The 2015 Launch Thread

Pointrox · Post by **Pointrox** » 26 Jan 2015, 14:21

Without further ado, Lotus presented their new car. And I have to say it looks pretty good!

Wallio · Post by **Wallio** » 26 Jan 2015, 14:26

Well at someone read the nose regs the way the FIA intended. I like it.

roblo97 · Post by **roblo97** » 26 Jan 2015, 14:51

I think that the Lotus looks really nice in the nosecone department and I hope they can give RRRRRMMMMNNN GGGRRRJJJNNN his first win this season.

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 26 Jan 2015, 14:51

Pointrox wrote:Without further ado, Lotus presented their new car. And I have to say it looks pretty good!

It looks good, IHMO. It's nose is a prettier interpretation from the rules and one I hope some others will also make.

Waris · Post by **Waris** » 26 Jan 2015, 15:32

This is supposed to be a Formula One car? It looks like a Formula Three car. I also think their livery is a bit shite. Less red = less money from PDVSA maybe?

AdrianBelmonte_ · Post by **AdrianBelmonte_** » 26 Jan 2015, 15:53

The upper air intake looks weird for me

Post by **mario** » 26 Jan 2015, 18:46

AdrianBelmonte_ wrote:The upper air intake looks weird for me

By the looks of things, that is because Lotus have integrated two secondary intakes (which I would hazard are possibly where they're housing the intakes for the oil cooling system) into the area beneath the main air intake, which is why the area beneath the air intake is a little 'swollen', as it were.

Dj_bereta · Post by **Dj_bereta** » 26 Jan 2015, 19:08

Clean and beautiful. I like it.

Post by **Ataxia** » 26 Jan 2015, 19:32

It's an absolute beauty. The airbox concept is a very interesting solution, and the nose reminds me of the McLaren MP4-19.

Spectoremg · Post by **Spectoremg** » 26 Jan 2015, 20:28

'Present' their new car. Does it look like a lot of CGI to anyone else?

CoopsII · Post by **CoopsII** » 26 Jan 2015, 22:37

Spectoremg wrote:'Present' their new car. Does it look like a lot of CGI to anyone else?

Does to me, the reflected light gives it away, but tis the way of things now. The days of booking the Science museum and the Spice Girls are long gone now. Maybe progress has it's plus points after all.

lgaquino · Post by **lgaquino** » 27 Jan 2015, 00:33

It's one thing not to have spice girls, or a huge launch event. It's really too much, imo.
But the press conference, with the drivers unveiling the car was perfectly nice! Doing that at the track, on the 1st day of tests, whilst not the same, is cool too. And it saves a bit of money

Now, merely releasing pictures (and now not even real pictures, just renders!!) it a bit too much on the cheap side. For all I know, the E23 might not even exist or look like that :lol:

...It does look good, however!

Captain Hammer · Post by **Captain Hammer** » 27 Jan 2015, 05:06

CoopsII wrote:The days of booking the Science museum and the Spice Girls are long gone now.

Not for Christian Horner!

CoopsII · Post by **CoopsII** » 27 Jan 2015, 07:43

Captain Hammer wrote:
CoopsII wrote:The days of booking the Science museum and the Spice Girls are long gone now.

Not for Christian Horner!

To the best of my knowledge he's only 'booked' one of the Spice Girls

Captain Hammer · Post by **Captain Hammer** » 27 Jan 2015, 07:55

One is enough.

Shizuka · Post by **Shizuka** » 27 Jan 2015, 08:30

Autosprint thinks this might be the new Ferrari. I doubt it.

Captain Hammer · Post by **Captain Hammer** » 27 Jan 2015, 09:12

Autosprint always think they have the new Ferrari.

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 27 Jan 2015, 10:25

Captain Hammer wrote:Autosprint always think they have the new Ferrari.

Yeah! This time though, it is me who first saw the new Ferrari... Although it may be an old Fiat Punto as I didn't had my contact lenses on.

Captain Hammer · Post by **Captain Hammer** » 27 Jan 2015, 11:22

Did it look like an elephant sat on it when nobody was watching?

If yes, it was probably the Ferrari.

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 27 Jan 2015, 11:44

Captain Hammer wrote:Did it look like an elephant sat on it when nobody was watching?

If yes, it was probably the Ferrari.

