McLaren became the first front-running team to reveal their 2012 challenger as the wraps came off the new MP4-27 at the team’s UK factory in Woking. With it, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton hope to land McLaren their first constructors’ crown since 1998.

Unlike the 2012 Caterham launched last week, McLaren has avoided a stepped-nose design by making the whole front end of the chassis lower. “This is a beautiful car,” commented Button. “Many of them that you will see will not be!”

While the car closely resembles last year’s MP4-26, its chassis has been substantially revised from the ground-up, with all major systems updated or re-designed for the new season. The most evident visual differences include more tightly-waisted rear bodywork, developed to improve flow to the rear of the car, and a revised cooling system, which re-directs the gearbox oil-cooler.

Last year’s U-shaped sidepods have also been redesigned – a legacy of the FIA’s new exhaust regulations that redefine the shape of the rear bodywork – while among the more minor details, the rear view mirrors are also new, something which Hamilton joked should be helpful following his much-talked-about run-ins with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa last season.

“I’ve been keenly following the development of MP4-27 over the winter and I’ve been really encouraged by the results and the data that the engineers have been showing me,” said Hamilton.

“I think we already had a very strong base to build upon: Jenson and I won six races with MP4-26 last year and I think we’ve been able to retain all the strengths and the reliability of that design while also incorporating lots of improvements and new ideas into the new car.

“Of course, the biggest changes for 2012 are the modifications to the exhaust regulations – that will reduce the downforce and grip that we had last year, but it just puts the emphasis on the designers to try and claw some of that back in other areas. I get the feeling the MP4-27 is going to feel very new and exciting when we get to drive it for the first time.”

Following a one-day private shakedown, it is Button who will get the first taste of the new car when he begins track testing of the MP4-27 at Spain’s Circuito de Jerez next Tuesday, February 7.

“I know that the whole team is extremely proud of the MP4-27,” said Button. “It may look like a direct evolution of last year’s car, but we’ve analysed every area of performance over the winter and the whole car has benefited from lots of fresh thinking and new ideas in every area. I’m really looking forward to getting behind the wheel in Spain next week.

“With the regulations remaining relatively stable, we’ve really been able to focus on the detail with this year’s car. I still think we had a very fast package last year – it was very strong in certain areas – and our race pace was almost always fantastic, but we’re hoping for a further step forwards in 2012. With Mercedes-Benz, I think we also had the best overall engine and KERS Hybrid package in the pit lane.

“We were also able to continuously develop throughout the year to match Red Bull – and that shows that we have the knowledge, effort and resources to sustain our efforts across the course of a whole season, which can be crucial. I know that everyone will be watching us very closely to see what progress we make during the pre-season tests, but I genuinely believe we have every reason to feel optimistic about the progress we’ve made and our competitiveness this year.”

On McLaren’s and the MP4-27’s prospects for the coming championship campaign, team principal Martin Whitmarsh commented: “The 2012 season will be an important one for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes: having finished second in the constructors’ championship for the past two seasons, we’re determined to mount a sustained, hard challenge for both world titles.

“We have a fantastically committed team of individuals, and MP4-27 is the fruit of their labours – it’s a beautiful car, and one we feel is the perfect platform from which to launch our assault on the world championship. While there are clear visual changes to this year’s car, there’s greater change beneath the skin, with lots of fresh thinking applied to every major system. The car is pleasingly complete.

“For 2012, we are well aware that Red Bull remains a very powerful and capable operation, and that both Ferrari and Mercedes AMG are ramping up their operational capacity. We have no room to be complacent – what you see today only scratches the surface of what we’re planning to deliver to the track both from an engineering and operational point of view throughout 2012.

“I’m pleased and confident that we’ve left no stone unturned in our quest for performance. Now, our focus invariably turns to the track as we evaluate MP4-27 ahead of the start of the 2012 season in Melbourne on March 18. These will be a fascinating three weeks.”

German car manufacturer, Volkswagen, may well be the next car company to join Formula 1, following the likes of Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault and Lotus in either supplying a team with their engines or even attempting at launching their own team in the sport.

This comes after Volkswagen representative, Wolfgang Durheimer, told prominent business magazine, Wirtschaftswoche, that he has devised a preliminary plan for the future that includes F1.

“Later this year I will put forward proposals to the executive group for (involvement in) not only the racing series that we do already. It is true — in America, Asia and the Middle East, we are not sufficiently represented in motor sport,” said Wolfgang Durheimer, hinting that Volkswagen could well partake in not only Formula 1, but other forms of Motor Sport as well.

