Grand Prix Rejects

Simona De Silvestro's recent test for Sauber had her running a car that was painted in her personal sponsor's colors (Areva, one of the largest worldwide companies of the nuclear industry, and its marketing campaign that appears in a somewhat dubious light after the events that are known in Japan as 3/11).

Has it ever happened before that certain drivers ran test days in special liveries in F1 or is this a first?

Yannick wrote:Simona De Silvestro's recent test for Sauber had her running a car that was painted in her personal sponsor's colors (Areva, one of the largest worldwide companies of the nuclear industry, and its marketing campaign that appears in a somewhat dubious light after the events that are known in Japan as 3/11).

Has it ever happened before that certain drivers ran test days in special liveries in F1 or is this a first?

Well that certainly is exciting by Sauber's standards

Mclaren have run a pure orange car in testing before and Williams always use a dark blue only color scheme in testing before their livery is chosen. That's what I know

Sometimes teams run different liveries in pre-season testing e.g. BAR had a black livery instead of white in 2003-4 but I can't think of when personal sponsors filled a driver's test car.

Sauber are probably that strapped for cash at the moment that any sponsorship, even from personal sponsors are welcome on the car.

My gosh, now that I've got used to the anteater noses this year, that stepped thing looks awful.

Really, what kind of pos tyres did they send her out on? Leftovers from Silverstone?
Seems to be too much psi in her left front? and chunks of rubber has gone off.



No wonder she went wide.

good_Ralf wrote:Sometimes teams run different liveries in pre-season testing e.g. BAR had a black livery instead of white in 2003-4 but I can't think of when personal sponsors filled a driver's test car.

What, this?


Dang.... much better than their bland white liveries in the 2000s

Okay, not really on-topic here, but is anybody else as happy as me, that THIS certain pairing never materialized? The AP03 would have ruined her career even more than a Sauber with horrible tyre wear could...

Beautiful weather, beautiful sound, beautiful helmet cam view.

A Formula One Lap with Simona De Silvestro
http://youtu.be/bwgHNiDbHiI

Jocke1 wrote:Beautiful weather, beautiful sound, beautiful helmet cam view.

A Formula One Lap with Simona De Silvestro
http://youtu.be/bwgHNiDbHiI

She certainly wasn't shy... Very aggressive. Top stuff!

Jacques Villeneuve in a BAR test car way back in 1999, Jerez. Unforunately I don't seem to be able to find a better image of it...


This thing...well frankly, I don't know what it is. It's like a mishmash of the FW20 and FW21. I think maybe an FW20 with some updates for 1999, run as a test mule for the incoming BMW engines. Works driver Joerg Mueller is at the wheel.


Force India used this as an interim test livery in 2008 pre-season, just after Mallya bought the team from Spyker.

More on BAR, here's the two liveries they had in the 1999 pre-season:

Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:Mclaren have run a pure orange car in testing before

The ever-lovely orange testing McLaren...

Biscione wrote:
This thing...well frankly, I don't know what it is. It's like a mishmash of the FW20 and FW21. I think maybe an FW20 with some updates for 1999, run as a test mule for the incoming BMW engines. Works driver Joerg Mueller is at the wheel.

My second ever F1 Racing magazine was the March 2000 edition. I recall that there was a picture of this car being driven by Ralf Schumacher, placed in his column which he had at the time. Since this was a season preview edition, the actual photos of the car appeared on the Williams run-down, and I remember being incredibly disappointed that the FW22 didn't have that livery.

It was either because I was upset about the more corporate outlook of the real livery, or I just liked the colour blue. I was six, you decide.

Ataxia wrote:

Biscione wrote:
This thing...well frankly, I don't know what it is. It's like a mishmash of the FW20 and FW21. I think maybe an FW20 with some updates for 1999, run as a test mule for the incoming BMW engines. Works driver Joerg Mueller is at the wheel.

My second ever F1 Racing magazine was the March 2000 edition. I recall that there was a picture of this car being driven by Ralf Schumacher, placed in his column which he had at the time. Since this was a season preview edition, the actual photos of the car appeared on the Williams run-down, and I remember being incredibly disappointed that the FW22 didn't have that livery.

