Quote from deggis :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/56875031@N06/6759549483/

Lovely.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97234
Adrian Sutil has been given an 18-month suspended sentence

I don't understand why they are saying "The conviction will be a blow to Sutil's hopes of returning to Formula 1 in the future" because if this matter had been settled earlier Sutil might still have a seat in F1. If anything the sentence know that it is known and certain will help him to find a seat for 2012 and onwards. The conviction was never going to be a problem as long as it was going to be a suspended sentence. What was the problem was the uncertainty about whether it was suspended or with bubba.

Having a suspended sentence on you definitely does not help getting any drives though although I'd personally still replace trulli with sutil in a hearbeat (have I mentioned this before? ). I just don't understand how trulli gets to keep his seat after the totally useless 2011 season. Heikki absolutely beat trulli on every area and heikki is not imho a top driver in f1 so trulli must have been really really bad. Kubica in full body cast would have probably done better job than trulli imho.

Anyways, mclaren car release tomorrow. Interesting to see what the car looks like.

Predictions for 2012 attached in the txt file.

Statistics:
1. Who will win drivers' world championship: Vet 31%
2. Which team will win constructors' world championship: Mcl 57%
3. How do you think Brüno Senna will do in 2012 (rate 1-10): 5,8
4. How do you think Kimi Räikkönen will do in 2012 (rate 1-10): 6,2
5. How do you think Nico Hulkenberg will do in 2012 (rate 1-10): 6,4
6. How do you think Romain Grosjean will do in 2012 (rate 1-10): 6,6
7. First driver you think will lose his drive during 2012: HRT
8. Will Caterham score points in 2012: Yes 69%
9. Do you think Massa will win at least one race in 2012? No 75%
10. Does Kubica drive F1 car before the last race? No 62%
11: Winner of Australian gp: Ham 50%
12. Winner of American gp: Ham 31%
13. How many points will the dwc winning driver have at the end of the season: 254,75

No more edits

This was on Autosport and Skysports website earlier, but has since been removed for some reason.

Quote :

McLaren ready for legality fight over new MP4-27

McLaren is bracing itself for a battle over the legality of its new MP4-27, AUTOSPORT can reveal.

According to McLaren Applied Technologies managing director Geoff McGrath, the new car, which is launched tomorrow, will feature obvious design innovations which could potentially attract protests from rivals.

These are the result of the team's aim to be less conservative in the interpretation of the Formula 1 regulations than it has been in previous years.

"There are technical innovations on the car which will be immediately obvious when you see them," said McGrath, who added that McLaren is "getting ready for a fight" over its new machine.

McGrath admitted that McLaren has paid the price for being overly cautious in previous seasons. The team has finished behind Red Bull in the constructors' championship in the past three years and must start the season strongly if it is to end that run.

"We've started way behind in the last couple of years — that's the really disappointing thing," he said. "But when we're behind, you can see that historically we always catch up faster than anyone else.

"Until we go to the first test in Jerez [which starts on February 7], the engineers won't know for sure if they got it right."

It is understood that McLaren is focusing on single-lap speed with the MP4-27, which it hopes will allow it to take more pole positions and control races from the front.

McGrath added that beating qualifying master Sebastian Vettel will be crucial if McLaren is to be successful in 2012, particularly as its analysis indicated that the raw pace of last year's MP4-26 was superior towards the end of the season despite Red Bull and Vettel's run of poles.

"He must be a brilliant driver, because by the end of last season we definitely had the best car and he was still whupping us," McGrath said.

"We're trying to figure out exactly what he's doing that's so good. How does he pull out that fast qualifying lap every time? We think it's driver skill. There's no trickery on the cars, he just gets more out of it than we do."

Quote :

These are the result of the team's aim to be less conservative in the interpretation of the Formula 1 regulations than it has been in previous years.

less conservative? F-duct, those crazy U shaped sidepods... they certainly haven't been conservative aerodynamically. So I guess they must be talking about something mechanical.

McLaren need to be more conservative in my opinion. They need to build a solid car instead of trying to innovate and trick their way into the lead. Look at Red Bull, at Silverstone they stripped away all the gimmicks and innovations, and utterly destroyed McLaren, because they have a solid car that works even without double diffusers, blown diffusers, F-Ducts, KERS...etc. McLaren builds a dog of a car, then tries to innovate their way around its flaws, it usually works, and by the end of the year they have the best car, but then they ****ing scrap it and start over.

EDIT:

And an HRT wannabe?

Good lookin'.

If only it looked like that.

I love the black livery, although I don't know if it will make up for the car potentially looking like a platypuss or a duck of some sort.

Pic of the new mclaren:
http://alturl.com/yry3j

Well that's lame. Wanted wings and guns and stuff.

Not a ducknose !!!

www.mclaren.com/formula1

Bit late, but the launch was broadcasted online too. Lewis and Jenson are being interviewed.

Quote :

These are the result of the team's aim to be less conservative in the interpretation of the Formula 1 regulations than it has been in previous years.

"There are technical innovations on the car which will be immediately obvious when you see them," said McGrath, who added that McLaren is "getting ready for a fight" over its new machine.

This is why the article was pulled. It was clearly bullshit. This car is to the extreme end of conservatism.

exhaust location sure isn't conservative, not sure if it's legal though

The exhaust bulge looks a bit artificial. Looks more like a cover to hide something than a real design...
Pics:
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/201 ... -27-2012-f1-car-pictures/

They;ll be trying a number of exhaust positions no doubt, just like most other teams.

as F1 tech says on closer inspection a lot of the car looks to be dummy, guess we need to wait for first test to see whats real

Some decent pics...

Black rims make a difference aesthetically

Looks like a nice car, less like they are trying to do something new for an advantage so hopefully they having a less radical car equals more time spent making it quicker.

Interestingly looking around, every shot I have seen come out so far is front, side but none of the back - wonder what they are hiding back there.

To be honest, the MP4-27 actually looks pretty nice, even with the chrome and all. Glad that 2012 holds something nice to look at during the races when they get boring.

I somehow expected one of the top-teams to have a traditional low nose. Let's wait and see if Red Bull, Ferrari and one of the close followers have a similar nose.

I really really hope they to. If only the rear wing would be allowed to be wider, the 2012 McLaren would be one of the best looking F1 car since a while.