Adrian Newey on Monday admitted his latest creation, the title-defending RB8, is a “slightly ugly looking” Red Bull.
The reigning champions unveiled the car in which Sebastian Vettel will push for a third consecutive drivers’ title, and like most other models seen so far in 2012, it has a controversial ‘stepped nose’.

Designer Newey said the car is yet another evolution of the 2009 model, the RB5.

“We’ve kept more or less the same chassis shape, but had to drop the nose just in front of the front bulkhead, which, in common with many other teams, has led us to I think I’d probably say a slightly ugly looking nose,” said the Briton.

“We’ve tried to style it as best we can, but it’s not a feature you would choose to put in were it not for the regulation.”

Newey admitted there is “pressure” to stay ahead of the pack in 2012, confessing that while he enjoys regulation changes, he laments the FIA’s “restriction” in the area of exhaust blowing.

“Whether that will affect us more than other people is difficult to know of course,” he said.

“We designed the RB7, last year’s car, around that exhaust position and were probably the only people to do so, so it may be that we’ve lost more than other people through that.

“Only time will tell, it will be good to get out to do some testing and to see where we get to.”

Jaime Alguersuari has announced he will be absent from the formula one paddock in 2012.
After two and a half seasons and at just 21-years-old, the Spaniard has lost his Toro Rosso race seat.

And the final spot on the 2012 grid, at the Spanish team HRT, has been secured by Narain Karthikeyan.

There has been speculation Toro Rosso sponsor Cepsa was unhappy with Red Bull’s decision to dump Alguersuari, but the Faenza based team announced that the Spanish oil company is staying on board for 2012.

It has also been rumoured Cepsa’s Abu Dhabi links could see Alguersuari become third driver at Mercedes this year.

Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo said an announcement about the driver’s plans is due imminently.

“You will not see me there this year but I am content with the super experience formula one has given me for my life,” Alguersuari wrote in Spanish and Castilian Spanish on his Twitter page.

“Thank you all very much for your support,” he added.

Lotus has become the fourth formula one team to reveal a 2012 car design with a controversial ‘stepped’ front nose design.
The former Renault team’s black and gold E20 was launched on the internet on Sunday from its headquarters at Enstone.

Nose aside, another point of interest on the E20 is the disappearance of last year’s innovative front-exiting exhausts.

“Our forward exhausts would now be illegal under the new rules and didn’t live up to our expectations in any case,” said technical director James Allison.

A second E20 is already at Jerez for the opening test of the pre-season.

Chairman Gerard Lopez, however, said the car is not likely to return the world championships to the former title-winning Renault and Benetton team.

“In 2012 we want to finish in fourth position or higher in the championship. Beyond that our aspirations are higher,” he said.

Sauber on Monday joined the growing ‘stepped nose’ club by revealing its C31.
The Swiss team’s new Ferrari-powered car – boasting a modified grey, white and red livery – was revealed at Jerez before its initial laps “for filming purposess” ahead of the opening pre-season test.

Like most other cars revealed so far in 2012, the Sauber features the controversial ‘stepped wing’ solution.

Also spotted at Jerez was Toro Rosso’s new car, which has a stepped nose as welll. The Ferrari-powered TR7 will be launched later on Monday, as will Red Bull’s title-defending RB8.

 Martin Whitmarsh has admitted that the launch version of McLaren’s new MP4-27 car featured a dummy diffuser and ‘plastic’ exhaust exits.
With exhaust-blown diffusers effectively banned for 2012, the big technical talking point will be how the designers claw back that lost downforce.

McLaren gave nothing away last week, installing a fake diffuser and plastic exhausts on the version of the MP4-27 launched at Woking.

“The exhaust was made of plastic, you won’t see those components in that form again,” team boss Whitmarsh confirmed to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

On the F2012 car launched by Ferrari, the Italian team had hidden the exhausts altogether, even though there was no hiding the front ‘pullrod’ suspension layout, which has not been seen on an F1 car for a decade.

“The big teams have the budget to make these sorts of parts just for the launches,” complained Force India’s chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer.

“The car seen at our launch is certainly a lot closer to its final configuration than the McLaren or Ferrari,” he added.

McLaren and Ferrari will, of course, have to run real diffusers and exhausts this week at Jerez, where the first of just three pre-season tests begins on Tuesday.

But Whitmarsh noted: “The car will look different at Jerez to what it looked last week, and a lot different in Australia.

“At the weekend at Idiada (Spain) we did an aero test where we had a series of news parts that were not on the car at Woking.”

