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HRT F111 launch – first pictures | 2011 F1 cars

Keith Collantine — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 08:11:35 +0000

HRT have revealed the first pictures of their 2011 F1 car, the F111.

Team principal Colin Kolles said: “The F111 represents a significant step forward for Hispania Racing.

“We have made a big improvement for starting our second season in Formula 1 and what you see in our new car confirms Hispania Racing´s commitment to F1.”

The F111 was designed by Geoff Willis and Paul White. The team confirmed it will have an adjustable rear wing. However it will not have a Kinetic Energy Recovery System.

HRT aim to run the car for the first time in the pre-season test at Bahrain which begins on March 3rd.

Team president Jose Ramon Carabante said: “We feel really proud of the car our drivers will run this forthcoming season.

“Despite a challenging first year, we managed to finish on the 11th position in the World Constructors Championship. Now, we are very pleased to introduce the first specification of the F111, which means a huge design-effort from our side.

“This is only a first step as we are planning several updates during the season.”

The car’s distinctive livery was designed by Daniel Simon of Cosmic Motors. He said, “I miss fearless visual statements and large beautiful numbers on today’s racing cars.

“Playing with the restrictions of what you can do to a complex F1 body is fun. There are many don’ts, but I found a way to lay courageous racing essence on the car.”

However aside from sponsorship from Tata, thanks to new driver Narain Karthikeyan, the F111′s bodywork features few sponsors.

Instead the bodywork shown includes the messages: “This could be you” and “This is a cool spot”.

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Images © Motioncompany

Wirth says Virgin tried Renault’s front exhausts | 2011 F1 season

Keith Collantine — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:23:04 +0000

Renault R31 exhaust, Valencia, 2011

Virgin technical director Nick Wirth says the team investigated producing its own version of Renault’s distinctive front exit exhausts.

Wirth said the team ran a model in their simulator:

“We’d heard about that towards the end of last year. It’s very cost-effective and easy for us to check other solutions out so I can confirm that we have tried a solution very similar to what you see on the other car and it gives results that are very different from ours. We’ve actually gone so far as to get our drivers to test it on the simulator to see.

“We can see why they’ve done it but it takes a team of the financial, human and technical resources of Renault – or Lotus – to make that happen. If you’re fighting where they are you might be interested in doing it but we’re happy with the solution we’ve got.

“It is a massive, massive undertaking what they’ve done, getting high-temperature exhaust gasses past the fuel system, past the cooling system, past wiring, hydraulics and, most important, getting it past safety structures, the side impact structures which are not normally tested at anything other than room temperature.

“So they’ve obviously got to satisfy the FIA that it’s legal, even when it’s hot, so that’s just a massive job and hats off to them for having the bravery to do something like that.”

Wirth added that the regulation changes over the winter should play into Virgin’s hands:

“We did not have a blown diffuser last year which was one of the key technologies. The two interesting things that people were talking about last year, apart from general performance, was the F-duct and the blown diffuser.

“With the F-duct we’ve obviously got the movable rear wing and I think we’ve done a pretty good job on that packaging-wise with its performance.

“The blown diffuser’s been very interesting and there’s certainly some very interesting solutions out there already. We have one which we’ve focused on and we hope proves effective. It certainly looks to be in the wind tunnel.”

Update: A spokesperson clarified Wirth’s remark about the wind tunnel, confirming that the car had not been run in a wind tunnel and said Wirth presumably meant to say CFD.

Renault’s radical front exit exhausts pictured

Image © Julien Leroy / firstlap.be

Virgin MVR-02 launch – first pictures | 2011 F1 cars

Keith Collantine — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 10:25:19 +0000

Virgin have launched their 2011 F1 car, the MVR-02.

The car was launched at BBC Television Centre in London.

As last year, the car was designed entirely using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), without using a wind tunnel.

Following the arrival of Russian sports car company Maurssia as an investor the team are now registered under a Russian licence. The air intake on the front of the MVR-02 is designed to resemble the one on Marussia’s B2 road car.

The car will run for the first time in the Jerez test later this week. Some of the car’s internals, including its hydraulics, were already run on the VR-01 at Valencia last week.

Designer Nick Wirk confirmed the MVR-02 has not been designed to use KERS, citing the expense of developing the technology as a reason for its absence.

