The first of todays launches is the new Sauber C31, at 10am from Jerez. With Lotus stating they can make 4th, Force India wanting 5th in the constructors, and Caterham wanting points, will Peter Sauber come out with a target for his team this year? Does anyone believe they can challenge for 5th place, or is a lower midfield finish on the cards? Another important question is how will they cope with the loss of James Key, their technical director? Such a late personnel change is unlikely to have effected the conception of the C31, but will Sauber struggle with development with the man behind their car no longer there? The C31 itself looks set to follow in the unfortunate trend seen this season for stepped noses: What about the livery colour? A teaser image of the new C31 have been released: Could we be seeing a return to the older style of Sauber livery?
I dint like the last 2 years livery. It made the team look 'Budget' like and in limbo. Hopefully this new livery will make the team look like a meaningful racing team again. It seems like things are coming together for them but they still sit in Ferrari's shadow.
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Perhaps my expectations are quite low because of all the ugly cars we’ve seen, but that doesn’t look too bad at all. Certainly not as nice as the McLaren, but I would say it’s the second best looking car so far.
In terms of implementation of the 550mm nose it looks slightly better than the Ferrari but not as nice as the Lotus. It's interesting that most of the teams have incorporated elements of the V nose ridges but the Ferrari is completely flat. Surely that's going to be like trying to drive a brick through the air instead of an arrow? The Sauber is pretty uninspiring from those photos in other respects, in keeping with recent years: a bog-standard, basically decent F1 car. Their ambition is to run in the midfield this season, perhaps.
Well both the Sauber drivers seem to be happy with the new rules (closer matched tyre compounds and exhaust rules) but will the car be good enough for them to get their cars into the points. If Perez can put in another good and improved season he can have a chance of getting the 2013 Ferrari seat.
The car is not bad. Remember that Sauber stopped developing their EBD after Silverstone while the other midfield teams continued to develop it. This should give Sauber an advantage this year, at least for the first few races.
Looks like sauber are not going to replace James Keys and will go it alone without a technical director.
Not too bad. As with last year though, the top half of the car isn't too adventurous in terms of aero, a bit too flat. Key thing from Sauber last year was they were much gentler on the Pirellis without losing too much pace. If they keep that this year then they could be a good shout for the midfield battle.
Don't you think the Lotus looks better HappyAl? Personally, I think Sauber's use of Lego is almost as lumpy as Ferrari's. Furthermore, in keeping with Sauber's traditionally hideous livery, they can't attempt to offset it with a lot of red paint. If Ferrari = ferugly, Sauber = sabugly.
Sauber's attempt to keep the exhaust gasses powering the diffuser: please log in to view this image If Charlie Whiting see that he'll have a fit
I'm cross-threading again but the Sauber doesn't get as much attention as some other cars even though it's quite a step forward. I read this yesterday, which describes the slots on top of and underneath the C31's nose: He goes on to describe the inspiration behind the method and identify the technique as part of the growing exploration of the integration of external and internal aerodynamics in F1.
It's hard to say how good the Sauber actually is, they seem to split their strategies far wider than others, Perez was one of (if not the) first change to wets, and Kobayashi one of the last, I think they're more interested in gettng one car in a high finish than 2 in a medium one, which makes sense for a midfield team with the newer points distribution.
