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The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team unveiled their latest car, the MP4-26, during a press event in Berlin today (February 4^th).

The new MP4-26 features some interesting concepts including a long flat high nose, radical, high L-shaped sidepods and airbox tweaks. In addition, a more standard exhaust layout, unlike the Renault R31 seen in testing at Valencia this week

By opting to wait until after the first pre-season Formula 1 test to unveil the MP4-26, McLaren made use of the time with an interim MP4-25 to focus on tyre development from Pirelli in Valencia this week.

And although the decision means that McLaren’s main rivals have had three days of running so far with their new cars, Jenson Button believes that the team have an advantage. The reason? By having more development time with its 2011 challenger, McLaren were able to benefit more R&D leading to a better understanding on the Pirelli tyre characteristics.

“I am sure they are saying also that they have got an advantage because they are driving the new car already, and doing set-up work, KERS work and rear wing work, but I think that for us as a team we understand KERS and that is important,” Jenson said.

“I think it was important for us to spend as much time as possible building our car and that when we get it on the circuit it is competitive.

“For us it was the best situation to go to Valencia with the old car and to drive the new Pirellis, and it is good because we can compare the tyres – and you can get lost if there is so much going on.

“We have had to limit also some set-up changes and really think about what we are doing, because you are just getting used to the tyre the whole time. But we found some really interesting things at the test and we should be happy with what we have learned.”

Button added that he feel far more integrated with McLaren this year because he has had a whole winter of preparation.

“It has been a good year actually,” he explained. “Before Christmas I spent a lot of time at the factory driving the simulator and getting fitted into the new car. And I feel a lot more at home in the car.

“I haven’t driven it yet, but the position in the car I am properly in it. I feel very comfortable and I can feel the car has been built around me, and that is something that wasn’t possible last year because I arrived so late.

“I am the tallest driver so I am the limiting factor, but I fit in very well and I am in a much more comfortable position, which is important.

“We have just been making steps forward in many different areas. Lewis and myself have been giving a lot of feedback and it has been a good winter of simulator work, and we have a good simulator model of this tyre, which is very lucky.

“If all that set-up effort works when we put it on the car in reality we will be in a very good position already in Jerez.”

Button also thinks McLaren’s chances of success are boosted by the good working relationship he has enjoyed with team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

“We have both achieved a lot in our careers already, but we want to achieve a hell of a lot more,” he said. “We want to be beat each other, but we also want to work together because two technically minded people, rather than one, makes a big difference.

“You can throw comments out there, and really work against each other, or you can work with each other. It has really helped us learn over the year in 2010 and you will see this year we will be a lot stronger.”

We will find how competitive the MP4-26 compares to the others in the next testing session at Jerez.

The Mercedes GP team officially launched its new MGP W02 chassis in the Valencia pitlane, ahead of the start of the official Formula One testing.

In the team’s first season as the factory Mercedes outfit, following the takeover of Brawn GP, the 2010 season was a disappointment for team boss Ross Brawn, race driver Nico Rosberg and the seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher.

Development work shifted from the W01 following a difficult 2010 campaign and all focus was spent on making the W02 a better car.

Notable features on the new W02 include changes to the airbox and sidepod plus, the higher nose that has been common on 2011 chassis so far.

The Silver Arrows livery has also received slight adjustments for the new season, with a larger amount of green colouring for title sponsor Petronas.

Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher will both get a chance to drive the car in the opening testing session at Valencia, with Schumacher keen to discover whether the W02 is better suited to his driving style compared to last year’s car.

The Williams team has released some information on its new Cosworth-powered FW33, which is set to join several other new cars when testing begins in Valencia today (February 1st).

The FW33, painted in the team’s traditional navy blue interim testing colours, follows this season’s trend of high noses, detailed airboxes and scupulted sidepods.

Rubens Barrichello will shakedown the car in the opening day of testing and will share testing duties with rookie and GP2 champion Pastor Maldonado the following day.

Scuderia Toro Rosso unveiled its 2011 racer, the STR6, to the media’s attention at Valencia today.

The junior squad to Red Bull Racing, the STR6 follows this season’s style for higher-nosed design.

