Pre-Season 2012 New Car Images & Discussion

As we approach the launch dates for the 2012 cars I challenge you to be the first person to post a picture of them starting with Caterham,

The winners gets a big

This has been posted elsewhere, but I believe this is the first imagery in the public space, albeit an illustration.

http://www.auto.it/autosprint/formula_1/2012/01/23-10200/I segreti della Ferrari F12 oggi su AS

Both this image and the details of the Lotus suspension set up seem to come from the same source, one Giorgio Piola who appears to be a technical illustrator and analyst who has been relatively widely published on the topic of F1 both in book form and through magazines. Though where he has got the details from is anyones guess, though being Italian, recognised in the industry and relatively well respected I would hazard a guess that he has a good working relationship with Ferrari and has some sort of access others haven't had yet...

Well, I am wondering if certain things are being leaked as they are a different approach to the other teams, just to see who jumps up and down about them. It has been done before in other ways, Brawn raising the DD in technical meetings with all the teams and no-one biting so he went ahead with it, the active suspension setup on the Williams was public knowledge before the first race, but not with enough time for others to change their approach etc etc. It save getting to the first race and having the stewards questioning the car design too closely as all things like this are clarified well before then....

I know that queries can be cleared with Charlie, but look at the case of the Lotus/Ferrari leveling suspension from this year. Charlie gave them the go ahead at least 12 months ago, and it wasn't until the other teams got the details and started to jump up and down that it suddenly gets banned despite being the same design as it was before when it got approval. The DD got approval from Charlie before it was built, but they still had to go through the whole court procedure to determine the legality of it. If you had an innovation that took you nearly 12 months to work out how to get it right, would you not test the waters a few weeks before the car launches just to see who is going to cry foul? At least that way you get time to rectify an issue if it is made illegal before testing and races, but others still don't have enough time to get it on their car for the first race. Makes good sense to me

Looks very Square! Not too pretty either. Think its the odd cockpit shape with the sudden dip!

I guess they won't care if its quick though

Is it me, or is the upper fin on the front wing lopsided? The one viewed on the left of the picture appears to be longer than the one on the right?

Galahad, no, not by releasing the entire car, but it does appear that Ferrari are almost there as they are releasing big parts of it at a time....

Its even uglier from the side!

(realises he showing himself up as a none techy)

I think that's an optical illusion because of the centrefold of the magazine.

Damn!!!! To late with the pics.

It looks... different. Will be interesting to see how it performs I guess.