BMW tests its 2009 Formula 1 car prototype - and it ain’t pretty (Pictures)
17 November 2008 by Keith Collantine
Christian Klien has the best view of the F1.09 prototype - he can't see it
Several Formula 1 teams were back in action today for the first time since the Brazilian Grand Prix, testing developments ahead of the 2009 season.
BMW are the latest team to run developments of the aerodynamics package we can expect to see on its F1 car in 2009. It’s going to take some getting used to. Here’s 20 pictures, if you can take it…
Click once to preview, click again for high resolution version.
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- Robert Kubica drives the BMW 2009 F1 test car
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- Christian Klien drives the BMW 2009 F1 test car
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- Christian Klien drives the BMW 2009 F1 test car
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- Christian Klien drives the BMW 2009 F1 test car
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- Robert Kubica drives the BMW 2009 F1 test car
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- Christian Klien
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- Christian Klien drives the BMW 2009 F1 test car
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- Christian Klien drives the BMW 2009 F1 test car
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- Christian Klien drives the BMW 2009 F1 test car
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- Christian Klien
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- Robert Kubica drives the BMW 2009 F1 test car
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- Robert Kubica drives the BMW 2009 F1 test car
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- Robert Kubica drives the BMW 2009 F1 test car
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- Christian Klien drives the BMW 2009 F1 test car
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- Robert Kubica drives the BMW 2009 F1 test car
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- Robert Kubica drives the BMW 2009 F1 test car
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- Robert Kubica drives the BMW 2009 F1 test car
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- Robert Kubica drives the BMW 2009 F1 test car
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- Christian Klien drives the BMW 2009 F1 test car
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- Christian Klien drives the BMW 2009 F1 test car
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- Bruno Senna had his first F1 test for Honda who evaluated him for a 2009 seat
All pictures (C) BMW.
More on the 2009 Formula 1 season
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Wow! Beautiful! The slick tyres, I mean. Not the car.
The reason the car looks so daft is that it looks out of proportion. Before, the rear wing and the front wing were almost the same length. Now, the front wing is HUGE and the rear wing is much, much smaller. The changes do seem OTT and it certainly isn’t a looker, but if it produces close racing, then I’m all for it.
looks like the BMW Williams Walrus.
Well the looks are not great, I just hope that the racing is a vast improvement.
On the cost saving side, I wonder how much money the teams are loosing on sponsorship by having that much less space to put logos on.
Especially on the rear wing.
Captain Caveman, according to Frank Williams his team is losing 25% of bodywork capable of having sponsorship, guess that’s Hamleys* off the books.
that rear wing is hideous! in fact its so ugly it almost makes the front wing look attractive.
i’m shocked at the awfulness.
You know in a horror movie such as hostel, where you’ll see something gruesome that turns your stomach, but you carry on watching eyes wide open…. welcome to F1 regulations people.
Those front wing end plates look very dangerous, they could cut a rear tyre if they came close to one. Did they not pass a rule years ago that the front wing end plates had to be flat and have curved edges as Sharpe ones were dangerous.
It reminds me of a F3000 car from the early 2000’s.
I think that this is only an interim car, BMW would not want to put out there a car that was representative of next years car and give ideas out to those to have yet to fully concentrate on the 2009 car.
OK, so we can lower the rear wing so its not so silly looking, widen the rear bodywork to compensate. Lose the high air intake and make it two smaller ones on either side at head level. At the front we can make it a bi-plane or a tri-plane and have the same aero effect, and if we lengthen the wheelbase, it won’t look so dumpy!
Ooops, that sounds like an IRL car!
This is not the for 2009 BMW. Just a 2009 themed car. However, its an ugly proposition. As unsexy as Mosley.
Ferrari’s biggest sponsor doesn’t appear much on their cars so I guess the small rear wings are okay. Other teams will just grow poorer and achieve the FIA’s objectives for grassroot racing.
The rear wing looks as if it has been fixed from a toy car.
The front wing is similar to what Williams had in 2002/2004; don’t emember for sure..
Actually; F2008’s front wing without the bridge wing would also look like the same I think
I guess the FIA’s improvment of overtaking is the postions gained due to half the field having to pit very early, becuase of front wings flying off the cars on the first lap.
The more I look at it, the more I can see myself getting very used to it.
I hope you’re right, although it would make sense to get data on real world physics to fine tune the body too. Then they can give the data to Albert to make sure he doesn’t make silly mistakes like last year*.
* edit, last season, as in this year. When albert told them the car would act a certain way and it didn’t!
yep, the walrus tusks, back when Williams was using BMW power.
That front wing almost, almost, looks like a CDG wing with a bit in the middle to fasten to the supports.
That looks way more ugly than the set-up Williams shook-down last week.
Still, it’s been said before and surely will be again…if it goes fast, then it will start to look pretty..!!
Looks like Clarkson \ Hammond & May have tried to make an F1 car.
It will take some getting used to.
Another chapter in F1 when the regulations bring a whole new looking F1.
Are BMW testing a repainted Formula Palmer Audi chassis with an F1 spec front wing for a laugh?
It looks completely out of proportion and deeply ugly - so far. But the narrow track, grooved tyre cars that were introduced in 1998 looked similarly awful at first. Hopefully, we’ll get used to it.
yeah, my jaw fell open this morning when i saw the pics. but i do think the overall design will be refined in the end to produce an attractive package. god willing!
That front wing . . .
Why don’t they just have rotating knives attached to the front wheels and be done with it?
These cars are ugly. And some insight people don’t even expect too much of the 2009 aero regulations either. Remember, the 2009 wings will be more or less standardized.
cant say i care what the look like, it’s how they overtake I’m more interested in…
looks like F1 is sadly heading towards A1GP…
OMG OMG MAXXXXX MOSELYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!
it looks like a formula audi palmer car !!!!!