This is the second car to be produced entirely in-house by Toro Rosso since the team’s arrangement to use chassis provided by Red Bull Technologies had to be brought to an end.

Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari remain with Scuderia Toro Rosso for the 2011 season, with former British Formula 3 champion Daniel Ricciardo promoted to a third driver role that will see him running in Friday practice at each Grand Prix.

The world championship winner team Red Bull Racing has unveiled its latest car, the RB7, in front of the media at the Valencia circuit’s pitlane.

Designed by Adrian Newey and powered by the Renault V8 engine, the RB7 will have the unique opportunity to defend its titles this season.

The car features a high nose, an even higher engine cover compared to the previous Red Bull, the RB6, plus a concept rear wing.

The RB6 dominated the 2010 season, taking nine victories in the hands of world champion Sebastian Vettel and third-place finisher Mark Webber. In addition to this winning performance, last year’s car started on pole position 15 times from 19 Grands Prix.

Can this new RB7 continue that impressive result this season? The new car certainly looks great and Vettel will have the chance to shakedown the RB7 during the opening day’s official practice session at Valencia. Let see how it compares to the other 2011 cars.

The famous black and gold livery makes a return this season as Renault unveiled its new R31 challenger to the press in the Valencia pitlane.

Vitaly Petrov will have the first opportunity to shakedown the R31 during the opening day of official testing at the Valencia circuit, with team-mate Robert Kubica taking over the last two days.

The R31 features a pull-rod suspension for the rear end, while the structure underneath the car (the tea tray) appears quite radical compared to rival cars.

Technical director James Allison described the development direction Renault has taken as ‘brave’ saying:

“Anyone who follows the sport will have seen that words like aggressive [and] brave are being bandied around across several of the teams this year for their solutions.

“I believe that we have chosen a direction that is really on the brave end of brave.”

The team also revealed that former HRT driver Bruno Senna will join Romain Grosjean, Jan Charouz, Ho-Ping Tung and Fairuz Fauzy as part of the team’s test and reserve driving strength.

This is new Sauber C30 powered by Ferrari. The Swiss outfit hopes the new 2011 racer will bring it a step forward in pace with improved reliability, needed to become a more regular points scorer.

The new design features a now standard high nose and a slender rear end compared to last year’s challenger.

Technical director James Key said: “Our aim in the development of the Sauber C30-Ferrari has been to build on the strengths of the C29 and to eliminate its weak points.

“In addition, it is also important for us to go into winter testing with a car we understand, and we have worked hard on ensuring the characteristics of the car are heading in a direction we believe in. There will be much to learn about the new Pirelli tyres and in this respect we want to ensure there are no surprises with the way the car is handling.”

Key said that one of the primary targets for the outfit was to have a car that would be predictable from the start – because there remains so much uncertainty about how the new Pirelli tyres will fare.

“In order to take a step forward in 2011, we were already systematically tackling the C29’s weaknesses over the last season – and we’ve made progress. The insights we gleaned were taken into account when the concept for the new C30 was being drawn up.

“Since some of the changes decreed by the regulations – particularly regarding the tyres – can only be analysed out on track, it was important for us to build, firstly, a fundamentally predictable car and, secondly, one that would provide sufficient flexibility to respond to ongoing findings at the track and during further development stages.”

The new C30 features a fully integrated blown diffuser, and the team has been able to sculpt the sidepods more aggressively through fitting its radiators more vertically.

Sauber has also opted to use a single mounting for its rear-wing, rather than the twin-mounting arrangement it used on the C29.

Team principal Peter Sauber said he hoped the C30 would help the team make progress in the areas where it was lacking last year.

“We want to finish in the points regularly and clearly improve our position in the FIA Formula 1 constructors’ world championship,” he said. “2010 marked the 41st year of our company history and one of the most difficult.

“Never before had we faced such reliability problems, but we managed to overcome them in the second half of the season. We implemented some well-considered structural changes. The appointment of James Key as Technical Director already bore fruit last season, and he is now in charge of development of the Sauber C30-Ferrari.

