Posted by ashleigh on
January 17, 2008
Red Bull RB4 Launch
Red Bull Racing have today unveiled their 2008 car, the RBR4. This car is the first one to be completely overseen by design guru Adrian Newey.
The car was launched at the second day of testing at the Jerez circuit, in Red Bull’s usual low key style. This car continues the look and style of the RB3 car (the first car Newey was involved in), but obviously takes on some of the ‘must have’ features that showed up last season and over the winter. These are thing’s like the bridged front aero and the obviously sculpted rear engine/exhaust setup.
With some luck this car will have a more reliable gearbox than the one on the RB3, as the team struggled with it all season last year.
David Coulthard had the chance to drive the car first, and it suffered a throttle problem in his first lap. However it seemed to be a small temporary glitch, and the car ran a few laps on the track without seeming to have a problem.
Posted by ashleigh on
January 14, 2008
BMW Sauber F1.08
BMW Sauber showed their 2008 challenger off today at their Munich offices today.
The car is quite obviously a very highly developed version of their 2007 car, showing significant aero modifications from the F1.07.
As you can see in the images below, the car has a sculpted aero profile over the front a rear (as is becoming common this season so far). You can also see that the front wing of the car has also been advanced in it’s design, over and above the three tier wing that they ran in some races last season.
The car certainly looks to have kept pace with the McLaren and Ferrari’s, however, have they been able to close the gap to the front two teams?
Mario Thiesen : We have come quite a long way in the two and a half years since the new team was created. We’ve had two strong seasons. We’ve put a lot of effort into the new car and the F1.08 includes everything we’ve learned in the first two years. Certainly we are very confident to turn the battle in front of us into a battle of more than two teams this year.
Posted by ashleigh on
January 11, 2008
Toyota Launch Pics
Here are a few more hi-res pictures from the Toyota launch event.
It’s interesting, the car is certainly a Toyota, however it’s quite different to the 2006/2007 car, and reminds me more of their more successful 2005 one, albeit in an updated for the hi-aero efficiency times.
I’m quite looking forward to the Toyota team this year (I am a fan, just look at the site’s title image after all), and I’m hoping with a rejuvenated driver line-up and a new car, that they can show significant progress this season.
Posted by ashleigh on
January 10, 2008
Toyota Launch the TF108
The TF108 has been launched today, and from the images and press information, seems to be a complete departure from their previous cars.
The car has a complete change to the layout of both the front end and rear of the car. The obvious changes are Aero based (like the McLaren nose copy), but this car has a stretched wheelbase, and new suspension layout.
Toyota seem to be the first team to show their car that have not directly improved their 2007 car, the TF108, is a complete departure on the aero and layout sides of things especially.
Pascal Vasselon says “The aerodynamic concept of this car has changed. The TF107 was an evolution of the TF106, but this time the new package is a departure from recent Toyotas. The primary aerodynamic design philosophy for the TF108 is geared towards optimising the entire package. In mechanical terms we felt we had a strong basis so we have focused on making a few refinements”
Posted by ashleigh on
January 7, 2008
McLaren MP4-23 Launch event pictures
Following the Ferrari shakedown picture’s, here are the McLaren launch pictures from today (Quick warning, some of the images are quite large 2+Mb when opened).
More pics after the jump.
