The 2015 Formula One Season

I heard the zebra skin RB is to protect certain aspects of the shape from spying eyes (no idea how this works) and Vettel may indeed keep the helmet for the whole season.

Also seen rumours that the actual RB11 won't make its debut until Barcelona and that this is merely the RB10 with a 2015 nose, and on the surface it very much looks like that.

Some are taking that to mean the RB11 won't debut until after the flyaway races, but if its true, it's bound to mean the Barcelona test, much like Force India are doing.

The camouflage is often used by car makers to hide certain aspects of a car's bodywork before it's released, so that not even spy photos can tell how it's shaped.



If RBR were so badly behind schedule, they might actually be running a modified RB10 and hiding it with the livery. Only way to tell is to get really close to the car, and that's like getting close to the US president more or less.



Stats: 139 Starts / 7 Wins / 9 Poles / 5 Fastest laps

I'm pretty sure that is the RB11, testing at Jerez. Obviously it'll have more developments by the time it gets to Melbourne, like all the other cars but I see little point in camouflaging a hybrid RB10

Pretty decent aesthetics across the field so far (Sauber excepted).

Can't really tell much from the running so far except that Merc are testing their car beyond endurance and to destruction whilst Ferrari seem to be aiming to win what Ron Dennis would call the 'winter championships'. Sauber seem to be going for morale boosting times as well, but after last year they kind of need that.

Williams simply seem to be working diligently through a programme, like last year they aren't bothering even trying for lap-times until the next tests.

Respectable recovery by Lotus after the rather clumsy fail of not getting the car ready in time to ship out for day one, but at least they're there and running. Force India's absence is too suspicious. I don't buy this longer development thing, just too risky with such limited testing available.

Quote
J i m
I'm pretty sure that is the RB11, testing at Jerez. Obviously it'll have more developments by the time it gets to Melbourne, like all the other cars but I see little point in camouflaging a hybrid RB10

Judging by the comments it was a pretty worthless exercise from a technical point of view as most of the new details have already been reported.

Anyway, it wasn't really camouflage in the true sense (nothing random about it, more just batches of shapes and lines, none of which seemed to have any baring on masking the shape, and none of the important bits (the upper floor and rear end) had any "camouflage" at all.

It was pretty much a stunt, and damn did it work - look at the amount of publicity it got!

I'd still love to see it race, even if that's probably just the abstract artist in me.

When was the last time a top team used a year-old car in the opening races? Think it was Ferrari 10 years ago IIRC.

---

Super Aguri, though obviously not in the same way.

Super Aguri must have the record for the oldest chassis used in the modern era. The SA05(And SA06, really) was a stonker.

---

What Super Aguri manged with those cars, especially the arrows which was.. what about four years old, and only semi competitive when contemporary was actually pretty impressive.

Seems Honda might have made a break through today, Alonso is getting some laps in that aren't in basically 'crawl home' mode.

McLaren used the 2002 cars throughout the whole of 2003. Not exactly sure of the reason behind it, but I think it was due to the original 2003 car failing to meet certain requirements. Still, teams nowadays shouldn't have any reasons to use the previous seasons car unless they absolutely have to.

---

The B-spec 2002 Macca was meant to complete in just the opening races of 2003, but when the MP4-18 turned out to be a technical nightmare, plus the "interim" car was doing better than expected in the hands of Kimi, they eventually decided to stick with it for the whole season.

And yeah, Super Aguri did do a pretty epic job, they don't get enough credit for it really.

Alonso did do a decent run this morning, think he more than doubled the number of laps the McLaren-Honda had done up to that point.

---

I think the main problem with the MP4/18 (I think it was) was that it simply wasn't reliable enough for them to be confident enough to race it. The development continued on the MP4/17 in a dual programme through out the season and many MP4/18 concepts found their way onto the MP4/17.

The MP4/19, in looks was basically a MP4/18 which didn't break down as much

It was all a bit embarrassing really, a big fuss was made about how 'radical' the MP4/18 was, how it was supposed to be a Ferrari beater, then it never raced, and the MP4/19 was still not a Ferrari beater.

J i m Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The MP4/19, in looks was basically a MP4/18 which
> didn't break down as much

Only just, at the beginning of the season anyways. I've never been as disappointed by a McLaren as I was by that one. My enduring memory of that car is of Kimi blowing its arse off in Bahrain.

---

This was just posted on twitter:



If that is a RB10 running at Jerez, it's heavily modified. Different nose, front suspension layout, turning vanes, a bit smaller sidepods, bigger rear air exit, different rear wing... more or less what I spot.

I'm pretty sure to say now, that is the RB11. The camo was for eye-catching purposes, I believe, and boy did it catch my eye.



Stats: 139 Starts / 7 Wins / 9 Poles / 5 Fastest laps

Test results added to P1 for anyone that wants to see. Any other suggestions for the post?

Thanks,
Iain.

That first post is blossoming, nice work. Can't think of any improvements to it as such.

Interesting to see Ferrari(with Seb at least) looking quietly promising so far. And I'll admit I never expected McLaren to be that slow, although today at least they've started showing an improvement.

---

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2015 10:13PM by EC83.

First reports coming up that say there won't be a German GP this season, apparently financial issues [www.motorsport-magazin.com] (article in german, too lazy to search for an english one)

---

Some mods
F1 1996 | F1 2002 | F1 2007 | F1 2011 | F1 2013 | F1 2015 | F1 2018

Carlitox Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The
> camo was for eye-catching purposes, I believe, and
> boy did it catch my eye.

That type of camo is used extensively in the automotive industry, when new models are tested on public roads and some times on test tracks too, before release. Their purpose is to mask body features. If you take a picture or film a car with that kind of paint-work, it is difficult to work out the exact lines of the body shape. I think it is very fair to conclude, that the camo was there to hide something, NOT to catch attention. That is not say that, that they specifically wanted to hide the aero. Perhaps there is something else, which the camo paint job works as a distraction from, thus leading prying eyes to investigate the wrong thing.

---

It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.

Quote
Morbid
That type of camo is used extensively in the automotive industry, when new models are tested on public roads and some times on test tracks too, before release. Their purpose is to mask body features.

It's not he same here though. The camouflage used normally is repeating shapes of differing sizes, with zero space for sponsors logos.

This is a more random collection of different shapes - this was primarily about promotion (and I'm not complaining - it looks brilliant to me). The different external features have already been uncovered and discussed by the media, and I'm sure Red Bull's rivals are way ahead of the media.

Better add Manor back onto the entry list - exiting administration and they're getting the prize money, too!

[www1.skysports.com]

---

GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager