New Cars for 2015 Season

Hey - for once I managed to beat Fernando!


Was just reading the BBC sport pages and came across this:

Williams Reveal Car for F1 2015 Season




The only obvious changes appear to be to the nose, in line with the new regs. Apparently there have been some significant changes under the skin too. Last season's car came in well under weight and had to run with ballast. They've taken the opportunity to use some of the spare weight allocation.

Symonds said that another focus for Williams with the new car was to seek extra performance from parts that previously had been compromised by the need to be light.

They have been able to do this because the 2014 car was already well under the weight limit and carried ballast to make it legal. In addition, the cars' weight limit has been increased this year to ensure heavier drivers are not forced into losing weight to remain competitive.

Symonds said: "We felt we came up against design barriers in the FW36 and so took the opportunity to remove those barriers for the benefit of the performance.

"The FW36 carried a reasonable amount of ballast, so we were able to make alterations to the design for added performance without the fear of adding excessive mass."

Everyone please feel free to add more as other teams release pics...

FI livery gets a

Ooh - that Force India is pretty! Be great if its as fast as it looks.

Needs less black and more orange/silver for me tbh still pretty though

Dates for pictures releases apparently...
Ferrari - 30 January
Force India - Done
Lotus - Done
McLaren - 29 January
Mercedes - 1 February
Red Bull - 1st Test
Sauber - 30th January
Toro Rosso - 31 January
Williams - Done

Kind of an ugly nose on that Lotus. The livery is still nice though, looks subtly different from last season, rather than a major change.

McLaren are changing the livery this year apparently, at Honda's request. Thankgod

Apparently we may see a black livery for the McLaren during testing with a reveal later down the line...

Typical McLaren, always teasing you. Seen Alonso in some black & white McLaren garms, so probably will be a livery along similar lines.

Apparently it will be a lot "tighter" i suspect similar to the RB but with a better engine...Apparently Renault have overhauled the engine and is similar to the Mercedes one with the turbo at one end etc.

Nice looking car but I was rather hoping they'd go back to the classic red and white 80s livery.

Oh well...

Certainly better livery than last year, bit easier to spot among the pack with the red.

Looks like a Force India to me, look identical with just a red stripe, instead of an orange one.

Very disappointed with McLaren's paint job. Hopefully it wins races though.

Without a reg change like last year, these releases don't have that exciting feel, cos you know they are just evolutions. Just need testing to start

New Sauber

Well, least that's something different, that plain white needing changing, so glad it's gone.

I feel like that they've taken the IKEA sign and turned it into a car...

Is that he official photo or a random one, they look a unprofessional outfit in this lol! Kimi leaning on it, thinking this is another pile of **** & the geezer at the back, who probably designed it, looks drunk. Fernando knew was a dog & got out

I think they all know it's going to be a tough year. New team principal Maurizio Arrivabene has set the target of winning "at least two races" in 2015 after none last year. I guess that's him being optimistic, so expect them to fall short of achieving that target.

Well the Merc looks pretty similar to last year's car, apart from the obvious changes to the nose (more sloped and narrower).

Sauber looks tidy and the paint job rather harks back to the 70s with large areas of bright solid colour...nothing fancy.

Ferrari looks positively beautiful. If it goes anything like it looks, Kimi & co might have a happier season.

Fernando wrote:Apparently we may see a black livery for the McLaren during testing with a reveal later down the line...

Hopeful they go back to red and white.

Love that, just a test livery though

I hope it stays like that tbh. I suspect they have something on the car worth hiding...

1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1:22.620, 60 laps; 2. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1:22.777, 73 laps; 3. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:23.106, 157 laps; 4. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1:23.338, 35 laps; 5. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1:23.906, 73 laps; 6. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1:25.327, 46 laps; 7. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1:40.738, 6 laps

sportform wrote:

Fernando wrote:Apparently we may see a black livery for the McLaren during testing with a reveal later down the line...

Hopeful they go back to red and white.

Ron Dennis has confirmed McLaren will change their livery for this season...but is not saying when...


Toro Rosso looks very nice...echoes of the Red Bull and Ferrari cars.

Love RB's bizarre testing livery, but it seems a bit of a waste having something that extravagant just for testing.



Slightly worried by how little running McLaren have got in so far. Just 11 laps completed between Abu Dhabi and Jerez.

