Photos: Day 1 action from Jerez testing
7 February, 2012
Felipe Massa in the Ferrari F2012
Feb.7 (YallaF1.com) Action photos from the first day of 2012 Formula 1 testing at Jerez de la Frontera in south western Spain. Sutton Images hot shots delivering up the minute imagery from trackside. On duty in the cockpits are: Mark Webber – Red Bull RB8, Jenson Button – McLaren MP4/27, Felipe Massa -Ferrari F2012, Kimi Raikkonen – Lotus E20, Kamui Kobayashi – Sauber C31, Daniel Ricciardo – Toro Rosso STR7, Paul di Resta – Force India VJM05, Pastor Maldonado – Williams FW34, Heikki Kovalainen – Caterham CT01 and in last year’s cars: Nico Rosberg – Mercedes and Pedro de la Rosa – HRT. Not present are Marussia.
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@Forzamaster : The tall black bars are for collecting data during testing. It will send the info to the pits via RF. We only see them during testing. Once racing starts, they go to a much smaller antenna set up. While testing they can collect any data they wish, but during the races, they are only allowed to retrieve, monitor, and or adjust certain things by remote.
ok its something along the lines of (in point form):
- The new regs have reduced the height of the front of the car to reduce risks of injury for the driver when one car T-Bones another. I dont know the details but seems like the new height was stipulated to be at the point where you see these step downs…that tells me from that point frontward is new height
- Teams introduced the stepdown so that up to that point they could make the most of the height (space) on offer…with no step down you’d have to say the McLaren is a tighter package from the front suspension backwards…have a look at the top suspension arm on the McLaren compared to the rest…its nearly flush with the top edge with no meat to spare…looks as if the McLaren goes over a nice bump those top arms will rip off with the body work!
- Also if you look at all the fronts, you’ll see that the McLaren has had to compensate for the lack of step down by lowering its nose so that they had the space to contour the body work back to the step down point with their nominated aero slope profile
Thats my 2 cents..
I don’t know.
I think this “stepped nose” look is absolutely Hideous. Just My opinion. Some shots of the Ferrari I’ve seen. . . . My gawd.
Seems most teams basically took their 2011 rigs and stuck a beak on them.
The 2004 Williams (FW26) comes very much to mind.
Seriously, I hope that Mclaren has it so right that everyone has to scrap the bird look altogether.
How come the McLaren’s nose doesn’t have that step-down? And what are those thing sticking out from the top of the car?
Using the 2011′ car with the new Pirelli’s will provide good info because they will have a benchmark. They would also use 2012 ECU setting for engine mapping too. We should get more info about it by tomorrow afternoon.
@fools
one would think these are ’11 chassis test mules where they would have carried some 12 spec systems for specific testing
Pat is correct stating the HRT and the Merc are 2011 cars. One of the HRT articles has Pedro claiming thier 2012 entry will have a stepped nose.
Sauber C-31 is the best looking F-1 CAR for 2012 from what I’ve seen so far. Looks like a carbon-fiber proto type. ugghh..I love it’s looks. Set for my PC wallpaper already.
Cosworth has the best front fascia
there not 2011. or they wouldnt be allowed to test. everyone in the field is required the 2012 car. or wtf are they testing for.
Twiinz:
The HRT, as the Mercedes you see running, are both 2011-spec cars. They are not required to abide by the rules yet.
So you WILL see duck-faces. The only exception being the magnificent-looking MP4-27
After looking all the new cars over, I think the STR has one of the best looking stepped nose solutions. JMO. Their livery looks way better than their big sisters. Maybe Vettel will name his new car “Kylie’s ugly sister”. LOL It is going to be interesting to see where the Maclaren ends up in a few days as they are the only non stepped nose entry so far. Also interesting to see the best time by Kimi. I think they did this on purpose for PR. Man, I love this time of year.