I have not followed GP2 but I get the impression that racing and overtaking over there is interesting. GP2 car looks good as well. Strange.
horrible
EDIT: well actually its the huge first wing which makes it odd. ive just googled on williams fw14 and its rear wing had the same size. still i think it looked great. i dont see the point in these monster first wings.
Atticus, the current wing sizes have never been used before. Until 1983 the entire bodywork had a maximum width of 140cm. From 1983 all the bodywork behind the rear wheel centre line had the maximum width of 100cm. From 1994 to 2008 this was reduced to 95cm.
It is still an interim car, I think, to a certain extent.
When I first saw it I wanted to gouge my eyes out. But having seen these pictures I have to say I’m really liking it! And that turnaround happened literally, honestly, within just a couple of hours. It’s very different to the old cars in terms of proportion. I think it’s actually quite like a FBMW chassis, but in a more exaggerated way, if you see what I mean.
And the different the proper slicks makes over the grooves is very tangible to - makes it look very cool.
Though I am prepared to be quite a lone voice in this.
Those flared up sidepods seem reminiscent of an IRL car!
The rear wing is definitely weird. I think the FIA should have acheived the downforce reduction by making the wing element shallower, instead of narrower.
All I want to know is - how fast is it?
Oh, and the front wing probably looks a tad too wide…but it doesn’t have the silly “bucket” dip in the middle. I find the straight front wing much more aesthetically pleasing. And the lack of silly horns and aero winglet things is very cool.
Super new look eh……? God ! aren’t they damned ugly !
About as balanced in appearance as a sumo wrester on Ice Skates !
The Beemer looks like it’s design team are Massey-Fergusson or John Deere escapees……still the ‘combine’ front wing should be useful for mowing the grass at the circuit run-offs !
When I first saw that car, I thought “What the Hell??”
But, it depends which angle you look at. For instance looking at it from the front, it looks really weird. But from the back, it looks like an early 90’s F1 car.
To be completely honest, I actually like it.
sos , what the h… is that ??????????????????
the rear wing looks like my closet
i just wanna say
:( 
:(
Everybody, stop your belly aching. The cars look odd now, but you will get used to them very quickly.
By the end of Melbourne, I assure you.
I guess we F1 fans will never be happy. We didn’t like the shark-fins and nose wings; saying it was complex; and now we hate the new look because its too simple.
I would take this new look; but a spoon-profiled front wing would be welcome. A flat one looks too out-dated.
BTW, I was very fond of the nose wings; shark fins; end plates and all aerodynamic advancements which most of you found weird
the snow plough era is upon us! hate it.
The middle and backend (before that rear wing) of the BMW-Sauber looks fantastic!
The front wing looks like someone digitally stretched it.
did anyone notice the extra opening on the right side of the ferrari? it looks like a secondary cooling duct, but its only on one side.
good god!!! that has to be the most ugly thing i’ve seen since………..well ever.
i feel like crying!!!!!
I dare say I’ll get used to it eventually. We won’t know if the new regulations will herald an age of exciting racing until next year. This isn’t the first time there have been new regulations intended to increase overtaking which in the end didn’t change much.
Just like in other seasons when there have been big changes some teams will adapt better than others, so I predict that overall the teams won’t be as close next year as they were this year.
The high wide nose reminds me more of an older Ferrari than the walrus Williams. While I generally still don’t like the look of F1 cars with a high nose I must be one of the only people who liked the walrus Williams.
I won’t miss most of the aero add-ons, but I did like some of them. For me the 2005 McLaren was one of the best looking cars of recent years. The low wide nose with curvy front wing (before the bridge of later cars) the curved sidepods, the chimneys on top of the sidepods and the horns on the engine cover.
AAAARGGGGHHH! AAARRRGGHHHNFFFBBLLOURRGH! Take it away!
That is a deeply upsetting car to behold. What’s more, the aero ’solution’ seem to simply be ‘make the rear wing of the car narrower so that the massively wide front wing of the following car can get some clean air from where the rear wing should be’
Not very sophisticated imo. Slicks look great, they make such a difference.
As for cost cutting, the teams will most likely develop at least two different cars for next season as KERS will work differently on different circuits
eh, it looks alright. We’ll get used to it. At least they scraped all the crud off of it, the BMW was one of the most ‘wrongly put-together Airfix models’, as Martin brundle might say, of last year.
The slick tyres look sexy too.
That is the ugliest piece of crap that I have ever seen. ’nuff said.
Its not all bad, after all there are no wheel fairings…. I think if the rear wing was a little lower it wouldn’t look half as bad.
I don’t think the front wing looks that out of place, it reminds me of the early 2000’s Ferrari wings, but the boxes on the end plates look awful.
Why are they running grooved tires? Is that just to get a baseline of where they stand?
For sure the cars will look pretty different to that by the season opener…
The car is kind of odd looking, more strikingly different than plain ugly, but am I the only one that thinks if looks mean? Mean like in aggressive, like a big mouth ready to eat you. Having that front wing in your rear mirrors must be a bit intimidating, other than by the side knives (likely not to be there for racing or the mechanics will stay well clear of the car in the pit stops)
I like it, a F1 car should look like a fighter!
Haha, i think it looks like a clown car!
Slick tyres look good though, and it’s not as bad as i imagined it would be.
those front wing end plates look like they’ll be a knife through butter if they touch a tyre
I guess they have space on the front wing to add some missiles to easy overtaking.. OMG
ugly
Damn that is ugly…….. real ugly