It is hard to fail to notice an elephant sitting on a F1 car. My take is that the elephant is not only invisible as it spent all season still sat on its Ferrari with its also invisible partner sat in the other Ferrari. That would certainly explain some lack of performance from Ferrari last year.

Collieafc · Post by **Collieafc** » 27 Jan 2015, 13:07

If the Lotus ends up looking like that, I hope they perform better this season on that basis alone!

watka · Post by **watka** » 27 Jan 2015, 13:16

Waris wrote:This is supposed to be a Formula One car? It looks like a Formula Three car. I also think their livery is a bit shite. Less red = less money from PDVSA maybe?

I get what you mean about the Formula 3 look but it looks alright to me, the simplicity is what makes it good.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 27 Jan 2015, 16:24

Some news on Sauber.

1. They have announced a partnership with Hewlett-Packard.
2. They are rumoured to be using a blue and yellow livery, in deference to the Banco do Brasil sponsorship brought in by Nasr.
3. The C34 launches on the 30th.

Shizuka · Post by **Shizuka** » 27 Jan 2015, 16:32

1. That's so ironic! Williams had their partnership when BMW came, and now the ex-BMW squad gets partnered with them!

2. It might end up looking good. I hope for the best!

3. Not bad.

Alonso in his overall: there will be more sponsorship than that, probably they will announce their new sponsorship package at the launch.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 27 Jan 2015, 16:36

Shizuka wrote:

Green screen? I'm starting to believe more and more that this is true.

Wallio · Post by **Wallio** » 27 Jan 2015, 17:24

Shizuka wrote:Alonso in his overall: there will be more sponsorship than that, probably they will announce their new sponsorship package at the launch.

I wouldn't except too much more as Honda is the title sponsor.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 27 Jan 2015, 21:09

Simtek wrote:Green screen? I'm starting to believe more and more that this is true.

Ah, now that was a classic thread. Happy memories...

Dj_bereta · Post by **Dj_bereta** » 27 Jan 2015, 21:51

Simtek wrote:Some news on Sauber.

1. They have announced a partnership with Hewlett-Packard.
2. They are rumoured to be using a blue and yellow livery, in deference to the Banco do Brasil sponsorship brought in by Nasr.
3. The C34 launches on the 30th.

Yes! I was expecting a blue and yellow car too. Looking forward!

Shizuka wrote:1. That's so ironic! Williams had their partnership when BMW came, and now the ex-BMW squad gets partnered with them!

2. It might end up looking good. I hope for the best!

3. Not bad.

Alonso in his overall: there will be more sponsorship than that, probably they will announce their new sponsorship package at the launch.

Alonso is the newest driver of Hispania.... oh wait. :lol:

CaptainGetz12 · Post by **CaptainGetz12** » 28 Jan 2015, 00:27

Simtek wrote:Some news on Sauber.

1. They have announced a partnership with Hewlett-Packard.
2. They are rumoured to be using a blue and yellow livery, in deference to the Banco do Brasil sponsorship brought in by Nasr.
3. The C34 launches on the 30th.

I get the feeling it will look pretty close to this:

It looks like it would stand out pretty well, and knowing Sauber's last few liveries, it must be a godsend for them

wsrgo · Post by **wsrgo** » 28 Jan 2015, 12:43

CaptainGetz12 wrote:
Simtek wrote:Some news on Sauber.

1. They have announced a partnership with Hewlett-Packard.
2. They are rumoured to be using a blue and yellow livery, in deference to the Banco do Brasil sponsorship brought in by Nasr.
3. The C34 launches on the 30th.

I get the feeling it will look pretty close to this:

It looks like it would stand out pretty well, and knowing Sauber's last few liveries, it must be a godsend for them

Is this last year's Carlin GP2 car?

Post by **Miguel98** » 28 Jan 2015, 14:05

Hum... So, Force India are skipping test one?

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 28 Jan 2015, 14:35

Miguel98 wrote:Hum... So, Force India are skipping test one?

It's not a good sign that one... It never is since the testing restricted era begun. I fear for their competitiveness.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 28 Jan 2015, 15:01

They'll be fine.

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 28 Jan 2015, 15:45

Salamander wrote:They'll be fine.

Apparently rumours say they aren't. Again, and from my head, the teams that skip the first pre-season testing aren't really considered healthy and don't end up fine. Let's hope FI doesn't follow this tendency.

