notice the date on that Californian licence plate?

I see it says ‘Aug’ but not quite sure what to infer from that…

New Mercedes testing at Silverstone…

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/01/29/mercedes-w06-revealed-testing-silverstone/

I see it says ‘Aug’ but not quite sure what to infer from that…

It says ‘Aug 86’
Perhaps a clue to the livery style for this year?

Looking sharp! I think the others need to worry…

The Mercedes looks sorted the McLaren is definitely a work in progress however it is verytightly packaged and a lot of the aero layout appears copied from RB.

In 1986 McLaren were using Porsche engines, so I doubt it.

What is it with all the silver/black/red or orange highlights (on a few of those cars)?

Please someone make a gold one, or lime green…

New Sauber – looks like they ran out of budget to pay a livery designer though!

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/01/30/sauber-c34-2015-f1-car-first-pictures-launch/comment-page-2/#comments

legend, Lewis may have a nerd look this year but it seems to work for him…

If Lewis and Nicole manage to stay together throughout this season Lewis will be unstoppable.

Ferrari looks nice – Vettel in red will take some getting used to though…

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/01/30/ferrari-sf-15t-2015-f1-car-first-pictures-launch/

New Alfa Romeo branding on side of engine cover – has that been seen on a Ferrari before?

The nose on that Ferrari looks really long…especially compared to the Merc.

Contrary to widespread expectation, the new Ferrari continues with the pull-rod front suspension of its predecessor – Mercedes and Red Bull use a push-rod system. Although the pull-rod variation offers aerodynamic benefits, its downside is a ‘sloppy’ front end – a trait that neither Sebastian Vettel nor Kimi Raikkonen like.

http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/24187/9683125/ferrari-launch-the-sf15-t

Maybe not quite as straightforward as suggested but that does seem to be the general consensus on pullrod front sus so it’s interesting that it wasn’t changed. Maybe not enough time to do so after Vettel signed.

New Alfa Romeo branding on side of engine cover – has that been seen on a Ferrari before?

PLEASE let us see a Ferrari powered team with Alfa logos on the cam covers…or better yet, an Alfa branded Ferrari B team.

New Alfa Romeo branding on side of engine cover – has that been seen on a Ferrari before?

Good spot! Big year for Alfa with (*another*) re-launch of the brand. FIAT calling in favours of Ferrari I reckon.

Alfa Romeo has had more relaunches than the space shuttle Discovery.

New Alfa Romeo branding on side of engine cover – has that been seen on a Ferrari before?

Might have been the other way around way back when, didn’t Enzo used to run Alfa’s GP team before he started his own?

I see it says ‘Aug’ but not quite sure what to infer from that…

It was the date on the number plate in Back to the Future. I think the whole campaign is just some fun with the idea it’s McLaren Honda again rather than some clever teaser

The Sauber looks like it will be rubbish, to say that nose looks sub optimal is an understatement. Ferrari is more of an evolution than I honestly expected and I find it interesting that both McLaren have gone for the very long flat nose designed to work with front wing to influence the Y250 vortex.

So testing starts tomorrow. Does anyone know of a way to watch it without Sky TV?

Wiziwig maybe. I have an android box that somehow manages to pick up free sports channels, which is handy. 😀

Looks like Wiziwig is no longer operating 🙁

Glad to see the Ann Summer toy noses have gone.

Enzo did race for Alfa before making his own race team and cars. He raced with the Scuderia shields on the wings.

Do hope McLaren and Honda do well. Just to stop Jenson from acting (don’t give up your day job)

But do think the Merc will be the ones to beat. There 2014 engine was 0.5 second per lap faster then the rest of the field in the last race. Think they will stick with that until everyone else catches up and then drop in the 2015 one

Think they will stick with that until everyone else catches up and then drop in the 2015 one

I don’t
I think they’ll make the others chase a running target, they’ve already proved they can develop it better so the others may well find Merc further away at the end of the season than they were at the beginning.

Vettel knocks Rosberg off top spot

Posted at 13:07
Sebastian Vettel goes quickest with a 1:22.999 in the Ferrari. Nico Rosberg is second, 0.1 seconds off the pace, with Valtteri Bottas’ Williams eight tenths further back.

That’s not like last year…

The Ferrari was quicker than the Merc in the first test last year

It’s all irellevent though, we’ll have little idea of respective race trim speed until the last test

That was an awfull lot of laps from Merc today – 157

Loving the Red Bull camoflage livery, it may work, sharp thinking again from someone

Is testing on the telly anywhere? Can’t find it on any of the listings.

Sky Sports F1 has a 15 min highlights followed by Ted’s Notebook at 9 each night

I think on subsequent nights they will show previous days too, so starting earlier each day to fit it in

Cheers! Repeated at 10.45 tonight

Was expecting/hoping/looking for more than 15 minutes.

Really good summary of how Ferrari and McLaren went wrong last year and what they’ve done to try to fix that for 2015

http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/22058/9695979/ferrari-and-mclarens-new-cars-go-in-search-of-downforce-after-2014-woes

Bad day for McLaren still having problems with sensors and electronic integration issues. However I still think the car will be very fast when they get it working.

This is the real downside of the testing restrictions. This sort of thing just needs a few days of being able to run with no pressure to sort out. Instead they’re limited to trying to do this while losing time to actually test the mechanics and set up of the car. Just like RB last year come to think of it.