Winter Updates 6

Greetings Internet,

Well after a more than slight delay I have returned once more, there was a more pressing matter of a performance to take care of it certainly went well. Although I think people who write reviews are naturally angry people with a malicious mind, three stars my bottom - not that I got a mention. Those were very noteworthy 30s of stage presence, in an actual theatre with seats that actually contained an audience - quite a miraculous sight really.

Alas I digress once more, stage is all to often a distraction, addictively at times - but time to bring things back now to the actual purpose of this little corner of the internet considering the world of racing is starting to warm up once more. Over in America the mad world of NASCAR had it's first race mid-week in preparation for the Daytona 500 at the weekend - and already one car ended up upside down with Jeff Gordon at the wheel. Likely a pattern for the rest of the superspeedway events of the season. Also the much more entertaining Australian V8 supercar season isn't too far away on the streets of Adelaide in a very entertaining and often manic event.

Now back to the main game, and everything now is set in place, all the cars are ready and all the drivers have been selected with a slight change at Caterham racing and HRT finishing their line up. However before I get onto that time to catch up on the other car releases that have taken place in the down-time the blog has taken in the past fortnight.

The Grid Part 2


Last time out we saw a lot of cars being released with unusual forehead shaped protrusions leaping out of the front nose section. developed as a result regulations governing the low height of the end of the nosecone. Almost all of the cars revealed here on the blog have incorporated this feature, with the only degree of sanity and normalcy coming from McLaren developing a normal nose section. However would they be alone, well lets have a belated look back at the other competitors

First up the newest release from Sauber and despite seeing a large amount of these new odd looking cars this doesn't look any better. In fact this looks rather awful, though the dull grey finish to the nose might be accentuating the disfigurement. Where the front half of the chassis looks a little angular and reminiscent of lego brick design Sauber have, along with Caterham brought the sharpest of these noses to the grid, almost pointy enough to be contained in a serial killers dismemberment kit.

After seeing the Sauber we move on now to their mid-field rivals from Torro Rosso - existing as a separate entity from the all dominant partner team of Red Bull the team have had to produce their own machine in recent years rather than RBR spare parts. So here is their contender for the current season .

The nose may not be visible so much in this shot but the forehead present on all the other cars remains something like the one on the Force India car. But was is worth looking at are the unusual sidepods that have been exaggerated in this edition. Seemingly more undercut than normal exposing more of the floor of the car. A design which is slimmer than a lot of the other cars with thinner side pod sections. When the car is stationary the car seems elongated in the second half of the car, but in motion the effect may be reduced.

From the smaller sub-team to the main championship winning offensively dominant Red Bull racing team, looking to see what the beat designers have come up with, looking for some validation that this odd nose ramp forehead thing would end up on the front car. Well Adrian Newey clearly thought it was a good idea...

It seems like the title contending car is an accumulation of several components of other cars looking to achieve the best of all worlds. The forehead and nose structure echo that of Ferrari mixed with Lotus yet the sidepods are part Torro Rosso and part McLaren. Not the traditional interpretation of a hybrid but follows the general format of all the other cars on the grid for the upcoming season. However there is likely lots of clever things going on underneath the carbon fibre uniform.

Next up we have one of the season regulars and traditional entrants in the form of Williams, often languishing just in front of the newer teams towards the back of the grid. At the tail end of division two struggling to compete with the mid-field and retaining the services of pay drivers to fund the team, and this is their 2012 entry.

Surprise, surprise another weird looking nose going on here with the addition of a platypus beak attachment. In contrast to the more refined shapes at the front of the grid from Ferrari and Red Bull. One thing worth noting about this car is that it seems to be one of the only vehicles still using a fin on the back of the engine covers. Lots of the cars so far have had rounded edge on the cover without the thin spinal section of bodywork extending out over the rear suspension and gearbox area.


Moving a little further up the grid now, just as Sky Tv plays another of their commercials marking their theft of half of 2012 from the BBC and a lot of fans - curse them. Anyway next up we have Mercedes and their entry, which was released a lot later than the cars so far, after the opening test in Jerez.

Looking at the photo, the forehead on the Mercedes seems more extreme than some of the others. Also the beak section is more rounded, and certainly narrower than some, especially the Williams one above. The wing supports on the Mercedes are more refined and less linear than the others. With the exception of the seemingly oversized elevation change at the front, this looks like one of the better forehead cars. All of them falling behind the regular sloping design of the McLaren.


That leaves two cars left to unveil, both from the newer teams HRT and Marussia - however both these teams are currently testing in Barcelona with their 2011 spec vehicles as the updates haven't been released. More than likely the HRT car won't be seen until the actual race in Australia and will be built out of paper mache - the same thing that is holding the Lotus team's chassis together at the moment as they encounter de-laminating problems. As for Marussia, not entirely sure - reckon there is a date around here somewhere but haven't really looked for it, however as it will be designed through CFD the outcome will be interesting.

Driver updates


Couple of changes to add to the roster one I was expecting to be announced considering the space remained empty and one surprising change to the grid. First up the last spot in the HRT line up will be taken by Indian driver Narain Karthekeyan - one of the drivers who was shuffled around in the 2010 and the 2011 seasons in Hispania's musical chairs system of driver placings. Sadly of course Narain doesn't have a proper car yet and will be made of duct tape when it finally does arrive, as the prototype failed the crash tests - not a good sign really. We saw the 2011 car crash in Monaco and the rear of it disintegrated as if it were a reject from blue peter.