“At the same time, we have managed to secure our business foundation for the 2011 season. In these economically straitened times that is something we can be proud of too.”

Sauber has confirmed that the KERS units it will use in 2011 will be provided by Ferrari.

As for the drivers, Sergio Pérez will be making his Formula One debut this season. The GP2 runner-up will partner alongside Kamui Kobayashi.

This is the brand new and more aggressive looking T128 from Team Lotus. The outfit has pinned hopes that this 2011 racer will make them midfield contenders and bring them their first world championship points.

Even though the T128 will not appear in public until later this week, when it joins the second day of the Valencia test, Team Lotus have chosen to reveal images of the new car in a special edition of its Team Lotus Notes online magazine.

The outfit had always admitted that last year’s T127 was a deliberately conservative machine built simply to get the team onto the grid in a very limited timescale, rather than with outright performance in mind.

It halted development on the 2010 car early in the season to focus on the 2011 design, which is more in line with modern Formula One practice, and features Renault V8 power and transmission systems from Red Bull Racing.

These images released so far suggest the T128 features a more intricate front wing design, sharply sculpted sidepods, as well as a more conventional higher nose plus an airbox/roll hoop reminiscent of the 2010 Mercedes – suggesting Lotus has found a way around the rules that appeared to have outlawed such ‘blade’ designs.

The team’s chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne is confident that Team Lotus has achieved everything it wanted to with the T128.

“I think that basically this car looks like a frontrunning car in every area,” he said. “We said very clearly that we want to start challenging the established teams and I think that’s very achievable.”

The dispute regarding the Lotus naming rights continues despite the new car launch and yet, Tony Fernandes’ outfit had chosen to continue with the traditional Lotus type numbering system by choosing T128 for its car, rather than the TL11 title that was initially announced.

Fernandes said it was a relief to be able to focus on the new car after a winter of legal disputes with Renault’s new title sponsor Group Lotus.

“There has been so much has focus off-track it’s a thrill to be able to get back to talking about racing,” Fernandes admitted.

“The launch of the T128 is a big step forward for Team Lotus and I want to thank the whole team for the amount of hard work that has already gone into T128, and I want to thank Renault and Red Bull Technology for their tremendous support in helping us make this step forward and for being such great team partners.”

The team’s driver line-up remains unchanged for 2011, with Finland’s Heikki Kovalainen and Italy’s Jarno Trulli at the wheel.

Scuderia Ferrari became the first Formula One team to unveil its 2011 racer, the F150 at Maranello.

Following the final-race heartbreak that cost the world drivers’ title in Abu Dhabi last year, the Italian outfit hopes that the new design of the F150 can deliver better results.

The design of the F150 incorporates the numerous 2011 regulation changes, including an adjustable rear wing and the return of KERS, as well as the removal of items now banned, such as F-ducts and double diffusers.

“The major aspects with the most impact on the project were connected to the aerodynamic development,” explained technical director Aldo Costa. “The double diffuser, the F-duct, is gone. The driver can’t change the car’s aerodynamic set up anymore. The underbody won’t have any ‘holes’ in the central part anymore. This is a fundamental change.

“The rear wing will be movable, so that the driver can overtake the car in front of him and use it in the qualifying according to his needs. The KERS is back. Although we’ve improved its size, it’s still quite big. Therefore the technicians had to redesign the car’s layout.”

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali is well aware that the team lost vital ground in the early stages of last year, so he is keen for the F150 to be competitive from the off.

Speaking to the media earlier this month, he said: “For 2011 our goals are very clear, that we are aiming to win both the titles, constructors’ and drivers’ titles, this must be the goal of our team.

“And so the expectations, that of being able to have a car competitive from the start, a reliable car, a strong car, and I have to say that we’ve seen this last year.

“If you’re not perfect within such a competitive environment, with opponents that are so strong with teams, which also varied numerically, then it becomes difficult to win.”

Fernando Alonso will have the unique opportunity to drive the car during some promotional filming at Fiorano, weather permitting. As for team-mate Felipe Massa, he will shake down the F150 the next day, before its first proper test at Valencia next week.