McLaren-Honda to launch F1 car on 29th January

The Honda-powered 2015 F1 car will be launched on 29th January while Ferrari will launch their car on 30th January.

McLaren and Ferrari have both confirmed that they will launch their 2015 cars online prior to the start of winter testing at Jerez on February 1.

The two teams have respectively announced January 29 and January 30 as the dates of the unveils, although there is no confirmation as to whether the cars will be shaken down at filming days prior to the Jerez test.

Force India had already confirmed that it will launch its 2015 livery in Mexico City on January 21.

F1 : Ferrari to stick with pull rod in 2015

Image shows the push rod suspension in the F150 (2011) & pull rod suspension in the F2012 (2012)

Ferrari is sticking with its unique pull-rod front suspension layout for a fourth consecutive season

Ferrari has been using the pull rod suspension since 2012, which had not previously been seen at the front of a F1 car since Minardi in 2001.

A pullrod layout can mean a lower nose, suspension and centre of gravity, but it is also known to be difficult to tune and less responsive to setup changes.

There are two main disadvantages to front pull-rod suspension. One is that the the upper wishbone must transmit more load, some of which would otherwise have been carried by the push-rod. 

The second disadvantage is it takes longer tune a pull-rod. This is important given the limited testing time in F1 today. Teams need to rapidly tune spring and damper settings and if the components are hidden away this is trickier and potentially reduces valuable track time.

Raikkonen had a season to forget last year and had been constantly complaining about the lack of precision at the front, which is a characteristic of pull rod suspension.

Vettel talks about his first 'fairytale' Ferrari experience

Sebastian Vettel continued his introduction to Scuderia Ferrari during the weekend when the German F1 driver met with his new team principal Maurizio Arravabene and company chairman Sergio Marchionne, as well as James Allison and the rest of the engineering team.

The meeting was followed by 100 laps in the F2012 at the Fiorano Circuit and a few sessions in the F14T simulator.

Vettel remembers his childhood days when he used to dream of working with Ferrari. He said “Obviously it’s been a fantastic day to come here,”.
“I remember I’ve been here a long time ago as a little child, driving through Maranello and trying to look over the fence, so to be here officially as part of the team felt fantastic.

“The possibility to drive the car and get to know the team was a unique experience. Obviously it’s a very different colour for me, everybody is dressed in red, everything is red, but it’s really something special and I’m very much looking forward to the challenge that we took on for the next years.”

Regarding the test, “Obviously, its already winter time so it was quite cold doing some laps but it was a great feeling, it is always enjoyable to be in the car and, again, looking back to the years when I was 11 or 12, trying to look over the fence and trying to see a glimpse of Michael running on the track, well, today I was the one running and saw the tifosi around."

Vettel tests Ferrari F2012

Sebastien Vettel, who will replace Fernando Alonso at Ferrari for the 2015 season got his first taste of driving for Ferrari when he tested the F2012 today on Fiorano test track. Vettel was also spotted at the Ferrari garage during the Abu Dhabi testing last week.

The F2012 is the most recent Ferrari Vettel is allowed to drive outside of an official session under F1’s stringent testing regulations.

According to FIA's F1 regulations Article 22.2 states that :

‘Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) shall be defined as any track running time, not part of an Event, in which a competitor entered in the Championship participates (or in which a third party participates on behalf of a competitor), using cars which were designed and built in order to comply with the 2010, 2011 or 2012 Formula One Technical Regulations.

‘TPC may only be carried out with cars built to the specification of the period and only tyres manufactured specifically for this purpose may be used.’

This is how the 2015 F1 Grid will look like...

Toro Rosso have confirmed on Thursday that Carlos Sainz Jr. will partner Max Verstappen in 2015 season. The decision came after Jean Eric Vergne announced that he would be leaving the team.

It means that Toro Rosso, who finished 7th in the constructors championship in 2014 with 30 points will field two debutants in 2015. Carlos Sainz Jr won this year's Formula Renault 3.5 Championship and drove a Red Bull at this week's Abu Dhabi test.

The future of Caterham and Marussia still looks uncertain, while McLaren are yet to confirm their line-up.

MERCEDES
Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg

RED BULL
Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat

WILLIAMS
Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa

FERRARI
Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen

FORCE INDIA
Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez

TORO ROSSO
Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz

LOTUS
Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado

SAUBER
Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr

McLAREN
Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso

MANOR (MARUSSIA)
TBC

CATERHAM
TBC

F1 : Double points & standing starts to be dumped

The plan to have standing starts after safety car periods in 2015 has been abandoned after this week's meetings of the Strategy Group and F1 Commission.

After more research, concerns emerged regarding issues such as tyre temperatures and pressures, and the complex procedures required in the cockpit prior to any start it was decided to axe standing restarts from F1.

As has been expected for some time, double points for the final race have also gone after F1 insiders accepted that the public didn't like the idea. Fortunately they did not affect the outcome of this year's title battle, but they also did not contribute to extending it until the final race.

Teams have also provisionally agreed that the likes of Caterham and Marussia can use the 2014 spec engines, if they want to. Current rules allow manufacturers to homologate only one engine spec.