Ferrari has unveiled the SF15-T, the car with which Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen hope to reverse the team’s fortunes after a difficult 2014 season.
It’s also the first car that James Allison can claim full responsibility for, after he joined while last year’s car was well under development.
More later…
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Not many major sponsors feature on the new C34
Sauber slipped to 10th in the World Championship last season after failing to score a point.
“2014 was a very disappointing year,” said Kaltenborn. “However, this is in the past, and we now focus on what comes next. We have learned our lessons and are confident for the new season. We have to improve, and be able to fight for championship points.
“For the Sauber F1 Team 2015 is its 23rd season in F1; it is the fourth oldest of the current brands.”
She has faith in the new driver combination: “I am delighted about our two new drivers who bring a breath of fresh air. Both are young, talented and highly motivated. On their way to Formula 1 both stood out through victories in Formula BMW and Formula 3. Both then finished this career progression off in the GP2-Series. While Marcus looks back to one season in F1, Felipe will have his rookie year in which he comes fully prepared due to his role as test and reserve driver at Williams last year. I feel confident with regard to our drivers.”
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A new look for Sauber
As announced in November Nasr’s longtime sponsor, Banco do Brasil, features heavily in the new livery. Ericsson will drive the car at Jerez on Sunday.
Sauber says that chief designer Eric Gandelin focussed on performance in slow corners, weight reduction and braking stability.
Outlining some of the key changes, the team said: “The sidepods of the new Sauber C34, are now slimmer than those of the Sauber C33, despite higher cooling requirements from the new power unit. This has been made possible by modifications to the attachment of the side crash elements. In addition, the architecture of the radiators, which are now positioned horizontally, has been fundamentally revised.
“The engineers also paid great attention to the flexibility of the cooling system, which can be adapted precisely – and individually for the various components – to the ambient temperature and circuit characteristics. For example, small air vents on the side of the cockpit are only used in certain situations. Beyond this, the rear section as a whole is less voluminous, which benefits aerodynamic efficiency.
“In terms of its concept, the engine is very much comparable with last year’s, but its architecture has changed significantly, necessitating numerous adjustments to the chassis.
“The exhaust tailpipe is again positioned centrally between two pylons, though they are no longer supported by the rear crash element, but by the gearbox housing.
“The spring and damper elements at the rear axle are again pullrod-actuated, but otherwise this is a totally new construction with separate lower wishbone legs. In addition, the engineers worked on improving the mechanical traction. Besides a number of other parts, there will be optimised gear ratios to support this effort.”
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The MP4-30 seems to shout ‘Mercedes’ more than ‘Honda’…
The team noted that the MP4-30 “features an evolved colour scheme that firmly contextualises McLaren’s brand in the 21st century.” At first glance it would appear that Ron Dennis is convinced that the world associates the current livery with McLaren as a team, and not Mercedes, even if others in the camp may believe differently.
However this writer understands that while the team has not stated that what we saw today is an interim or testing livery, the car could yet look different by the first race in Melbourne – and at the very least the option still exists to change.
It’s worth noting too that while Santander remains on the team’s website it did not feature on the car or drivers today. Apparently negotiations are still ongoing, and the death last September of the company’s former boss and huge F1/Alonso fan Emilio Boton may have complicated matters. Intriguingly Jenson Button Tweeted recently that he was filming a Santander ad.
It remains to be seen whether a new deal with Santander or perhaps another yet-to-be-announced sponsor means that what we saw today is a temporary livery that was a quick and easy solution for the launch.
It was certainly one that will match the transporters and so on that will be in the paddock at the three upcoming tests in Spain. If there is a late change of car livery before Australia then there is plenty of time to repaint the transporters before they are next seen again at the Spanish GP in May.
Meanwhile a pre-Melbourne reveal of an all-new livery would be a second bite of the PR cherry for both the team and Honda.
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The new Mercedes ran at Silverstone today
It became the second 2015 car to run after the Toro Rosso STR10 took to the track at Misano on Wednesday.
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Fernando Alonso’s return to McLaren is one of the biggest stories of the 2015 season. Here’s what he has to say about the team and the new relationship with Honda.
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Jenson Button says the team is fully motivated
However Button, who knows the Japanese company well from his BAR/Honda days, conceded that it won’t be easy.
“The off-season has really brought about a sense of renewal coming into 2015,” he said. “Continuing my relationship with McLaren, getting married, and now embarking on such an exciting chapter: McLaren’s new partnership with Honda. I’ve trained hard over the winter, and I’m absolutely itching to get going in the new McLaren-Honda MP4-30.
“It’s been interesting to spend time in the factory during the past few weeks: you can really sense a feeling of reignited optimism and positivity around the building. I’ve never seen such motivation amongst the guys – we’re all massively keen to get going in Jerez and to work hard on developing our new car.
“But we’re under no illusion that it will be easy – there’s a huge challenge ahead of us to try to pull back the gap to our rivals, but we’re certainly up for it. We ended last season with great momentum and clear progress, and I’m determined to carry that forward into 2015.
“I’m also looking forward to working with my new team-mate, Fernando, and I’m confident that our joint experience on track will pay dividends in our development race to get our team back to the front of the grid. I’m hugely motivated to make more history in this new McLaren-Honda era.”
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Alonso is raring to go in 2015…
The Spaniard acknowledges that there’s still a lot of learning to do.
