Official F1/Motorsport thread

[NW2013]

That'll probably have the same nose too! At least they look good, the 2009 McLaren looked like it had been battered in the nose with the ugly stick.

[Alastair]

Look at the engine fin meeting the rear wing!!!

[Roddie]

Considering how competitive McLaren were at the tail-end of 2009, it seems strange to have radically changed the design of the car. Guess time will tell...

[Alastair]

They needed to do something though as they were rubbish on fast tracks.

[Roddie]

If you thought that BrawnGP were short of sponsors at the start of 2009, wait until you see Sauber in 2010!

http://www.planet-f1.com/Gallery_Detail/0,17732,3524_5904360_0,00.html

[Richard.John]

Shame that he era of shark fins will stay. Horrible looking.

[Bort]

Vitaly Petrov has been confirmed as the second driver at renault and they've shown the new car off. I'll link to protect your eyes.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81147

[Roddie]

Shame that he era of shark fins will stay. Horrible looking.

I disagree. I've always had a bit of a soft spot for them

As for the Renault paint job, might look alright if it weren't for the red bits.

[Flabio]

I quite like the new Renault colour scheme. Reminds me of the later Jordan cars.

[cutmymilk]

Yes, its very Jordan. It just needs a serpant's head at the front. Grrrr

[Senna]

Take part in this F1 survey, which will be published in the next couple of months in F1 Racing magazine.

http://www.lgf1racingfansurvey.com/

I don't normally do surveys, but this one I was happy to do because it seems that finally the FIA might be standing up and prepared to listen to the real fans.

I made sure I registered my dislike of KERS, that they have to retain the classic tracks (Silverstone, Suzuka, Spa, Monza, Interlagos, Monaco etc) and avoid bringing in absolute steaming piles of rubbish like Valencia and to a lesser extent China, Singapore etc which totally lack character and atmosphere. Also that there needs to be more reliance upon driver's skills, just wish they had the option to choose manual gears, proper clutch, steel brakes etc.

P.S. Is anyone else following the testing times religiously? I haven't done it for years, but my interest is sky high at the moment. The Ferrari looks very fast so far but it's early days. Tomorrow will be a corker - Schumacher, Button and Alonso all on the track at the same time. Particularly interested in Alonso's first taste of the new Ferrari, and seeing what lap times Schumacher can do - can he take the Mercedes into the 1m11s range (Massa fastest so far on a 1m11.7 lap).

Bring on 14 March!

[Roddie]

Nice collection of photos from the Valencia test on the BBC site:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8491201.stm

[Alastair]

Thanks for those, very nice indeed.

[NW2013]

Are there any pics of the Virgin cars out there yet? Been testing at Silverstone.

[Alastair]

Not many yet: