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[bud]

This will basically be a McLaren B car!

[vlad]

Still waiting for Red Bull, to see a real car!
JK, new McLaren looks much nicer than the last year's one. Still, we need to see Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes, to see who wins the prettiest car challenge.

[andrew]

The Ferrari Escort.

The well known Italian prostitute.

[bigpat]

I like the look of the '27...

Looks very neat, tidy, and integrated. I think the overhead comparison of the previous 2 cars shows a clear refinement process. Last years sidepods may have looked dramatic, but the fundamentals looked to have evolved.

I'm glad the new nose rules haven't meant a necessity to build a ugly car.

The exhausts positioning is very interesting. Possibly trying to increase the mass flow of air around the coke bottle region, onto the lower rear wing / diffuser roof? I think this will be the initial talking point when comparing the 2012 cars.

Will be interesting to see who gets the car balance right in relation to the new tyres too....

[spankyham]

I like the look of the '27...

Looks very neat, tidy, and integrated. I think the overhead comparison of the previous 2 cars shows a clear refinement process. Last years sidepods may have looked dramatic, but the fundamentals looked to have evolved.

I'm glad the new nose rules haven't meant a necessity to build a ugly car.

The exhausts positioning is very interesting. Possibly trying to increase the mass flow of air around the coke bottle region, onto the lower rear wing / diffuser roof? I think this will be the initial talking point when comparing the 2012 cars.

Will be interesting to see who gets the car balance right in relation to the new tyres too....

I don't believe the exhaust they showed, it looked more like something bolted on to cover whats probably really there. It's not really possible to tell from the angle of the pictures I've seen, but, compared to the legal/allowable positions for the exhaust (has to be pointing upward) I think it would have to be suspect as to being legal.

It is definitely closer to the RB7 now - tighter rear, more traditional pods.

Things look very promising for McLaren, given this is an improvement on the 26 and engineering have said they believed the 26 was, in raw speed terms, faster than the RB7 it should be very positive for the McLaren fans.

[LewEngBridewell]

BEHOLD!!!! The new Ferrari F2012:

[bud]

Ferrari and Force India both launched today, both featuring the bump nose.
As I expected the winglets ahead of the radiators weren't true.


Beat me to it lew won't post the same pics lol

[Hammer278]

Butt ugly...but if any ugly thing can look fast, the Ferrari does!

[bud]

[racechick]

Its wierd, and kinda sad not seeing Sutil standing by that car.

[Denthúl]

Hmm, I wonder if anyone else will go with McLaren's approach. If not, I hope for their sake they're on to a winner.

The FI doesn't look too bad in all honesty. Yeah, it's out of place, but they appear to have made it look decent whereas on the Caterham and Ferrari it's nasty.

[scotty]

As I expected the winglets ahead of the radiators weren't true.

If you look closely you can sort of see them (very flat area whereas the main sidepod is more curved), but they are completely integrated rather seperate as the drawing suggested. Still, as a drawing from a verbal description that wasn't a bad effort...

as for the car itself, i heard the colour and camera angle makes that bump seem more ridiculous than it actually is but i'm yet to see a pic that supports that. The area i'm really interested in is the exhausts and that area, from some angles i think they are using a lot of brake duct furniture and blowing that to gain downforce, others looks like they are aiming down the side of the diffuser... hard to say exactly at the moment though.

Force India looks okay actually, save for the fake camera mounting position at the front, which is horrible. They seem to have taken the almost double floor concept similar to what STR ran last season (albeit to a lesser degree) to obviously try and feed the diffuser more air. I have a feeling Force India will have put more upgrades on their launch car than Ferrari or McLaren have though. Serious sidepod undercut and tiny radiator inlets though:



Seeing pics of Hulkenburg at the launch made me realise i'm very excited about seeing him on track again, and about this entire Force India lineup they have now.

If anyone has hi res closeups (suspension, sidepods and exhaust area especially) of either of today's cars please post em

[What's Burning?]

Interesting both Ferrari and McLaren seem to have given up on the wheel with the central flare. I wonder if it was hampering brake cooling so it wasn't worth whatever aero gains they were getting out of them. FI still has them though.

[scotty]

Excellent video about the McLaren, think it's UK only though. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/16864721

Interesting both Ferrari and McLaren seem to have given up on the wheel with the central flare.

You mean that thing on the wheels themselves yeah? Only just noticed that...

[What's Burning?]

Excellent video about the McLaren, think it's UK only though. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/16864721

Interesting both Ferrari and McLaren seem to have given up on the wheel with the central flare.

You mean that thing on the wheels themselves yeah? Only just noticed that...

Yeah, they don't usually hold their card to the vest on wheels, so it's very likely that's the wheel for the season.

EDIT: pulled from SCARBs site.

Although not present of the launch car, there will be a dish shaped fairing added to small pegs formed into the wheel to aid the airflow out of the wheel.