With only a few days to go until the start of the first Formula One test of the year at Valencia the teams are getting ready to unveil their new cars and – in many cases – drivers.
Mercedes kicked off the show with the unveiling of the new Mercedes-Petronas livery at the Mercedes Benz museum in Stuttgart earlier this week, but the new car itself – the MGP-W01 – will be unveiled as it gets its first run at Valencia on Monday, February 1st, with Nico Rosberg having the first run prior to the much heralded return to F1 of Michael Schumacher.
Also making their debuts at the Spanish circuit that day will be the new Toro Rosso – the STR5, the first car designed and built specifically by the team after a few years of running Red Bull designed cars – when drivers Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari will take turns at the wheel, and the Williams FW32, the car that sees Williams reunited with Cosworth following the recent partnership with Toyota, and an all new driver line up in Rubens Barrichello and newcomer Nico Hulkenberg.
The much awaited new Ferrari, rumoured to be named the 281, will be unveiled at Maranello on 28th January and will also make its test debut at Valencia on 1st February when Fernando Alonso and the returning Felipe Massa will take to the track.
McLaren will launch their new challenger – the MP4-25 – at the headquarters of sponsor Vodafone on Friday, 29th of January in an event that will be streamed online. New driver and World Champion Jenson Button joins Lewis Hamilton at the team, and the first running of the car will be on February 1st at Valencia when test driver Gary Paffett will be at the wheel.
Sauber, the team formerly owned by BMW, will preview its new car at Valencia on the Sunday (31st January) prior to its first running over the three days of the test with new drivers Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi at the wheel, a format that will also be followed by Renault, who will launch the new R30 – rumoured to be appearing in traditional yellow and black Renault colours – on the Sunday with incumbent Robert Kubica taking to the circuit for the next three days. Renault, unusually, has yet to announce a partner for Kubica with a raft of drivers lining up in an attempt to grab the seat.
Red Bull will not have their new car at the Valencia test, the team having chosen to concentrate on development work as they did last year, and the RB6 will be launched at Jerez on February 10th in time for the second full test of the pre-season, while the sole new team to have announced a launch date is Lotus, who will preview their new car on February 12th prior to it making its track debut Jerez on February 17th where drivers Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen will sample the car.
Written: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:03:22
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