Ferrari designer Nikolas Tombazis confirmed that the exhaust is now a main focus of the 2012 designs.

“There will be a lot of work before the configuration is final,” he is quoted in La Stampa newspaper.

On Monday, the new Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Sauber cars will be launched.

 The teams are to blame for the ‘ugly’ 2012 cars seen so far, according to FIA technical delegate Charlie Whiting.
Of the five new cars seen already, the Ferrari, Lotus, Force India and Caterham models feature a radical ‘stepped’ nose.

Though the new McLaren sports a sleeker line, the less attractive solutions are a quirk of the 2012 rules.

This year, the FIA is requiring the tips of the noses to be lower in order to protect drivers’ heads in the event of T-bone crashes.

“We wanted to lower the survival cell to minimise the consequences of a crash into the side of another car,” Whiting is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.

“But some of the engineers complained that they would have to build entirely new cars due to the accommodation of the suspension elements.

“So that’s why we came up with making the new height requirement relevant not to the chassis but to the nose (only),” he explained.

While pundits and fans initially lambasted the ‘stepped’ nose when seen for the first time on the Caterham, the hubbub is now becoming more muted.

“You criticise it on the first car but when you see it on the second or third you sort of accept it,” former Jordan and Jaguar designer Gary Anderson agreed, according to Reuters.

Agreed Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo to Italy’s Sky Sport 24: “It’s ugly but the hope above all else is to win.

“The drivers just want it to be fast, without thinking if it’s beautiful or ugly.”

Ferrari designer Nikolas Tombazis added: “The nose? It’s not pleasant but it’s very efficient.”

Adrian Sutil looks set to keep his motor racing career alive in a category outside of formula one.
The 29-year-old has been fully focused on F1 since 2006, when he was a test driver with the Midland (now Force India) team.

He moved into the Silverstone based squad’s race seat the following season, but lost his place for 2012 as Nico Hulkenberg stepped up from the reserve role.

German Sutil has also run into legal trouble due to the Eric Lux assault affair, resulting in a criminal conviction for grievous bodily harm.

His best option to keep racing this year, therefore, could be an offer from a World Touring Car Championship team, German newspaper Bild reports.

Another offer on Sutil’s table is from an Indycar team, the report added.

“Our focus is on returning to formula one,” his manager Manfred Zimmermann commented.

Dr Helmut Marko on Sunday gave the F1 world a sneak-preview of Red Bull’s title-defending 2012 car.
A day before it debuts at Jerez, the Renault-powered RB8 will be revealed on Monday.

And the launch of Adrian Newey’s next creation has become even more eagerly anticipated after rival top teams Ferrari and McLaren unveiled their 2012 machines.

Like the Caterham and Force India, Ferrari’s car – the F2012 – has been derided for its ‘ugly’ nose.

The McLaren, however, has a sleek aerodynamic shape at the front.

Asked about the unattractive Ferrari solution, Red Bull’s Marko insisted: “We have something that looks a lot better.

“Our car is not as ugly as the Ferrari, but it’s also not like the McLaren, which doesn’t have a kink in the nose at all.

“Ours is just a bit smaller and more elegant (than the Ferrari solution),” the Austrian added.

Also yet to be seen is the 2012 Mercedes, with the German marque’s Norbert Haug promising: “The most beautiful car will be the one at the front.”

 The assault charge had nothing to do with Adrian Sutil losing his race seat, Force India has insisted.
Prior to the German being convicted of grievous bodily harm by the Munich courts, his Silverstone based employer decided to replace him for 2012 with Nico Hulkenberg.

But Sutil’s pending hearing “never even came into our thinking” when the decision was taken, Force India’s deputy boss Bob Fernley is quoted by the BBC.

Rather, Fernley said the team “had to look at where we felt our long-term strengths lay”.

“Adrian had been with us for a number of years, and we genuinely believed the future with us was with Paul (di Resta) and Nico,” he added.

Fernley conceded, however, that 29-year-old Sutil’s charge – following an altercation with Lotus team executive Eric Lux last April – put “enormous pressure” on Force India.

And he admitted that the same pressure might be felt by the German’s next employer.

“What I am not sure of, and we’ve not been able to take it in yet, is what the impact will be on his racing career,” said Fernley.

“I don’t think it will affect him totally, but sponsors and everybody else might have some different views.”

Contrary to reports, Williams has not yet debuted its 2012 car.
It was said the British team ran the unlaunched FW34 at the Idiada facility near Barcelona, with tester Valtteri Bottas at the wheel.

