I have to say after seeing the new Ferrari and Force India revealed today im a little worried for McLaren.
Lets start with Force India. I've compared shots from different views and I have to say the Force India looks to be more tightly packaged and have smaller sidepod inlets than the McLaren. It also has a "double" undercut floor, which helps aerodynamic flow to the rear of the car and the actual rear is very tidy with a large inlet to the starter motor hole.
On to the Ferrari - I know there are a lot of comments about how "ugly" it looks, but if you forget about that for a minute then the car is hugely innovative and a great display of engineering. They have got very small sidepods and have clearly used some new techniques to reduce the size of the impact structures. They are using pull-rod suspension at the front - the first time a car has used that in F1 for over 10 years, and they believe this will assist aerodynamics for their concept. The most interesting part by far is the back of the car where they have firstly built in a sort of chimney-like funnel for the exhaust outlet and managed to get it very close to the rear brake-ducts, which are widely recognised to be the most advantageous option for blowing exhausts in 2012. They have then made a new even slimmer gearbox that has allowed them to package the rear even more tightly and they have a very interesting circular plate between the rear beam wing and diffuser that appears to have the purpose of venting airflow down to the diffuser.
Compare this to McLaren - from their launch all we see is that they have a tidy car, that isn't even as tidy as the Force India and everyone is talking about how pretty their nose looks, but that it is aerodynamically inefficient because it does not allow airflow to the rest of the car to be maximized. Other than that I really do not know what to say. There were so many rumours of how we were going to be shocked or amazed at the launch and I find it quite disappointing. They say they have lots of bits to add on during testing but Ferrari seem to have a package that is already much more advanced, with new front and rear wings already attached before the first test.
All in all, my summary is that I think Force India will be strong in 2012 and will put up a big challenge for 5th place. Ferrari I believe could be the team to beat, if I were a betting person I would put money on them to win the WDC and Alonso to win the first race, right now. McLaren meanwhile I feel will turn up at the first race and be off the pace and may even end up behind Mercedes.
I know things could change hugely and we are still to see the Red Bull, but these are just my thoughts so far.
