2012 Car Launches and Testing Thread

How long has it been since an unexpected race win from a car lower down in the pack, was it actually Vettel's win in the Torro Rosso? I can't recall how it happened but it would be great to see something similar from a mid-pack team. Is it possible with some sort of mid-season super update or is it purely down to a mixture of luck and driver skill?

Back then the Torro Rosso chassis was identical to the Red Bull. Ain't like that any longer.
 
the only thing like that in recent memory is Nico in the williams in Brazil Qualifying
 
Sooo... German TV expert and former racing driver Christian Danner has laid down his prognosis: Red Bull (German Driver) still in lead, McLaren (German Engine) and Mercedes (German Team) runner-ups and Ferrari (Italian) hopelessly behind.

Sounds like the German media isn't up to anything new.
 
In other words you think Ferrari are gonna quali 1 second ahead of the other teams in Melbourne...

No, I'm not going to have any premonitions about anything for this upcoming season until Melbourne.
 
Sounds like the German media isn't up to anything new.

Sounds a bit like BS to me. Danners prediction has nothing to do with nationalism, but with realism. That Red Bull and McLaren are the teams to watch is a no-brainer considering the results of the past two seasons. Mercedes is perhaps a tad optimistic, although I would expect them better than last year, because they invested heavily in luring top personel from other teams. 'Predicting' that Ferrari won't be in the mix is also not a really risky bet, considering the upheaval in Fiorano lately. Unless they staged all the strife as a media-spectacle and a decoy, their car seems to be not what they expected.

I think Danners prediction would match that of most other non-german experts. If anything, he should consider Force India, too. They've got a history of springing surprises (remember Fisichella's second at Spa?)

Sauber-F1-Test-Barcelona-fotoshowImage-5f54b00-572856.jpg
 
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In other news, the exhaust body work thing continues to rumble on. It seems that as long as the exhaust exits in the right place, you can then use a trench of bodywork to direct it straight back to where it was last year!
 
In other news, the exhaust body work thing continues to rumble on. It seems that as long as the exhaust exits in the right place, you can then use a trench of bodywork to direct it straight back to where it was last year!

Until the bodywork trenches get dramatically banned mid-season.
 
Sounds a bit like BS to me. Danners prediction has nothing to do with nationalism, but with realism. That Red Bull and McLaren are the teams to watch is a no-brainer considering the results of the past two seasons. Mercedes is perhaps a tad optimistic, although I would expect them better than last year, because they invested heavily in luring top personel from other teams. 'Predicting' that Ferrari won't be in the mix is also not a really risky bet, considering the upheaval in Fiorano lately. Unless they staged all the strife as a media-spectacle and a decoy, their car seems to be not what they expected.

I think Danners prediction would match that of most other non-german experts. If anything, he should consider Force India, too. They've got a history of springing surprises (remember Fisichella's second at Spa?)

Sauber-F1-Test-Barcelona-fotoshowImage-5f54b00-572856.jpg

Predictions and speculation are just that. We won't know anything until the cars hit the track this weekend.
 
They originally wanted to lower the bulkhead along with the nose but teams were very vocal about the setback that would put on the cars at that point.
 
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