In fact, “the shakedown could not take place due to bad weather conditions,” a spokesperson is quoted as saying in the German press.

Pastor Maldonado will instead give the newly Renault-powered car its maiden outing, at Jerez on Tuesday.

With the rollout of the new Ferrari cancelled in Italy due to similarly bad weather, it means the Force India is the first 2012 car to have run on a circuit.

Paul di Resta drove the VJM05 at Silverstone after its launch on Friday.

“It looks good and it feels great and I look forward to running it again in Jerez on Tuesday,” the Scot is quoted by the Guardian.

Sauber’s technical director James Key has left the Swiss team.
In a media statement, the Ferrari-powered outfit said Key, a Briton who switched from Force India in 2010, has accepted an unspecified “new role” in his native UK.

Sauber’s design and development will now be handled by “the department heads for aerodynamics, design, performance and operations”, the team added.

“We would like to thank him (Key) for his efforts and wish him all the best for his future,” said boss Peter Sauber.

Sauber said operating without a technical director “has proved to work well at other racing outfits”.

 Having cancelled its media launch event due to the snowy weather in Italy, Ferrari is preparing for a live internet reveal of its 2011 car on Friday morning.
Hot on the heels of the McLaren launch, and on the same day as the unveiling at Silverstone of Force India’s new car, Ferrari will show its 2012 single seater at 10am central European time, the Maranello based team said.

“The livery has been completed one hour ago and now we’re doing the photo shooting inside the logistic building,” said Ferrari on Twitter.

“This is always a special night, the one before the unveiling,” added the team late on Thursday.

An article in Autosprint said that the possible official names for the 2012 car are F2012, F12 or perhaps F2012-AA, in honour of the 60th anniversary this year of Alberto Ascari’s 1952 championship title.

Elsewhere, Williams gave its 2012 car, the newly Renault-powered FW34, its private track debut along the straight line at Idiada proving ground outside Barcelona on Thursday.

Finnish test driver Valtteri Bottas was driving.

And Pedro de la Rosa – the only confirmed HRT driver so far for 2012 – on Thursday had his seat fitted and pedals adjusted in readiness to test the Spanish team’s old car at Jerez next week.

“Impressed by what I have seen today at HRT,” the former McLaren test driver said on Twitter. “Great effort in less than three months. Good job guys.”

The teams, the fans and the world’s media will not be the only ones with their eyes firmly on the action at Jerez next week.
It is rumoured Charlie Whiting, the technical delegate of formula one’s governing FIA, has scheduled to attend the first test of the 2012 pre-season.

The news follows speculation some teams are flying too close to the limits of the regulations with their new cars, notwithstanding the banning of blown exhausts.

At the launch of the new McLaren, for instance, the exhausts and the diffuser were carefully hidden.

“The fact of the matter is that exhausts exist on a car, you have to have them, they blow gas,” said the team’s technical director Paddy Lowe.

“That will always generate some performance, a finite level of performance.”

When the very aggressive-looking new Ferrari was unveiled in Italy on Friday, team president Luca di Montezemolo said he hoped arguments about the rules would not overshadow 2012.

“There are reports that … Whiting may travel to Jerez next week due to concerns over the designs of the new cars,” correspondent Tom Cary wrote in the Telegraph.

 McLaren was left the odd-one-out on Friday, as Ferrari and Force India joined Caterham in launching new cars with ‘ugly’ noses.
The odd feature – a quirk of new regulations – is the centrepiece of Ferrari’s new F2012, launched on Friday morning at Maranello, and the Mercedes-powered Force India VJM05, whose covers were pulled off in the chilly Silverstone pitlane.

“(The car) looks very different actually from what we have seen in the past two years,” said Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

Agreed Felipe Massa: “Let me tell you that it looks very aggressive.”

Telegraph correspondent Tom Cary, however, had another view, insisting the Ferrari, Force India and Caterham have “nasty nose jobs”.

But McLaren’s new MP4-27 features a clean aerodynamic line at the front.

“It’s a bit of a hot topic this year,” Andrew Green, Force India’s technical director, acknowledged to Sky Sports.

“Obviously a lot of people commented on the McLaren a couple of days ago. For us, it’s not a big deal. It’s purely aesthetics.”

Paddy Lowe, McLaren’s technical boss, said the team had retained a more conventional look because last year’s car already had a “philosophy” in line with the new rules.

“You can’t see performance necessarily by eye, it’s a matter of fine-tuning the balance between all the relevant aspects,” he insisted.