It was either because I was upset about the more corporate outlook of the real livery, or I just liked the colour blue. I was six, you decide.

In 1999 the FW20 with BMW engine was run by Jorg Muller with this livery:



Jorg Muller has a good history of testing cars with special liveries - in 2000 he used the FW21B to test Michelin tyres:

Pedro de la Rosa testing the HRT F111 at the first test in 2012.



I quite like that laurel wreath logo. I don't think they used it on the proper car.

Turbogirl wrote:Okay, not really on-topic here, but is anybody else as happy as me, that THIS certain pairing never materialized? The AP03 would have ruined her career even more than a Sauber with horrible tyre wear could...

...though the publicity from being an 11-year-old F1 driver (at the time) would surely have offset that!

People are forgetting this.

FMecha wrote:People are forgetting this.

Now that was a beautiful livery...

dr-baker wrote:

Now that was a beautiful livery...

It really was. It shows what a pretty car the Simtek was. The awful MTV livery ruined the lines on a very sexy machine.

Wallio wrote:

dr-baker wrote:

Now that was a beautiful livery...

It really was. It shows what a pretty car the Simtek was. The awful MTV livery ruined the lines on a very sexy machine.

I loved the MTV livery too, but this was still better.

dinizintheoven wrote:

Turbogirl wrote:Okay, not really on-topic here, but is anybody else as happy as me, that THIS certain pairing never materialized? The AP03 would have ruined her career even more than a Sauber with horrible tyre wear could...

...though the publicity from being an 11-year-old F1 driver (at the time) would surely have offset that!

Strange, no one noticed the joke earlier. Maybe I should have posted the photo in the "Caption this!" thread instead... (or my jokes simply aren't funny, whatever comes first).

I seem to remember Super Aguri and before them, Toyota, had different liveries when testing in their debut season. can't be bothered to find any pictures and upload them

AdrianSutil wrote:I seem to remember Super Aguri and before them, Toyota, had different liveries when testing in their debut season. can't be bothered to find any pictures and upload them

Then let me do it for you, simply cause I'm a huge fan of Toyota's 2001 test season livery. Too bad they didn't use it when they entered F1 in 2002 though.






But the only pic I could find of a Super Aguri pre-F1 test livery was this (depicting the Arrows they used during their debut season):

Arrows had this tiger-style test livery



And Anthony Davidson drove this 555 BAR in China:



And Renault had this dark blue/yellow car (much nicer than the actual livery in my opinion):

Here's a collection of a few off the top of my head; some aren't drastically different, but I thought they were worth sharing:

Minardi PS01 at a shakedown (although on closer inspection, it may well be the M02):


Arrows A21 test livery:


Not strictly a test livery, but the Jordan 196 prior to the B&H colour scheme:


Super Aguri SA08 test livery:


Bridgestone-liveried Ligier JS41:


A naked carbon Jordan EJ13:


Michael Schumacher's bare Sauber C16:

Turbogirl wrote:

dinizintheoven wrote:

Turbogirl wrote:Okay, not really on-topic here, but is anybody else as happy as me, that THIS certain pairing never materialized? The AP03 would have ruined her career even more than a Sauber with horrible tyre wear could...

...though the publicity from being an 11-year-old F1 driver (at the time) would surely have offset that!

Strange, no one noticed the joke earlier. Maybe I should have posted the photo in the "Caption this!" thread instead... (or my jokes simply aren't funny, whatever comes first).

I found it kinda funny. An 11 year old in a F1 car, that can only end well

Some more test liveries from my own collection:

Senna in 1993 in the McLaren with a Lambo engine:


Frentzen in a dark blue and silver winged Sauber in 1995:


Johnathan Palmer in the 1984 Zakspeed at the Nurburgring:


Verstappen in the unraced Honda RA099:


Barrichello in a plain black Honda in 2007:


And finally someone upthread mentioned the test livery Super Aguri ran in 2006 - here's Ide in that car:

Now that is a good livery. Sleek, simple, nice colour. Really shows just how good cars can look without big sponsor words all over them or some overthinking designer putting a million colours and lines on. sarcasm

Slightly off-topic but is anyone enough of a nerd to know which F1 car (if it is indeed an F1 car) was used for the cover of Teenage Fanclub's album "Grand Prix"?

watka wrote:Slightly off-topic but is anyone enough of a nerd to know which F1 car (if it is indeed an F1 car) was used for the cover of Teenage Fanclub's album "Grand Prix"?