Is it just a coincidence that they've gone for a "shrink-wrapped" rear end like RB did a season or two ago and are experiencing "technical issues" like they did?

dyrewolfe wrote:Slightly worried by how little running McLaren have got in so far. Just 11 laps completed between Abu Dhabi and Jerez.

Is it just a coincidence that they've gone for a "shrink-wrapped" rear end like RB did a season or two ago and are experiencing "technical issues" like they did?

Does appear McLaren have taken some serious technical risks, according to Ron Dennis. He says that McLaren has never produced a more tightly packaged and better manufactured car in its history, as he hailed the work of his and Honda's design teams.

"The engine is an integral part of our 'size zero' philosophy," he said. "The car is phenomenally tightly packaged in the back end, that could cause issues to arise.

"[Chief engineer] Peter Prodromou and his team, I have to say, have taken full advantage of the level of detailing and the precision of manufacturing of the components has surpassed any McLaren standards of the past.

"The elegance of some of the aero solutions, as they are packaged into the suspension, brake ducts and all of these things, we think are to the level that we have never been able to achieve before.

Has the front wing been destroyed or are the intelligent minds at RB, just showing off their latest innovative breakthrough in the effectiveness of camouflage paint. I guess we won't be seeing how those front wings illegally flex this year.

Kvyat broke it & they don't have a replacement so they did 18 laps

Hamilton had a spin today & he's split up with Nicole Scherzinger. Oh dear. I see a year of mistakes & him being psychologically unstable. Just what Rosberg needed.

I see McLaren have endured more issues & Force India claiming they will make Australia, after reports they would struggle. Also, Ferrari aren't kidding anyone by running on low fuel all week.

LiamB wrote:Hamilton had a spin today & he's split up with Nicole Scherzinger. Oh dear. I see a year of mistakes & him being psychologically unstable. Just what Rosberg needed.

I see McLaren have endured more issues & Force India claiming they will make Australia, after reports they would struggle. Also, Ferrari aren't kidding anyone by running on low fuel all week.

Well, that depends on whether it was an amicable separation, or whether it was more than the relationship simply running its course.

Hope it doesn't throw Lewis psychologically. He's been in a good place mentally for most of last season. It'd be a shame if he went back to the state he was in before he left McLaren.


Speaking of which, I am mildly alarmed by these issues which keep cropping up and are seriously hampering their testing so far. If they don't banish the gremlins soon, I can see Alonso wishing he'd stayed with Ferrari.

And so the first test is over.

Mercedes plugged round reliably with Nico doing over 300 laps and Lewis over 200 on their respective pair of days. Serious mileage with few issues (one engine gremlin on LHs first day). Strong suspicions that they have been sand-bagging a bit regarding absolute pace.

Ferrari will be very happy. Fastest 3 days of 4, although pretty much acknowledged that they were chasing the times more than others. Lots of laps run though and it certainly looks like this year's car is better than last (then again, having a vacuum cleaner attachment on the nose must have compromised drag and rolling resistance).

Sauber similar to Ferrari. A nice headline on being quickest on day 3, but on soft tyres and low fuel. Lots of laps and with Nasr reckoning the current Ferrari engine is comparable with last year's Merc regarding power (noting that this year's MErc is rumoured to be about 50 bhp up on last year).

Williams a bit like Merc, although with a slower start to the test. Ended up with 100+ laps a day and only minor niggles. Again, it doesn't look as though they chased the headline times as much as the two Ferrari-powered teams above.

Torro Rosso also probably quite happy with the amount of reliable running and the performance of their two rookies.

Lotus saying they are happy with the running they got, as they were behind in production of the car and at one stage thought they would miss the test entirely. Not trouble free, but got well over 100 laps in overall, so worth their while.

Red Bull probably quite disappointed. Various niggles and the triviality of a broken front wing losing them most of the second day. Compared with the other teams that have stayed with the same power unit, they did fewest laps and with most troubles.

McLaren - was obviously going to be the ones in most trouble given the new power unit. After the troubles in Abu Dhabi and over the first two days, were probably quite happy just to get the car out on the track and circulating. Sorted out the electronic glitches and the failures over the last two days appear to have been to ancillary components rather than engine / cooling / ERS related. Does appear though that the tightly packaged bodywork makes working on the car difficult and time-consuming.