“Although the winter period is a time for rest and relaxation from racing, my motivation could not be stronger for the new season,” he said. “I’ve done a lot of training during the winter break, to reach my peak physical fitness, and I’ve been working hard in preparation for this new era of McLaren-Honda. I’ve never felt better, or more ready for a new season.
“Of course, we’re prepared for a steep learning curve, but it’s clear to see that inside McLaren-Honda there’s total commitment, and a real change in feeling, as we start this new partnership. We’re all focused on the challenge ahead, and I feel extremely honoured to be part of a relationship that has shared so much history together. My aim is to help write a new chapter in the history of McLaren-Honda.
“We understand the effort and teamwork required to take McLaren-Honda back to where it should be, at the front of the grid, and all our energy as a team is focused on that goal.”
Alonso says he expects winter testing to be challenging for the new partnership.
“Our first target will be to learn the maximum from the car at the pre-season tests, understand the package, and extract as much performance as possible. That won’t be easy or trouble-free, but we’re ready for that. Why? Because our key focus will be on development.
“Historically, McLaren has already been characterised by its ability to bring updates to the car quickly, and develop a strong package. It’s going to be a real privilege to be the first person to drive the new McLaren-Honda MP4-30 at Jerez, and I can’t wait to begin what I’m certain will be a very exciting new chapter in my career. I’m as motivated now as I was when I was given my first opportunity at the wheel of an F1 car.”
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The MP4-30 is here at last
It’s also the first to feature the input of former Red Bull Racing aero chief Peter Prodromou, who rejoined the team late last year, and holds the title of chief engineer.
The other key players behind the new car include technical director Tim Goss, director of engineering Matt Morris, and director of design and development programmes, Neil Oatley.
Ron Dennis said: “McLaren-Honda is a partnership focused on performance, technology and innovation, and there’s no better example of that than the results achieved in our first collaboration in the 1980s and 1990s. I was Team Principal all those years ago and, while I don’t tend to like looking back to the past, our previous record of sustained success was certainly instrumental in creating the confidence to make the decision to partner with Honda again. Now, there’s real hunger to demonstrate the capabilities of the huge talent pool we share between us, and I’m totally committed to driving progress and achieving further success.
“Although our renewed alliance began again many months ago, the launch of the McLaren-Honda MP4-30 marks the start of a lengthy journey. We’ve come a long way already and, although there’s a lot of work to do before we can expect to repeat the level of success we enjoyed together 25-or-so years ago, it’s already clear that there’s enormous synergy and potential in our partnership, and I’m positive that, together, we’ll get to where we want to be: winning Grands Prix and eventually World Championships as McLaren-Honda.”
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The 2014 season was a difficult one for Renault Sport and its chief technical officer Rob White, but the company has made big changes for this season both in terms of the organisation and the V6 power unit and its associated systems. In a Q&A provided by Renault White explained what has been changed within the constraints of the FIA’s token system.
Q: What are the challenges going into the second year of the power units?
“Year two of a new engine is always difficult. The 2015 power unit project was started six months before the 2014 units took to the track, ie before we had any significant experience of the technology. Then we also need to consider the issues arising during the season. It creates a need to be both forward thinking and reactive. Splitting resources between projects is a delicate balancing act, in the short, mid and long term. While certain decisions can be taken upstream, a number of design decisions were taken quite late in the day, in order to benefit from the experience of the 2014 power unit. The result is a power unit that is very different to its predecessor.”
Q: What are the principal changes to the Renault Energy F1 for the 2015 season?
“We have made some fundamental changes to gain performance and reliability. We have upgraded every system and subsystem, with items that will give the most performance prioritised. The principal changes involve the internal combustion engine, turbocharger and battery. The ICE will have a new combustion chamber, exhaust system concept and variable trumpets, as permitted by the 2015 regulations. The compressor is more efficient, while the energy recovery systems are able to deal with more severe usage. The 2014 unit was already well placed in its centre of gravity, however we have tidied up the packaging to give greater ease of integration into the chassis. Additionally many systems and functions have been rationalised and simplified to further ease the task. In short, there are very few carry over pieces between the 2014 and 2015 power units.”
Q: This year the power unit is broken down into ‘tokens’. How does this system work?
“This year there are regulatory limits to do with ‘token’ spend that determine the number of changes we can make. The power unit is divided into sections and then subassemblies associated to it. The total number of tokens within the power unit is equal to 66. Five out of the 66 tokens are not available for change as they are frozen. An engine manufacturer is able to select 32 token areas, or 48% of the engine, which he would like to change. As the technology gets more mature next year and beyond there will be fewer and fewer tokens available to spend. Clearly the juggling act we need to perform is which areas of the power unit are the most worthwhile to attack for performance reasons.”
Q: How has Renault decided to allocate its tokens?
“We have used the majority of the tokens for the first race and our use of tokens during the course of the season will be relatively modest. It then becomes a matter of strategy about when you introduce the remaining tokens; whether to introduce at the start of the season when the technology is relatively immature but could give greater relative performance, or later in the season when the part has had more testing miles but the impact on performance will be potentially less. We can still make changes for reliability under the sporting regulations. We have therefore prioritised token spend to make as much headway as possible with performance.”
Q: What are your aims for 2015?
“First and foremost we need to run reliably, be quick and closer to front. Our honest expectation is that we will make a decent improvement but it is difficult to quantify the gain relative to our competitors who will also progress. What we can say is that we are on course to make a significant performance step and resolve the principal reliability weaknesses by the time we get to the first race.”
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Adam Cooper F1 