The Formula 1 Blog

The wait is what’s killing us in winter, so Lotus F1 Team came to our aid with this great teaser for the 2012 Formula1 season challenger that will be named E20, here it is:

  This Wednesday we were able to see for the time some real images of the first car that was officially presented for the  2012 Formula1 Season, the Caterham CT01. And the car from the guys of Tony Fernandes has a feature that, in principle, we would see  on the cars of other teams on the grid as well: the nose in the shape of a duck beak.
  At first glance it is shocking, but the new regulation approved by the FIA Technical bind all the teams to lower the height of the nose of all cars. Although this is only the beginning, because the big teams on the grid and here we aim especially Ferrari and McLaren appears to have taken a very radical way in the design of their cars.
  During this season we have heard statements from the two teams that leave no doubt about that. "I see the Ferrari 2012 and I am amazed," said Stefano Domenicali Ferrari’s team principal, at Wrooom in Madonna di Campiglio. "It would be nice," said Luca di Montezemolo. While Jonathan Neale from McLaren, said: "We’ll risk it."
  After hundreds of rumors and sketches in recent weeks has been published in the Italian press, La Gazzetta dello Sport and mainly Autosprint (the picture from the head of the article), several sketches of what could be the car that the  Maranello team will present on February 3rd. Giorgio Piola specialized illustrator has made several drawings of how, according to their information, will look the new Ferrari, known as ‘Project 663′. Let’s take a look at what has been published so far and if is true or not will only know on next Friday.

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  Yesterday the new image of CT01 leaked to the media thanks to an mail error (or not) so now with the first winter test of the new Formula1 season just around the corner, teams have to make the presentation of the new cars with they intended to fight for the championship while trying the best position possible. The first team to present its new “weapon” has been Caterham.
  As said before Wednesday we could see the new car pictures all over the internet, but the 2012 challenger was officially presented this Thursday. The team’s technical director Mike Gascoyne has been in charge of explaining how all has been the done from design to development all in all the whole process. 
  "We focused a lot on developing the wind tunnel. With the new regulations, we have worked hard to get through the ‘crash test’ of the FIA ​​to reach the winter tests. We got it before Christmas and I think we were the first team to do, " said the Gascoyne.
  It seems that the design itself has evolved from a year ago: "The car’s design has been progressing since early 2011 and we know how to work hard and what to expect. We have a stable design team led by Mark Smith, which means we can go one step further in terms of design details. " Mike Gascoyne has no doubt that they will arrive on time at Jerez: "The car will be fully prepared for the test in Jerez. On the development of aerodynamics, we conducted a program in Italy and have made another in the wind tunnel owned by Williams, which has significantly increased our understanding of the car aerodynamics. All this makes us think that we will have a better and more competitive car. "
  Regarding the changes that are in the car, he added: "Last year we had to fight the blown diffuser, because we were all season trying to figure out how it works and why we were at a disadvantage but the aerodynamics is what’s always changing, so we have devoted much time understanding it."

Here is a short video of Kimi Raikkonen testing with he’s new team in Valencia on 23 – 24 January 2012

  The AP has leaked an interesting information about the ex Williams F1 driver Rubens Barrichelo, it seems that he will test for Rubens Barrichello will test for KV Racing an IZOD Indycar Series team next week at Sebring.

The ex F1 driver is scheduled to be at Sebring International Raceway for next Monday and Tuesday, an anonymous person  which is familiar with the future test leaked this information to Associated Press on Wednesday and is understood that the 2-day test session is exploratory for both Barrichello and the KV Racing team.

Barrichello has spent the last 19 seasons in Formula One, having the longest career in the sport and has failed unfortunately to win a World Title but he has covered more than 50,000 miles racing before he was replaced last week at Williams F1 by another Brazilian Bruno Senna and currently he has no other contract with other F1 for the 2012 season.

"I won’t be driving the Williams car this year," he posted last week on his Twitter page. "I wish my friend (Senna) all the best. The future is wide open."

He also added on the same page: "when I said that things were open is because I still have lot’s of speed on me,"  "just like an old friend said: racing is in my blood."

Barrichello won 11 races in F1 and he accumulated more than 68 podium finishes, but none in the 2011 season. The Brazilian managed to get a pair of 9th place finishes last season, and ended the year with 4 points but must be said that this was no fault of he’s own but to the fact that Williams F1 team has failed to produce a competitive racecar, in fact it was the worse year in history for the legendary team.

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  Caterham F1 unveils the new CT01 to the public 1 day ahead of the schedule. The team has revealed its car on the cover of the latest edition of F1 Racing magazine, subscribers of which received their copies today. But the team has now also released an image of the car through its official Caterham Twitter feed.

More images will be made available tomorrow on the official website of the team and also an interview with Mike Gascoyne about the creation of CT01.

Caterham’s CT01 will be powered by Renault engines, features a platypus-style nose with front suspension mounts that raise above the noseline. Features such as these may prove to be quite common this year due to the new regulations covering the nose area.

It also appears to be more aggressive aerodynamically than its predecessors, which were deliberately conservative, and features tightly-sculpted, low rear bodywork with slim and short sidepods to maximize the low drag effect in that area.

The CT01 is scheduled to make its track debut at Jerez next month when testing kicks off.

Info: autosport.com

  Yesterday, 24th January in Maranello, Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso made actual contact for the first time with the car they will drive in the 2012 World Championship. The two Scuderia Ferrari drivers were in Maranello to try out their seating position in the very first car to be assembled over the past few days at the Gestione Sportiva.
  It also provided the opportunity for the drivers to meet up with Stefano Domenicali and the engineers and to be brought up to speed with development of the car. Felipe and Fernando, along with Jules Bianchi and Davide Rigon, will spend the next few days at a training camp in the Canary Isles taking part in a programme aimed at putting the finishing touches to their physical training, prior to the start of the season. Their next public outing will be on 3 February at the Fiorano track, for the presentation of the new car to the media and the Scuderia’s partners.

Kimi Raikkonen, the Lotus F1 Team driver completed in the two days of private practice no less than 666 km, on the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia. He completed 80 laps on the first day of training and an additional 91 laps in the second day summing an impressive number of 171 laps which gave us a total of 666km, more than two grand prix distance.

The Lotus driver said after the two training days: “It went well today and overall the two days have been helped me a lot. Even though I was using a two year-old car and the Pirelli demonstration tires, I learnt about working with the team and the engineers which means I can focus on the new car once we get to Jerez for the first official test. It was great to be driving an F1 car again and from that respect I feel very positive.”

Also Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Engineer of Lotus added: “We enjoyed another good day with Kimi in Valencia. The morning was spent doing setup work in particular with front and rear cambers. In the afternoon we ran very low fuel qualifying simulations with two new sets of tires followed by a 27 lap run starting with a full tank of fuel. Kimi’s pace improved from yesterday as we would expect and we completed several start, pitstop and clutch simulations. We were even able to finish early as we completed our programme ahead of time. Overall it has been a productive and valuable two days.”

Here are some high-def pictures from the testing days, all images (C) Lotus F1:

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