Oh, and the good news is that this year's cars are generally much better looking than last year's (especially the front ends).

Ferrari doing what they did last year running low fuel, Raikkonen was quickest on the first day in Jerez last year & look what happened. McLaren's issues were to be expected, nothing surprising there with a new power unit. Mercedes just focusing & making sure reliability is bulletproof, which let them down last year, pace is no issue. Do worry for Force India though.

As for Hamilton, I think he's grown & matured, so all this psychologically unstable because he's split up with Nicole, is nonsense.

If Ferrari have made a genuine step forward(I'm very skeptical as they've been going backwards for a long time) then Fernando Alonso might just regret not giving James Allison the chance to provide him a good car. Whilst I think Ferrari are bluffing(they are very good at doing that), the 2015 car looks a lot more drive able than the 2014 car. Coupled with a new engine configuration for the time the teams reach Europe, a few victories could be possible.

I've got no doubt James Allison has designed a better car than last year, he's a quality acquisition & will continue to improve Ferrari, however, I'm not getting carried away or fooled. Has Alonso made a bad decision, not for me. Both teams in transition & will both take time to catch Mercedes.

Craig Slater on Sky Sports: ''Ferrari have grabbed a lot of headlines over the four days here, you ran behind Kimi a bit today, what have you made of them?

Hamilton: ''Yeah I was behind for a few corners, the car looks good, but I mean, they are on a lot less fuel than us so... *smiles*

Nothing at all can be read into these tests. Ferrari ran many short stints so obviously short-fuelled hence the pace. I mean if the times over the four times are accurate does that mean Sauber will be vying for pole with Ferrari - two teams who had honking cars last year.

I highly doubt Hamilton is aware of how much fuel is in the Ferrari. Especially considering it's a vast improvement over last year so anything is going to look better from behind

Ferrari engine on top all 4 days if I'm not mistaken.

All fairly meaningless though. I wouldn't read much into any of it

Another interesting tidbit from BBC's testing update:

With such limited mileage, it is hard to come to any conclusions about McLaren-Honda's potential, especially given the contradictory signals.

On the one hand, racing director Boullier said he was "confident the base was good", and added that the "driver comments were very, very positive".

Equally, on the third day of the test, Alonso was lapping on intermediate tyres on a damp track at the same time as Rosberg's Mercedes. He was not losing much time, and at one point the timing screens showed a 'purple' time - for fastest of the day so far - in the first sector of the lap.

The McLaren car itself is a thing of beauty, with a wonderfully tightly packaged rear end, and leaning heavily on the lessons learned at Red Bull by new chief engineer Peter Prodromou.

On the negative side, though, the car was never remotely close to the pace in the dry. And when it finally got some dry running on the final day, Button was 16.6km/h slower through the speed trap than the next slowest car - and a whopping 30km/h off Felipe Massa's Williams, which was fastest.

Rivals looked at that and concluded the Honda was way down on power.

But sources close to McLaren said the car was running on 50% power for much of the day, and chairman Ron Dennis has already made it clear there will be new, more developed engines for the second test, and another iteration again for the final one.

It will, as Boullier says, take some time before it is clear exactly how much work McLaren and Honda have to do.

If its true that they were running well below max power and that they are going to continue to develop the engine, I guess there's no need to get despondent just yet. Seems improving reliability will be their biggest challenge.

There goes one half of the mobile roadworks

Average team lap times from Jerez, gives us some idea

1 Ferrari 1:23.873 - Clearly low fuel (drop three or four slots)
2 Red Bull 1:25.214
3 Williams 1:25.286
4 Mercedes 1:25.309 - Focusing on reliability (Still top dogs, up three slots)
5 Sauber 1:26.053
6 Toro Rosso 1:26.105
7 Lotus 1:26.564 - Adjusting to new power unit (Can see them slotting in behind McLaren/Ferrari)
8 McLaren 1:28.382 - Clearly at 50% power (Fourth quickest, once on full power)

Leaving aside the most obvious anomalies of Ferrari and McLaren, that looks a lot more sensible, in terms of a running order.

Educated guess of running order for 2015
1. Mercedes
2. Williams
3. Red Bull
4. McLaren
5. Ferrari
6. Lotus
7. Force India (most probably)
8. Sauber
9. Toro Rosso

You cant guess at a teams fuel loads and only account it for one team.