2015 "start-up"

[J.Clark]

Lotus too has now put up photos.

http://www.lotusf1team.com/news-archive/meet-the-e23-hybrid/

Frankly, it doesn't excite me like the Williams and even the Force India to some degree.

[Jericoke]

Lotus too has now put up photos.

http://www.lotusf1team.com/news-archive/meet-the-e23-hybrid/

Frankly, it doesn't excite me like the Williams and even the Force India to some degree.

Agreed.  The car looks bloated, and colour the scheme has drifted away from the JPS gold and black that gave Lotus that distinguished look in the past.

[John S]

Agreed.  The car looks bloated, and colour the scheme has drifted away from the JPS gold and black that gave Lotus that distinguished look in the past.

Bloated, bloated Jeri?    I looks positively lean mean & skinny from the front of the cockpit forward. 
Maybe it's bum does look big     - well chunky and aggressive because of this though. 

I likes it a lot,   think I also prefer the new colour scheme for getting away from the fashion for retro.

A real F1 challenger doesn't need to follow what's gone before, it should stand out for itself.

[J.Clark]

Driver line-ups for testing in Jerez are as follows:
Mercedes: Rosberg (Sunday, Tuesday), Hamilton (Monday, Wednesday)
Red Bull: Ricciardo (TBA), Kvyat (TBA)
Williams: Bottas (Sunday, Monday), Massa (Tuesday, Wednesday)
Ferrari: Vettel (TBA), Raikkonen (TBA)
McLaren: Alonso (Sunday, Tuesday), Button (Monday, Wednesday)
Force India: Hulkenberg (TBA), Perez (TBA)
Lotus: Grosjean (TBA), Maldonado (TBA)
Sauber: Ericsson (Sunday, Tuesday), Nasr (Monday, Wednesday)
Toro Rosso: Sainz Jr (Sunday, Tuesday), Verstappen (Monday, Wednesday)

Force India will run an "updated"  VJM07.

Horner admitted today, that the Red Bull is still not built.  They have stuck it out with Renault as well.  Does this mean we could see them struggle through testing as in 2014?

Speaking of Renault, with Caterham likely a no-show, is any team aside from Red Bull using their engines?

[F1fanaticBD]

Toro Rosso will be other team using Renault engine.. ( Toro Rosso is Red Bull in Italian so in a way only Red Bulls will be using it  )

[John S]

Looks like only Merc and Williams will get the new 2015 engine to play with at the first test.
FIF1 and Lotus will have to make do with the 2014 power plant, guess that's why FIF1 is bringing last year's chassis to Jerez.
I see the good old F1 custom of 'the haves and have not's is alive and well.     

Germany's Auto Motor und Sport, however, claims that Lotus will have to make do with the 2014 version of Mercedes' turbo V6 engine for the Jerez test.

The publication said another Mercedes customer, Force India, will follow the same strategy, with only the works team and its most competitive customer Williams to run the German marque's 2015 specification at the first test.

Master.motorsport.com, Today.

[cosworth151]

It looks like Red Bull waited until the last possible minute to start their build. They did it to maximize their development time.

http://www.racer.com/f1-red-bull-opts-for-late-car-build

[cosworth151]

Sauber & RBR will unveil their new cars on Friday, 30 January.

Here's the current list:

CAR LAUNCHES

January 29: McLaren
January 30: Sauber, Ferrari
January 31: Toro Rosso
February 1: Mercedes, Red Bull

PRE-SEASON TESTING

February 1-4: Jerez
February 19-22: Barcelona
February 26-March 1: Barcelona

http://www.racer.com/f1/item/112909-sauber-confirms-c34-launch-date

[F1fanaticBD]

Lotus via their Twitter account confirmed they will be using latest of Mercedes engines, contrary to the German report.

I think no one delayed their cr build more than Force India till now.

[J.Clark]

FIF1 will skip the Jerez test it seems.
I don't know about missing out on 1/3 of the pre-season testing, but it doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

RBR too may miss out on some things.  Horner says the car isn't done.

[Jericoke]

FIF1 will skip the Jerez test it seems.
I don't know about missing out on 1/3 of the pre-season testing, but it doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

RBR too may miss out on some things.  Horner says the car isn't done.

Sounds like a bad idea, but given how much modern F1 cars progress without inseason testing, I don't think it's as bad as it used to be.

If FIF1 is having financial trouble, then I guess the money is best spent otherways. 

And if Mallya can't be there, is there any point of running his hobby? 

[F1fanaticBD]

Mclaren launches its MP4-30, other than a heavy strips of red, not much of a difference from the previous years. I would have liked the change from silvers, but they seems to keeping it for a while.


http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/story/189681.html

[J.Clark]

I did like the video about the rekindled partnership.

I don't know about the rest of the livery.  There is an obvious lack of sponsorship logos.  I like the red stripe and mirrors, but it seems to me that they should perhaps have returned to a livery similar to what they had the last time it was the McLaren Honda team.

[cosworth151]

I liked the video, too.

I figured that they would leave the German silver behind with the Merc engines. I expected them to go Japanese white/red.

The blank flanks were very noticeable. I wonder if they have any sponsorship deals in the works.

[F1fanaticBD]

The blank flanks were very noticeable. I wonder if they have any sponsorship deals in the works.

There have been talks of a Japanese electronic giant's sponsorship since 2013, but unfortunately it did not materialise. Also there may be issue of amount for that sponsorship deal, which according to many sources Mclaren is very rigid about.