That seems to be a Simtek S941...I thought it might be Andrea Moda, but the front wing and air intake are consistent with the Simtek.

I don't think the nose is quite right for it to be a Simtek - it looks like it tapers too much.

AndreaModa wrote:I don't think the nose is quite right for it to be a Simtek - it looks like it tapers too much.

I cheated with a little bit of Wikipedia, but it suggest that the car on the cover was "provided by Simtek". So, that could mean it was either the S941 or the S921 that Nick Wirth sold to Andrea Sassetti's men.

So, I've come to my conclusion from the shape of the air intake; the Moda had a more triangular intake than the Simtek, and the front wing in all the photos I can see has a top plane with a reduced angle of attack. Plus, there's the high frontal suspension geometry to boot...whether I'm right or not, I dunno, I'm just calling it as I see it...

I remember seeing that album when it came out and thinking 'that looks like a Simtek!' so I'm guessing that you're right.

AndreaModa wrote:Some more test liveries from my own collection:


Frentzen in a dark blue and silver winged Sauber in 1995:

This looks really nice without the decals on it.

Ataxia wrote:

AndreaModa wrote:I don't think the nose is quite right for it to be a Simtek - it looks like it tapers too much.

I cheated with a little bit of Wikipedia, but it suggest that the car on the cover was "provided by Simtek". So, that could mean it was either the S941 or the S921 that Nick Wirth sold to Andrea Sassetti's men.

So, I've come to my conclusion from the shape of the air intake; the Moda had a more triangular intake than the Simtek, and the front wing in all the photos I can see has a top plane with a reduced angle of attack. Plus, there's the high frontal suspension geometry to boot...whether I'm right or not, I dunno, I'm just calling it as I see it...

Maybe it was an early test hack that was obsoleted by the S941; a sort of S931 for testing purposes if you will?

bit ambitious putting the number 1 on that car lol

Didn't Jaguar have some other livery (like the actual car, but white and green reversed) in the 2003 pre-season?

takagi_for_the_win wrote:

Ataxia wrote:

AndreaModa wrote:I don't think the nose is quite right for it to be a Simtek - it looks like it tapers too much.

I cheated with a little bit of Wikipedia, but it suggest that the car on the cover was "provided by Simtek". So, that could mean it was either the S941 or the S921 that Nick Wirth sold to Andrea Sassetti's men.

So, I've come to my conclusion from the shape of the air intake; the Moda had a more triangular intake than the Simtek, and the front wing in all the photos I can see has a top plane with a reduced angle of attack. Plus, there's the high frontal suspension geometry to boot...whether I'm right or not, I dunno, I'm just calling it as I see it...

Maybe it was an early test hack that was obsoleted by the S941; a sort of S931 for testing purposes if you will?

Well, there was an actual S931 at one point:



The S931 was a modified version of the S921 (which Andrea Moda used) for the stillborn Bravo F1 effort. The front suspension is a very strange concept indeed, where the top suspension units are covered by an aerofoil to reduce the drag that the wishbone components would produce. However, the FIA banned bodywork between the front wheels (excluding the mounting points, of course) and so that design had to be scrapped. That explains why the front suspension on the S941 sits high up, as they'd planned to do a similar thing with that particular car.

The Bravo team planned to use Judd engines and had Marc Gene's brother Jordi sorted as one of the drivers (the other was supposed to be renowned Ferrari test monkey Nicola Larini), but had to quit once owner Jean-Pierre Mosnier died in November 1992, weeks after announcing the team.

That front wing looks somewhat odd, thought it was damaged when I first saw it. I assume there is valid areodynamic theory behind it.

And didn't BAR tend to run extra 555 logos whenever they were in China for a couple of years, long after the failed zip car experiment