Best and worst surprises of 2013 new car designs

[PlatinumZealot]

Sauber's livery is rubbish. Such a good looking car deserves better.

Marussia!

[Belatti]

Best design: Sauber
Best livery: RedBull, Lotus, Sauber and Catheram

Worst design: Marussia (its not even a GP2, its an overweight GP3) and Mercedes (same old sh*t)
Worst livery: Ferrari (boring as usual, needs less white and more black), Mercedes (boring), Williams (not yet released)

[NowyszRacing6]

Liveries: I really like the sauber, it's nice and simple, and is a bit aggressive looking. Much better than last year which i thought was a little on the boring side. I cant decide on the RB, the purple still looks a little weird. I think it might have looked better if they kept the sidepods the same but i guess the infiniti sponsorship meant it had to change.

Cars: I was a little surprised at how mclaren went to pull rods in the front, but (in my somewhat inexperienced opinion) it seems like if you can locate the springs lower in the car and still have the same geometry/rates etc, it will be an improvement. I thought the mercedes looked pretty simple, but it's probably good for them to get rid of some of last year's problems by starting over a bit.

[Clew]

Best: Caterham. I like the bold green and yellow mixed with black
Worst: Red Bull. Purple ruines the blue

[zonk]

Sauber's livery is rubbish. Such a good looking car deserves better.

remember this?


1993 c12 Sauber F1 debut

[Jersey Tom]

Sauber's livery is rubbish. Such a good looking car deserves better.

remember this?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... er_C12.JPG

1993 c12 Sauber F1 debut

Good looking tires. Wouldn't want to distract attention away from them with overly flashy livery.

[bhall]

I didn't even notice it had tires. I stopped at the genuinely attractive car.

[CBeck113]

Positive surprise: Sauber (only real innovation on the grid this year)
Negative surprise: Red Bull (livery, performance through testing - that was not sandbagging during the last test in Barca)
Expected positive surprise: McLaren (I hope I'm not wrong)
Expected negative surprise: Mercedes during the races (but I would like to be wrong)

...and I really be surprised if someone runs away with the championship this year!

Five more days....

[PlatinumZealot]

Cars pretty boring this year.

These are my highlights:
Mclaren front pull rod.
Sauber side pods
Mercedes full span 5 element front wing.
Lotus creating a good copy of the RB8's Ramp exhaust.
Ferrari guide vanes on the trailing edge of the rear wing end-plates

[Robbobnob]

...
Negative surprise: Red Bull (livery, performance through testing - that was not sandbagging during the last test in Barca)
...
Five more days....

What do you base your statement about Redbull not sandbagging? That is contrary to the opinions of many F1 pundits.
Also I think you will find that the 1 lap speed says nothing about tyre management / degradation. Bare in mind a team has to qualify on their tyres and then race on them on sunday!!

Though If you are trying to say that Red Bull dont have the 1 lap pace that they used to, I would tend to agree. The regulations have moved away from them in subsequent years.

As for myself, the most interesting development was the Sauber sidepods philosophy and their exhaust solution.

Biggest surpirse is Mclarens change in philosophy and subsequent lack of understanding of the platforms limitations - a very risky move considering that their car was the fastest at the end of last season.

[illario]

This years Williams is beyond my expectations, its like they copied everyone and no one..hmmm! If Maldonaldo and Botas can get some wins, this will be one of the best f1 - looking - cars ever

[Pandabeer]

This years Williams is beyond my expectations, its like they copied everyone and no one..hmmm! If Maldonaldo and Botas can get some wins, this will be one of the best f1 - looking - cars ever

And if they don't win races, it's not one of the best f1 looking cars anymore?

For me:

Positive surprise:
Mercedes, maybe (just maybe) the team that gained the most time/performance over the winter.
Sauber, nice looking car with good thoughts behind it (small sidepods), hopefully they'll perform well.
Williams, bringing the new finished car not until the second test, but satisfy with good reliability and nice little tricks (blown wheel hubs, exhaust wing(even if it's not legal))

[CBeck113]

...
Negative surprise: Red Bull (livery, performance through testing - that was not sandbagging during the last test in Barca)
...

What do you base your statement about Redbull not sandbagging? That is contrary to the opinions of many F1 pundits.
Also I think you will find that the 1 lap speed says nothing about tyre management / degradation. Bare in mind a team has to qualify on their tyres and then race on them on sunday!!

Though If you are trying to say that Red Bull dont have the 1 lap pace that they used to, I would tend to agree. The regulations have moved away from them in subsequent years.

I have the feeling that Ferrari and RBR swapped philosophies over the winter - and we know who had the faster car, not just for one lap. But after watching the test on Sky, I didn't think that the RBR was as stable as it was last year, or even as people said during the other two tests. This in turn makes me believe that the engine mapping did indeed have an effect on their car, especially since RBR relies on the rake for its advantage. But, all I really want is wheel on wheel racing until the last lap , and a different champion this year .

[Clew]

Sauber's livery is rubbish. Such a good looking car deserves better.

remember this?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... er_C12.JPG

1993 c12 Sauber F1 debut

Every time I see a black car....I think Minardi