Monday January 26, 2009

Those blood [sic] red cheats...

It seems Ferrari are perhaps stretching the rules again and have been accused of cheating but until the F60 is scrutineered during the first race then nothing will be proven. There are two causes of concern.....

The first is the exhaust pipe. It is visible on top of the side pod for quite a lot of its length instead of being under cover until its very end.

The second is the rear view mirrors which on a F1 car are pretty useless anyway. All the other teams have theirs mounted on short posts fixed to each side pod. Ferrari have theirs on a long vertical element that goes right down to where the side pod has a flat extension which I think is called a water wing. This vertical element must have an aerodynamic effect and in my mind goes against the regulation changes this year to remove the plethora of aero add ons that sprouted all over last years cars.

Meanwhile a couple of comments on a few of the other 2009 cars. The Renault has a big fat nose and looks quite ugly. The bodywork on that car has been called very basic and underdeveloped but the cars usually change a lot from their launch appearance to what they look like at the first race. The Renault has kept its shark fin which I thought would have been outlawed.

The Mclaren is quite simply drop dead gorgeous in its familiar silver/red colours and the detail on its body work is quite amazing. The front wing is especially extravagant. The Toyota looks ordinary in comparison. That team have almost been told - no win in 2009 - no team next year. They may well not use Kers at all this year, it might be that it causes their rival more problems than its alleged performance gains and if so Toyota will be making hay while the sun shines. If the other teams do get their Kers system working Toyota's reticence on using such a system may bite them hard.

As regards this Kers nonsense in the era of cost cutting getting the teams to develop Kers systems that will be replaced by standard ones in 2010 seems kind of crazy and wasteful. It will be interesting to see if William's system, the only one based on a flywheel steals a march on the other teams. Talking of that team, the nose on their car has been likened to a Pelican shape - first the Walrus nose now a pelican one, whatever next.

The team making clockwork precision progress up the team ladder is BMW Sauber. It is no surprise that they have met every one of their goals over the years being based in Switzerland. Apart from electrocuting one of their team their Kers system is meant to be the closest to being ready. Gary Anderson has likened to front wing on the BMW Sauber as being brutal, I don't really know what he means by that.

It will be interesting to see what the Adrian Newey designed Red Bull car take on the new 2009 regs is but of course one team unlikely to make an appearance is the now defunct Honda team. No buyer has been found although plenty of rumours abound including a Mexican named slim. It would have been interesting to see what they came up with.