Wallio · Post by **Wallio** » 28 Jan 2015, 17:51

DanielPT wrote:
Salamander wrote:They'll be fine.

Apparently rumours say they aren't. Again, and from my head, the teams that skip the first pre-season testing aren't really considered healthy and don't end up fine. Let's hope FI doesn't follow this tendency.

Honestly though how much will it affect them? Think about. Best they can do is 5th in the WCC. "The Big 4" are too far ahead for them to catch and Sauber and Torro Rosso are too far behind. And Marussia and Catheram aren't around anymore. So FI is either 5th or 6th behind Lotus. That's the brunt of their movement.

Post by **Ataxia** » 28 Jan 2015, 18:17

DanielPT wrote:
Salamander wrote:They'll be fine.

Apparently rumours say they aren't. Again, and from my head, the teams that skip the first pre-season testing aren't really considered healthy and don't end up fine. Let's hope FI doesn't follow this tendency.

Red Bull have done it in the past and been fine. Oh, and Brawn did it in 2009...

The option is Force India either turn up with their old car, learn next-to-nothing and spend money on transport for no reward, or just eke out the development time and turn up at Barcelona with a clear plan of what to do. It won't be like Lotus, where they had to get to grips with a new engine formula AND a new aerodynamic formula, where reliability issues to do with the former ended up impinging on their development of the latter.

Post by **mario** » 28 Jan 2015, 19:38

DanielPT wrote:
Salamander wrote:They'll be fine.

Apparently rumours say they aren't. Again, and from my head, the teams that skip the first pre-season testing aren't really considered healthy and don't end up fine. Let's hope FI doesn't follow this tendency.

The official line from the team is that they want to maximise their development time in Toyota's wind tunnel and are therefore prepared to skip the first test at Jerez as a result.

Their argument is that, because the first test in Jerez is rather atypical - the tarmac is unusually abrasive and the ambient temperature is abnormally low compared to the typical temperatures at most venues - the value of testing there is lower than at other venues. In fact, some of the teams have openly questioned in the past whether it is actually worth testing in Jerez at this time of year because of those factors, which is why the pre-season tests have sometimes been held in Bahrain instead (where the ambient temperatures are more representative).

If it is for the reasons that they are stating, it might not necessarily be a bad decision to sacrifice the first test in turn for the additional development time. Some teams have opted for that tactic in the past, such as Red Bull, in 2010, whilst equally Lotus were able to turn things around in 2012 when they had the more serious issue of having to redesign the mounting point for the rear suspension and dealing with a chassis fault, which forced them to pull out of that test. We also know that, although they've not been officially announced, Red Bull have leaked the fact that there will be two in season tests at Silverstone and in Austria, so we know that there will be further opportunities within the season to test new parts.

Admittedly, we cannot fully discount the possibility that they are not going for more concerning reasons, namely that they are in financial distress - I just think that it may be a little too early to tell if that is fully the case.

Captain Hammer · Post by **Captain Hammer** » 28 Jan 2015, 19:55

DanielPT wrote:Apparently rumours say they aren't.

A lot of which are coming from Joe Saward who, as we all know, will happily repost any negative story or rumour about Vijay Mallya as if it were the truth without bothering to check his facts or his sources.

mrfakeboullier · Post by **mrfakeboullier** » 28 Jan 2015, 20:43

Not sure if this has been posted elsewhere but the Captain's favourite hack is acting like a petulant child about the FW37 launch https://joesaward.wordpress.com/2015/01/21/reinventing-the-wheel-in-grove/#comment-221492

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 28 Jan 2015, 21:19

Captain Hammer wrote:
DanielPT wrote:Apparently rumours say they aren't.

A lot of which are coming from Joe Saward who, as we all know, will happily repost any negative story or rumour about Vijay Mallya as if it were the truth without bothering to check his facts or his sources.

Actually is coming from a German bloke as Dj_bereta posted in the silly season thread.

As for the test, the thing that bothers me the most was that when they first announced they would be present with the 2014 car at the first test they already knew it had less value and that they could spend the time in the wind tunnel developing the car. But no. First they announced the launch would be livery only, then they announced that the first test would be made with the 2014 car and then they announced that they wouldn't be there at all. If they were late because of car development I think they would have came forward straight away, like others in the past, and spare us with all this. It has all the smell of financial trouble if you ask me.