So the season tests have begun with the unveiling of the new F1 Cars. 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/25946895

 

We have the McLaren Anteater, the Sleek looking red Bull, The Ferrari Vacuum cleaner, the Lotus split nose and the Caterham....well no one knows what the fuck the caterham is supposed to be.

 

So its waay to early to get an idea of how cars will finally perform, but I guess some people will be excited to see the Red Bull totally failing. Not only does the Renault engine have a problem, but the Red Bull seems to have a fundamental heating problem. To give an idea of how fundamental, it apparently normally takes ten laps for a car to start to overheat if it has a problem. Red Bull overheats in one lap. So even if they fix that they could well go into the next test  having no idea if it will overheat in ten laps time. 

caterham seems to me like a grasscutter, must be the green color >_>

It's like the designers went to the zoo or something ... I see an anteater (Ferrari) and one or two platypus' >.>

 

I mean really they went all out on ugly this season >.<

Edited February 6, 201412 yr by Theophilos

Now the question will be if McLaren have discovered this years loophole?

I firmly believe they have with the wishbone idea (it's also hard forother teams to implement, due to changes etc).

I actually quiite like the look, but then I liked the stepped noses after a while too.

I seem to remember one of the teams trying something similar with the front pull/push rod's at one point which got countered by the FIA. Considering the goal of the FIA this year is to make the rear a lot less stickier i'm curious as to see how it will play out. All in all i think it's a great interpretation of the rules and applaud them for it. With all the fuss with Merc > Ferrari > Renault in terms of engines, the little Honda's with great milage for their one car is doing brilliant as well. Can't wait to see bahrain and see all the finished cars for the first time. A lot of them were missing monkey seats and camera mounts and stuff like that. And finally get a tiny peek at what the performance of this years car is compared to last year.

 

http://e1.365dm.com/14/01/660x350/mclaren-and-ferrari-rears-diffuser-mp4-29-f14-t-comparison_3074707.jpg?20140129165041

 

As for the looks... The biggest losers are force india and catherham if you ask me I think i like the merc the most. To go a bit further on this, i have seen some very interesting images in terms of packaging with renault vs ferrari. ... Can't find it when i spot it again i'll post it. It was from sky. Anyway it came down to ferrari based cars being able to have smaller sidepods (not needing the entire floor space) and on top of that being able to have a lot smaller sidepods in terms of length. So the rear end packaging of all the ferrari based cars is a lot sleeker than the renault engines, well maybe except for red bull but we all know how that ended up

Hmm.. basically these 2 next to each other:

 

http://e0.365dm.com/14/01/660x350/Lotus-E22_3073762.jpg?20140128125133

http://e1.365dm.com/14/01/660x350/Ferrari-F14-T2_3072388.jpg?20140125140900

Just to note, McLaren are still Mercedes powered, Honda are not in on the act until 2015. GIven two of the top 3 lap counters were mercedes it does seem that Engine has a big reliability side of it, with the Ferrari cars all looking much neater in terms of cooling probably giving the fastest times. 

The Red Bull is even tigher packaged that the Ferrari, which given how wide the rears are on the other Renault cars must be seen as a massive risk as it means that Renault are not confident in their engines cooling ability. However it is strange that their factory team (Red Bull are the de facto factory team) would be the ones to get it so wrong. 

 

On another note, does anyone else feel that the "floor" of the car, that big ugly square is just...strange looking? It kind of makes the car look like a badly manufactured toy.

Ah, i misunderstood mclaren then, it makes a lot more sense to me now haha. Hmm, compared to ferrari and mercedes themselves the rest of the teams had a certain factor of uncertainty with regards to the body work around the engine and the packaging. That sort of stuff normally gets picked up later in the season. However with red bull being the de facto factory team, i think you are partly right. But i don't think you can neglect the fact that lotus used to be the renault f1 team. I don't know how much they have grown apart, but they are more than just a costumer i think. So for renault it's probably still a little bit of a juggling game rather than the focus on just red bull. Can be wrong though, don't know the inner workings of renault .

 

And yeah from the top down the floor looks ugly. But you still want the full square for aerodynamic purposes. They are basically allowed to have that square as designated area for the floor so they are all using the full size. If at one point they would be allowed to make the square as big as the wheel lines so to say you can put money on it that they will make it that size . Then again, you hardly notice it looking at it from the side

Red Bull were bragging before the break about how by being a de facto factory team the engine would be packaged so it fit with their design of car. 

Disaster for RBR continues

Looks like the Red Bull finally got some laps in. But with Lotus admitting that their tests are not about finding car balance and Renault still several hundred laps behind the others I would guess there will be a few lurking snags ready to get them.

Red Bull are totally screwed. I mean royally and totally.

^

 

But they do have the fastest jn season development. I expect them to get it right for barcelona. Those double points may come in handy.

come on macca

Double points is a stupid idea personally,  also i think RBR will get it right in the end, Adrian Newey is to good to get it wrong for long. most people think Rosberg is favorite if RBR dont get it right but i think Hamilton is by far the better driver.

Hamilton is faster but less consistent.

he also has had a lot of bad luck with tyres and engine failures, 

Button will win the world championship

#yearofthebutton

#ibelieveinmclaren

Hamiltons lack of consistency goes deeper than engine issuea

Edited March 2, 201412 yr by Icewolf

he is a little head strong agreed but on his day hes as good as anyone, im looking forward to see what my boys in Mclaren will do this year, Button is quality but not sure of the new boy. 

I'm also quite curious to see what caterham and marussia will do this season. Caterham had the better pre season test, basically being the team who has the most milage with a renault engine. But then again there is that renault engine. Marussia is using the ferrari which has proven to be a reasonably good engine for the two other teams but marussia has failed to get any sensible milage on their car. I really hope to see them fight in the mid field and even score some points, if any year this is a year full of chances for them. However i do feel a little bit of dread to see them battle for last again...

Dont forget williams are using Mercedes engines this year i believe, they could be the joker in the pack and Massa is no mug, also rod smedley has moved there  

We will wait and see in Melbourne

Of course I can't wait

I thought ferrarri basically admittez their engine underpeforms next to Mercedes