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Toro Rosso STR6 launch – first pictures | 2011 F1 cars

Keith Collantine — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 08:45:51 +0000

The Toro Rosso STR6 has been launched in Valencia.

Here are the first pictures of Toro Rosso’s new car:

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Images © F1 Fanatic and Julien Leroy / firstlap.be. If you wish to use these images please contact F1 Fanatic to request permission

Mercedes W02 launch – first pictures | 2011 F1 cars

Keith Collantine — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 08:26:18 +0000

Mercedes have launched their 2011 F1 car in Valencia.

Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg pulled the covers off the W02 shortly before the first test session of the year began.

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Images © F1 Fanatic and Julien Leroy / firstlap.be. If you wish to use these images please contact F1 Fanatic to request permission

Red Bull RB7 launch – first pictures | 2011 F1 cars

Keith Collantine — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 07:39:32 +0000

Red Bull have launched their RB7 in Valencia.

World champion Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber revealed the car which Red Bull hope will retain the titles they won last year.

See here for pictures of the RB7 on track

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Images © F1 Fanatic and Julien Leroy / firstlap.be. If you wish to use these images please contact F1 Fanatic to request permission

Renault R31 launch – first pictures | 2011 F1 cars

Keith Collantine — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 11:39:02 +0000

Renault have launched their 2011 F1 car.

The R31 was unveiled in the pit lane at Valencia.

Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov revealed the car, accompanied by Romain Grosjean, Bruno Senna, Jan Charouz and Fairuz Fauzy.

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Images © F1 Fanatic, Julien Leroy / Firstlap.be and Renault / LAT

Sauber C30 launch – first pictures | 2011 F1 cars

Keith Collantine — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 10:10:51 +0000

Sauber have launched their 2011 F1 car, the C30, in Valencia.

The team’s drivers Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez revealed the car, which is the first to be designed under new technical director James Key.

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Images © F1 Fanatic, Julien Leroy/Firstlap.be and Sauber ag. If you wish to use this image please contact F1 Fanatic to request permission

Lotus T128 launch – first pictures | 2011 F1 cars

Keith Collantine — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 05:10:36 +0000

Lotus have revealed the first images of their 2011 F1 car which is now called the T128.

The car was originally supposed to be called the TL11 which, according to the team, was to “simplify what could have been another point of contention” with Renault over the use of the name ‘Lotus’.

When asked by F1 Fanatic on Twitter about the change of name Tony Fernandes said:

Because we are continuing with history. We are a new dynasty but tradition continues.
Tony Fernandes

One of the most striking features on the car is the use of a ‘blade’ roll hoop with a split air intake. However the central part of the ‘blade’ has to be thicker because of the change in the 2011 rules.

Mercedes pioneered the design last year but the first picture of their new W02 shown yesterday indicated they are not using such a layout this year.

Lotus’s chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne has high hopes for the new car:

I think that basically this car looks like a front-running car in every area. We said very clearly that we want to start challenging the established teams and I think that’s very achievable.
Mike Gasoyone

The team also confirmed the T128 does not have a Kinetic Energy Recovery System. Chief operating officer Keith Saunt said:

If KERS was going to get us from eighth to sixth then we’d have it. But when you look at the weight of it and some of the engineering challenges, I think it’s a good decision not to start with it. We might end up with it, who knows?
Keith Saunt

The team switch from Cosworth to Renault power this year and the T128′s gearbox is sourced from Red Bull.

Tony Fernandes’ Air Asia brand features prominently on the car. The airline previously sponsored Williams. The T128 also sports the logos of energy drink EQ8.

The car will be shown in public at Valencia tomorrow and be given its first run by Heikki Kovalainen on Wednesday.

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2011 Ferrari F150 and 2010 Ferrari F10 side-by-side | 2011 F1 cars

Keith Collantine — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 11:30:07 +0000

Last year’s Ferrari won five races and nearly took Fernando Alonso to the championship.

How does the new F150 compare to the F10? Click each image to view the full-size versions:

2011 Ferrari F150 and 2010 Ferrari F10 compared

Different reference points were used to scale the images including tyres and wings. However they should not be considered an exact reflection of the relative dimensions of the two cars.

For further comparison here’s how the F10 looked at the end of last year:

Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, Abu Dhabi, 2010

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