The business magazine which Wolfgang Durheimer spoke to also stated that Volkswagen could well already have links with Toro Rosso, who are currently a breeding ground for new talent in F1 for Red Bull Racing.

The Lotus F1 team has revealed that it will name its 2012 car as the E20 to celebrate the 20th F1 chassis to be designed at its Enstone base.

The team, previously known as Renault and racing under the Lotus name this year, moved to Enstone back in 1992 and has taken F1 world titles with both Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso.

The E20, which will be driven by Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean, will be launched on the Lotus F1 team website on 5th February before hitting the track in the first pre-season test at Jerez two days later.

“Our naming of the chassis to recognise Enstone’s importance to the team’s evolution highlights our recognition of the contribution of the facility and the personnel who work tirelessly every year to produce the very best car possible,” said team boss Eric Boullier.

“We certainly hope that this is the case with the E20 and we are looking forward to revealing the car to the world and seeing it out on track for the first time.

“There are a number of technical changes from last year and we have an exciting new driver line-up to extract the maximum from the E20 through the twenty grands prix of the 2012 season, including the 500th race for this team through its different incarnations. We hope that the E20 proves to be a performing Enstone design.”

It’s that time of year, ladies and gents, when Formula One teams begin unveiling their new cars for the upcoming season. But while the top teams like Ferrari and McLaren usually compete for the first slot, this time it’s Caterham (the team formerly known as Team Lotus), that has beat them all to the punch by revealing its new CT01.

Bearing a similar green and yellow livery and much of the same design as last year’s Lotus, the CT01 represents some of the changes you can expect to see across the board as the rest of the field fills out. That includes a rather odd-looking stepped nose design and reshaped rear quarters (due largely to the ban on exhaust-blown diffusers).

Underneath the bodywork – shaped in the Williams wind tunnel – sits the same Renault RS27 V8 engine that will be used this season by Red Bull, Lotus and Williams, coupled for the first time (for this team) to a Kinetic Energy Recovery System on the brakes and a Red Bull-sourced seven-speed sequential gearbox.

Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli will return for driving duties once the season kicks off in March. Before then, McLaren is expected to unveil its new MP4-27 on February 1, Scuderia Ferrari and Force India on February 3, Lotus on the fifth, Sauber and Red Bull on the sixth, and Mercedes-Benz on the February 21, with the remaining teams yet to announce the dates for their unveilings. So, stay tuned!

Double World Champions, Red Bull Racing will unveil its new RB8 on its own official website on February 6th, the day before the first pre-season test takes place.

The team announced that at 1pm on February 6th, images of the new car and comments from drivers and management will be available on www.redbullracing.com.

The RB8 car will be the machine that the Milton Keynes-based outfit is hoping will deliver its third consecutive drivers’ and constructors’ world championship following Sebastian Vettel’s back-to-back success in 2010 and 2011.

Meanwhile, F1′s sixth-ranked team in 2011, Force India, will unveil its 2012 challenger on February 3rd at the Silverstone track, located across the road from its Northamptonshire headquarters.

Technical director Andrew Green said the VJM05, whose monocoque has already passed the FIA’s mandatory crash tests, will be built and fired up next week.

“There’s always a buzz around when it’s happening,” he said.

2012 F1 Car Launch Dates

1 Feb – McLaren (Woking)
3 Feb – Force India (Silverstone)
3 Feb – Ferrari (Maranello)
6 Feb – Sauber F1 Team (Jerez)
6 Feb – Red Bull (Online)

Mercedes is the only team to announce that it will delay the launch of its new car until after the first test in order to maximise development time. With a two-week gap between tests the team will first run the new W03 at the second test in Barcelona.

Williams F1 today confirmed that Bruno Senna will contest the 2012 FIA Formula One World Championship for the Williams F1 Team. The appointment finalises the team’s line up for this year following confirmation in December that Pastor Maldonado will enter his second season in Formula One as a Williams race driver. Bruno will make his debut with the Williams F1 Team in Jerez on 9th February at the first of the winter tests.

Frank Williams, Team Principal, said, “Bruno only started racing when he was 20 years old but quickly proved his talent in F3 and GP2. In a tightly fought 2008 GP2 season, Bruno finished second in the Championship with notable victories in Monaco and Silverstone, the latter in the wet. The circumstances of Bruno’s two seasons in Formula One have not given him an ideal opportunity to deliver consistently so it was essential that we spent as much time with him as possible to understand and evaluate him as a driver. We have done this both on track and in our simulator and he has proven quick, technically insightful and above all capable of learning and applying his learning quickly and consistently. Now we are looking forward to seeing that talent in our race car.”

