Sauber C32-Ferrari Launch

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Sauber C32-Ferrari

Sauber's online launch was quite a surprise. First off, the colour scheme looks superb, and it is one the best looking cars in 2013. As it says on the tin, the Sauber uses Ferrari engines. Now Nico Hulkenberg might have signed up for Sauber so that he might get noticed by Ferrari, and could potentially replace Massa in 2014.

Sauber has made quite a few changes to the new car.

Sauber has tweaked the car a bit, and it looks quite a lot different from the 2012 model. They've done a halfway job on the step nose. They've used a smaller vanity panel, so a small step can still be seen. They claim that it gives a slight aero advantage, so it's an interesting route they have taken. Another odd feature of the C32 is that it has tiny sidepods. The openings are extremely small compared to a Ferrari, Lotus, or the McLaren ones. Another interesting step taken by Sauber. It'll be interesting to see how fast will the Sauber be, and whether they have taken the right gamble. They haven't opted for the passive double DRS, so till now, only Lotus has a DDRS system in place. The double DRS system is a gamble, as it is quite tricky to setup and fine tune it. So it's not exactly a foolproof mechanism, and might actually lead to further problems.

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Ferrari and Force India Connections

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Ferrari F138

VJM06

Ferrari and Force India both launched their 2013 cars today, and there is a unique link between the two teams. Ferrari is pushing Force India to give Jules Bianchi the second race seat alongside Di Resta, and if Force India oblige, they might just get a good deal from Ferrari if they decide to switch to Ferrari engines in 2014. Jules Bianchi is a part of the Ferrari Driver Academy, so quite naturally, Ferrari will want Bianchi to get some vital F1 experience before he probably replaces Massa in 2014. Force India hasn't revealed the identity of the second driver yet, so it remains to be seen what will happen. But I think Force India might opt for either Jules Bianchi or Adrian Sutil.

Luiz Razia has apparently signed up for Marussia, replacing Timo Glock who left via mutual consent, as, to put it bluntly, Marussia is barely able to make ends meet and they desperately need paying drivers.
Force India should retain Mercedes power for 2014, as Mercedes, who now have their own team, and who have also committed most of their resources for 2014, will probably have a better engine.

Another unique similarity between Force India and Ferrari is that both teams have opted to cover the step noses for their 2013 cars.

The Ferrari F138 retains its unique pull rod suspension, which I suspect all teams will switch to 2014, and just like the new VJM06, most of the work done on the car is under the skin, the teams have mostly pushed to optimise and perfect the parts used in 2012.

However there is a clear trend emerging in the 4 cars that have been launched in 2013 till now. All cars have tight and narrow rear end as the teams try to optimise the air flow and try to create more downforce because the exhaust blown diffusers were banned in 2012. Red Bull was one of the first teams to feature this unique design feature in 2012, as they had to compensate for the lack of downforce at the back. Their car was designed to be heavily dependent on the exhaust blown diffusers, so they had to move fast to compensate for the loss of downforce.

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