Still in the same division, but at the other end of proceedings - changes are afoot for Caterham racing where their pairing of experience in the form of Kovalainen and Trulli has been altered a little. Considering Heikki's dominance of the team and finding speed that the car probably shouldn't have even making Q2 at some of the events of the season, his seat was safe. Jarno's position however, was less so and he has been ejected in favour of Renault Squadron escapee Wing-Commander Petrov. Which at least means some of the renaming convention can be carried over from that team, although I liked the idea of Renault-Squadron but a new season shall bring forth new naming conventions I expect.

Looking a little outside the realm of F1 to an extent - Rubens Barrichello formerly of Williams has paid a visit to America and performed some pre-season tests in the Indycar season with KV racing - the team running the legendary Takuma Sato and series veteran Tony Kanaan. Rubens is currently looking for sponsorship to get drive in the series, in a car I am still hoping will be developed by a modding team somewhere and be used as the new blogmobile for 2012. But no-one seems to have produced one yet, but it is early days.



Speaking of the 2012 blog progression here in blog HQ, this year I have a full compliment of tracks for the season including India and the new track in Texas - if it goes ahead. Also I have updated the on screen graphics for the lap videos with DRS (not sure if the DRS plugin will work on the current blogmobile as it is a 2007 champcar). So until the next update, this is farewell for now.

Winter Updates 5

Greetings Internet,

Well here I am again, typing away in the darkened corner of blog HQ with an empty mug where tea should be, but such things are bereft from this part of the universe. But here in the little microcosm things have been a little busy hence why these posts have been delayed, a small matter of additional rehearsals has taken over a lot of the time. As I have managed to gain entry into a production featured in DDF 2012, it may only be a few lines with a vastly superior cast but still lines are always a good thing - and a new stage and audience is an exciting concept, even with my cynical disposition.

 However all is not lost I bring more updates from that expensive world of motor-racing, there may be no news on who will be dealt the final seat on the grid in the HRT but progress has been made. Upon the last update, I revealed that the 2012 Caterham car had been completed and presented, and it had sprouted a forehead for some reason. Well now many of the teams have officially released their competitors for the upcoming season and there is only one way of summing up the general synopsis of what has been developed and that is... oh dear oh dear.

The grid so far pt 1

Caterham CT01

The first of the cars we saw was this rather odd machine, the addition of a forehead on the top of the nose came as somewhat of a surprise. A stark contrast to the conventional designs we've seen with the current set of aerodynamic regulations. The rest of it however looks more reasonable, with the thinner tapering sidepods than the 2011 Lotus configuration




Then there was more, after the initial release of the CT01 the world was bombarded with new releases as most of the grid's entries poured out from the dark secretive testing and design facilities after being locked away over the winter. Next up the McLaren, after the shock of the Caterham approach a fine dose of normality was what the world needed

Gone is the crazed forehead pinned onto the nose cone, exhibiting a traditional smooth sloping version instead. McLaren have also added some additional normality to the grid, moving away from the rather unusual sidepods. This time going for something which almost looks sensible, something that looks roughly like what you expect a current generation racing car to look like.


So at this point things were looking fairly decent, the eccentric design the the team formerly known as lotus seemed like an unusual effort to claim back some position on the grid. With the dose of sanity from a division one team, some hope was restored. Hope that was soon rolled up and launched out the nearest window. Presenting the Force India 2012 contender...

It seems like sanity has gone off into the distance once more, and here is another car with this odd forehead feature sprouting above the front suspension. The problem seems to be accentuated here on the Force India by the flatness of the nose-cone, looking a little like a platypus At least Caterham will no longer feel lonely being the only car with this tumorous growth. The side of the Force India is longer then the McLaren but on a par with the Caterham.


Now one starts to wonder a little, McLaren being the odd one out so far, normality it seems turns not to be the ideal design, does this mean that the team that took the bonus points title with Jenson have done something rather wrong. But the next release would be from another of the division one teams, where we would seen if at the front of the grid sanity would prevail... As is turns out, apparently not. Introducing Ferrari.

The Jeremy Clarkson generic comment of 'oh my god' would fit rather nicely here. At least these other 'lumps' that have been infecting the grid have tried to be aerodynamically designed. Ferrari have just stapled a ramp onto the nose and then headed off to the pub. However the curvature of the sidepods and exhaust outlets are interesting and a distinct feature that looks quite good.

So the decision back in Brackley is starting to seem strangely against the convention of the field, who'd have thought making a normal, sensible racing entry would be the odd one out, even among the top runners. But with the Adrian Newey designed contender from Red Bull unreleased at this point, the world was waiting to see what the 2011 champions would produce. But in the mean-time the team formerly known as Renault-Squadron now running as Lotus presented their car.

And the nose lump is back, yet another car with what can only be described as the beak and forehead combination. However on the Lotus it doesn't seem too bad, almost acceptable. The curvature of the slope seems much smoother than the others, especially the ramp of the Ferrari. But a long way from the smooth slope of the McLaren. The results from the opening test seem to show the Lotus solution to be working with Kimi Raikkonen fastest. Not that too much relevance can be placed on those times at the moment, Sauber were looking this quick last year and look how that played out.

There are four more cars that have been unveiled but this has gone on for quite a while now, and think it is time for a break. The second half of the presentations will be conducted on another day. When I have gaps in between rehearsals and other complex things that happen in and around blog HQ. So until then farewell for now