Williams to launch FW34 today as testing starts in Jerez

F1 Fanatic round-up

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The Williams FW33 in its testing livery

Williams will become the latest team to reveal their 2012 F1 contender today.

The FW34 is due to be revealed at 7:30am UK time.

The first day of testing at Jerez will begin shortly afterwards and we will be following its progress on F1 Fanatic Live as usual.

Red Bull, Sauber and Toro Rosso launches

Check out the updated coverage of yesterday’s launches featuring video of all the cars including HD footage of the Red Bull RB8 and Kamui Kobayashi doing his first laps in the Sauber C31:

Thanks to ECWDanSelby for his help processing and uploading the videos.

Links

F1 teams seek guidance on Bahrain situation (Reuters)

Eric Boullier: “We have commitments with regard to the Formula One championship, so it is not an easy decision to take. Right now we are awaiting feedback from the FIA on whether or not we go.”

Alguersuari: I turned down a ’12 seat (Autosport)

“I was verbally confirmed during the Brazilian GP. Hence, being confirmed by Red Bull and STR, I rejected a very good offer. On December 13th, when Red Bull Racing told me that I was no longer part of the family I said that I was not going to judge them, neither I was feeling like a victim and that this was not a drama. But let me say just one thing: they hurt me, and moreover, it was unnecessary.”

Technical Q&A: Red Bull’s Adrian Newey on the RB8 (F1)

“Regulation restrictions like the lost exhaust are a bit frustrating in truth, because they are exactly that, they are restrictions, they’re not giving new opportunities or revenues particularly, they’re just closing a door. Regulation changes I enjoy, regulation restrictions I rather lament.”

Daniel Ricciardo via Twitter

“Was a great feeling sliding off the STR7’s dress today. And no bra! Too easy.”

Ted Kravitz via Twitter

“A few things from Jerez: Renault ran ‘active’ ride device in Brazil practice but not qualifying or race, was intended to be on car for Australia.”

Follow F1 news as it breaks using the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app.

Comment of the day

Is Red Bull’s livery getting a bit long in the tooth? Time to try something new? Calum says no:

I like teams keeping the same brand identity. In years to come we will look back at the chrome cars and the blue ones with yellow noses in various F1 history books and clearly pick out the McLaren and Red Bull, in the same way we look at history books and know a white and red chevron is most likely a McLaren, and the blue and yellow is a Williams from the 80s and 90s.

Teams that are constantly changing their livery get lost in historic pictures, but those who don’t change build a strong image that sticks in the mind. Red Bull are doing that, McLaren and Ferrari are doing it and Force India are getting into it now with three years of their Indian flag livery.
Calum

From the forum

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Victor and Rebecca!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

Ten years ago today then-FIA president Max Mosley urged new cost controls for Formula 1, including restricting drivers to one engine per car from 2003.

Under today’s rules drivers have to use one engine for as many as three races.

Image © Williams/LAT

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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34 comments on “Williams to launch FW34 today as testing starts in Jerez”

  1. The fact that Alguersuari isnt on the grid for 2012 is a travesty.

    1. To be honest, one of many…

      1. At least Hulkenberg and Grosjean have seats.

        1. Its great to see both these two back in f1

          1. So which team gave him the offer?

          2. well of all the teams, i can only see it being renault/lotus. Mclaren are full, Ferrari are full, Redbull kicked him out, mercedes is full, force india had 3 drivers fighting over 2 seats anyway, sauber are full, williams could have had him but didn’t, caterham are full/will only sack trully off for cash, marussia is not a “top team” and hrt did offer him a seat. So i can only assume it would have been grojean sitting on the sidelines again.

          3. Easy. HRT. He rejected because he thinks too highly of himself… reality bites.

            He is only trying to made noise.

          4. Did he specifically say it was a race seat? Could be Mercedes’ third driver role.

            And about HRT, it really wouldn’t make sense, as he said. He’s a young driver and being so far back on the grid wouldn’t help him much, and he’s too young to have the experience or technical knowledge which such a young team really needs.

    2. Completely agree.
      I don’t buy the “not Champion material” stuff from Red Bull. It’s like they’re swapping both drivers in the hope of sighting the next Vettel. Sure, Sebastian Vettel proved to be something special almost from the first moments, but It’s not the way it usually work.

      And Alguersuari did more than enough to deserve his seat. Not just enough speed, he really showed some attitude last year when he was on the edge of losing his seat, and then he went on to turn around his season.

      1. It is especially hard to tell when the Red Bull drivers do not compete against most drivers as teammates. How can you truly rate someone in the world of F1 when he only raced against one other driver as teammate? I rated Buemi pretty well too and think he deserves to stay in F1 but Toro Rosso is making two rookies compete against each other. There is no real benchmark and who knows, maybe they will both suck and we wont even know about it. All they have is some telemetry but that will only show a small picture of there true ability.

    3. I’ve read the whole interview in spanish and while he doesn’t accuse Red Bull because they made him what he is now, it certainly was a bullet from behind for him.

      I’ve lost respect for Toro Rosso, to be honest. The way they handed the Buemi and Alguersuari situation was rubbish. It’s okay if they don’t want him, but to say they want him and then fire him minutes before Xmas, it just killer.