Bruno commented, “I feel very privileged that Williams has selected me as one of their race drivers. The team has a great heritage and I hope I can help write a good chapter in their history. The evaluation process has been intense and methodical but the time I have spent in the factory has demonstrated that the team has great people and all the resources needed to achieve better things this season.

“It will be very interesting to drive for a team that my uncle has driven for, particularly as quite a few of the people here actually worked with Ayrton. Hopefully we can bring back some memories and create some great new ones too. I also want to get some good results in return for the support my country has given me to help get me to this position today. I am very proud to be Brazilian and more motivated than ever to demonstrate what I can do. Ever since I first sat in a go-kart I never wanted to do anything else.”

Former Formula One driver, Robert Kubica, who has not raced since a near-fatal crash last February, was taken to a hospital in Italy after slipping on a patch of ice and injuring his leg.

The 27-year-old Polish driver had suffered a suspected micro-fracture of his right tibia in what would be a further setback in his return to competition.

The highly-rated Pole is now out of contract with his former Renault team after it was announced last year that he would not be ready to return by the start of the season.

Kubica spent two months in hospital and had multiple operations after the crash in a minor rally in Italy in which he suffered serious arm and leg injuries when a steel barrier penetrated the cockpit and nearly severed his hand. The Monaco resident also lost a huge amount of blood while trapped in the car.

Before the accident on 6th February 2011, Kubica had been the leading driver at Renault (now Lotus) and rumors had circulated that Kubica would replace Felipe Massa at Ferrari, though team boss Stefano Domenicali has been quoted as saying there are currently no plans for the Polish driver to join the team.

AirAsia is maintaining its presence in the Formula One racing scene and this has seen it extends its sponsorship agreement with 1Malaysia Racing Team Sdn Bhd (Caterham F1) for another year, starting Jan 1, 2012.

In a filing to Bursa Malaysia today, AirAsia said it had entered into an extension to the sponsorship agreement dated May 26, 2011 with 1Malaysia Racing Team Sdn Bhd to be an official team partner of Caterham F1, the F1 racing team formerly known as Team Lotus and title sponsor of the Caterham F1 Driver Development Programme.

“Under the extension, AirAsia shall be an Official Team Partner of Caterham F1 and title sponsors of the program for the duration of the 2012 F1 racing season at the same terms as provided in the agreement, except in relation to the sponsorship amount from the company to Caterham F1,” AirAsia said.

The sponsorship amount from AirAsia to Caterham F1 includes RM5.36 million for company media value/space and RM1 million for further expenditure in relation to advertising, on ground and public relations-related activities with Caterham F1.

AirAsia said through continuous association with F1, the company intended to elevate its brand perception from that of a low-cost carrier to a brand associated with high-end sports and cutting-edge F1 technology.

AirAsia intends to use sports sponsorship and sports branding to drive consumer aspirations and build sports-related themes in relation to sales campaigns for various flight destinations.

Williams’ former director of engineering, Patrick Head has stepped down from the team’s board of directors, ending his association with F1.

Patrick co-founded Williams F1 in 1977 with Frank Williams and over three decades has led the team’s engineering department. At that time, Williams F1 has won 113 Grands Prix and secured nine Constructors’ and seven Drivers’ World Championships.

“Patrick and I have been in partnership for 34 years. During that time, he has been the leader of the technical team that has won the majority of our race wins and championships. This is a remarkable legacy and one which will be treasured and definitely not forgotten,” said Sir Frank Williams in a statement.

“Patrick is a very straightforward, hard working and truly gifted engineer who comfortably operates at a world class level. I will miss him very much, as I am sure his colleagues will, and he will always be welcome at Grove. Indeed, Patrick will still be seen around the factory as he continues to be involved in the development of our hybrid power activities,” he added.

Patrick will continue in his role as a Board Director of Williams Hybrid Power Limited, a subsidiary of the company that develops and produces hybrid technologies.

Ferrari have confirmed they will lift the covers off their 2012 challenger on February 3rd.

The team previously revealed that they will unveil their new car in “early February”, but Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has announced that February 3rd is D-Day. The launch comes just four days before the first pre-season test kicks-off on February 7th in Jerez.

“I was extremely unhappy with what happened last season,” di Montezemolo told Sky Sports News recently.

“For us the main goal is, again, to be competitive and I have a lot of confidence in my people and their capability to react.”

The Maranello-based squad has adopted a more aggressive design approach for their 2012 challenger after Fernando Alonso finished P4 in this year’s Drivers’ standings.

McLaren and Sauber are the only other teams to confirm their official launch dates. February 1st for the MP4-27 and the 6th for Sauber’s C31.