      1. I don’t think you should lose any respect for them at all.

        Just because the main people in Torro Rosso wouldn’t have had a say at all. It would’ve been the Red Bull branded boffins at work.

        1. Sad but true franz tost is team manager in name only if you need proof.

          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69qj1MeSlSE

          Name me a team that would accept another teams senior personal coming and giving their young driver a rollocking mid way through a session franz tost there the whole time just watching.

    4. @kamui-fan I was pretty angry when I heard the news. I would love Alguersuari to be about.

  2. I can’t wait to see the new Williams. I really hope things work for them this year. It’s a real shame to see them back knowing their history in the sport.

    1. I was really hoping to see them be competitive especially with their ambitious changes within the team but they completely blew it when it came to the driver line-up. Still wish them luck, but having two inexperienced drivers leading the team to the top is not very wise.

      1. There is no question they don’t have the strongest drivers but considering there choices it isn’t a bad decision at all.

  3. the way Red Bull treated Alguersuari (if true) is disgusting. Its like they treated him like property not a person, they say they are there to give young drivers experience so they can move on into other teams (preferably Red Bull), but then lie to them when the get the opportunity. I feel sorry for Jean and Daniel

    1. I agree, such a way for Helmut Marko/Red Bull to treat someone in their program and just a 21 year old youth at that. They did help him into F1 but it doesn’t give them the right to treat someone like throw away rubbish.

      Even after they did that to Alguersuari they still found the need to try to devalue their ex drivers even further by saying with all the data they had Buemi and Alguersuari weren’t good enough to win races.

    2. him like property not a person

      He is one of many I feel.

    3. If it’s true how Jaime says it was, I don’t like that behavior either. But he certainly gained the experience everybody at some point should make that you can only trust contracts when they’re on paper. And even then you have to be careful.

  4. I subscribe Calum.

  5. In a way I agree with the COTD, but they don’t have to have identical liveries every year – I admire Force India for that, they have the same livery but they change it slightly every year.

    1. Agree. I loved the shiny McLaren in 2006 and 2007 but now it’s getting boring. Same with the Red Bull, it was fine but now it’s just another Red Bull: every racecar with Red Bull sponsorship has roughly the same livery…

      1. They did try a silver design on last year’s NASCAR. I wonder if that would look good on an F1.

  6. Hahaha Ricciardo, we need more drivers with an open sense of humor

    1. I concur, great tweet.

  7. Adrian Newey, that is the most accurate description of the pain I feel when the FIA ban innovations these days. With such ever tightening technical regulations innovations like those we’ve seen over the last few years should be applauded, not summarily banned. They are proof that F1 is still the pinnacle of motorsport and the home of the very best engineers in the world.

    1. It depends. I’m all for banning traction control, ABS, active suspensions and the likes and I too think it was a good decision to rid the cars of all those winglets popping up everywhere. Things like those mutate from ‘innovations’ to development behemoths, that simply leave the smaller teams behind. The amount of research that had to go into the engine mapping for making the blown diffusor work was immense.

      Personally I don’t mind leveling the playing field from time to time, but I despise the banning of innovative solutions mid-season, as almost happening last year. If one team builds a superior car due to a brilliant idea, so be it. That’s the point of a constructor’s championchip.

  8. Having seen more and more of these cars, especially some on-track photos, and having had time to digest the new look, I think I can confidently say that I absolutely hate these platypus noses, even on the Force india and Lotus, which seemed not so bad at first. Only Red Bull pull it off to some extent, but they’ve kinda been sporting that shape for a while anyways and it’s flattered by the lines of the livery. And the sad thing is that on most of them if you imagine the nose bumbs gone and clean lines running from the cockpit to the nose you’d have some very pretty cars. McLaren and, grudgingly, Red Bull are the only ones that don’t make my lip curl. All that says nothing about performance, but aesthetically – times are lean.

    1. The one thing I’m absolutely loving so far is the videos coming out from Jerez. Not because the bump in the nose less noticeable at speed; but because we’re finally hearing the V8s in all of their glory, unspoiled by the awful racket we had to put up with last year thanks to EBDs. The sound is back to how it should be, and I’m thrilled!

  9. If what Alguersuari says is true then that is pretty appalling treatment from Red Bull/Toro Rosso management, though I can understand their point of view as well.

    It’s better to remove any potential competition from the grid, assuming that Marko knew Alguersuari had the offer of a race seat elsewhere.

    Not saying I agree with it, it’s certainly not nice, but it’s business.

    1. That’s not business. That’s just evil. If they knew they wouldn’t keep him and said nothing while knowing he had an offer then they are disgusting.

    2. I don’t think Alguesuari has been treated THAT badly. He must have known that there was speculation around his and Buemi’s seats for 2012, especially with Ricciardo having been given track time in 2011.

      if he was placing any kind of belief in a verbal assurance from anyone with Red Bull he is daft. He would have seen first hand what happened to Bourdais and others so could have been under no illusions about the brutal nature of Red Bull’s driver programme.

      Having said all that, I do think RBR have been a tad hasty. The comment above from Stefanauss about finding the next Vettel is spot on. Vettel’s and his ilk come along once in a blue moon. They are unlikely to find another Vettel in the near future, he is something of a one-off. They should have accepted that STR is a feeder team for RBR and not got lost amid their own delusions of grandeur.

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