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McLaren became the third team to launch their 2009 car on Friday at their headquarters in Woking. Unveiled by world champion Lewis Hamilton and his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen, the new MP4-24 bears little resemblance to its world championship-winning predecessor due to the introduction of a raft of new rules that have reshaped Formula 1 ahead of the 2009 season.

There have been a lot of comments during pre-season testing that the new regulations for 2009 will make for ugly looking cars and when I first saw the BMW I didn’t think it looked that pretty either. I think 2008’s MP4-23 was probably the best looking car in the paddock last year so I was a bit worried about what would come out of the factory at Woking on Friday. But I have to say with each new car launch the new look is growing on me. I like the clean lines and waspish waist the new cars have. The differently shaped sidepods look cool and the front and rear wings don’t seem so out of proportion any more. Sure, the front wings don’t have such sophisticated, curving surfaces any more but there is still scope for individuality and there is added complexity with the moveable elements.

At the launch of the MP4-24 everyone was saying how good it looked.

Ron Dennis:

At the same time you are trying to make a good looking car, that is a value we put high, if it looks good it goes good.

Lewis Hamilton:

This is the first time I’ve seen it fully put together and it looks beautiful. The team manages to always put together a stunning car and it’s great to see the final outcome of the work that has gone on.

There’s an old saying in motor racing that says a beautiful car often turns out to be a quick car. And all I can say is that I hope that’s right, because I reckon the MP4-24 looks simply sensational. Really beautiful, in fact.

Heikki Kovalainen:

I echo Lewis’ thought. It looks great. Whatever the regulation changes are the team have managed to make a beautiful car.

I agree. The McLaren MP4-24 is a beautiful car. It continues the attention to detail of its predecessor in little things like the surfaces round the air intake. The front wing looks nicely shaped and I like the long narrow nose.

Interestingly there seem to be buttons marked “KERS” and “MEDICAL” on the chassis next to the button for putting the car in neutral. I assume the KERS button will disable the KERS device but I don’t remember seeing a medical button before.  It could be that this is not a button but a medical warning light that signals that threshold forces have been exceeded. These labels seem much more subtle than the big “N” stickers on the Ferrari F60 and Toyota TF109 so it could be that standard labels will be applied after the launch.

With in-season track testing now prohibited, the MP4-24 will undergo an intensive winter programme at the following venues prior to the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on March 29:

Toyota has launched their 2009 challenger, the TF109, in an online launch today where Team Principal Tadashi Yamashina said the team was targeting its first win in 2009.

The team have been working on the TF109 since October 2007 developing the car in parallel with last year’s TF108. This is quite impressive as Toyota made signifcant improvements to last year’s car without compromising the development of the TF109. Still, Toyota had the biggest budget of all the teams in 2008 so I guess it’s not surprising they found the resources.

Senior general manager (chassis) Pascal Vasselon said that due to the regulation changes in 2009 that reduce the level of  downforce the emphasis for the 2009 car was stability:

We expect top speeds to be similar and sometimes even faster this year but there will be less downforce; this makes stability very important. We also expect the slick tyres to generate a different front and rear grip ratio which will affect stability so that is one of the primary goals for the TF109.

Toyota Preisdent John Howett  said the team had the “potiential” of using KERS. Although Toyota are developing a Kinetic Energy Recovery System the team have made the decision to start the season without it. It is still unclear how many teams will use KERS at Melbourne and how many will introduce it at a later date. While KERS will give a short boost of power that may help overtaking, the devices are complicated and add extra weight to the car.

Howett also said he was happy with his drivers saying that Jarno Trulli is still the quickest qualifier on the grid and “if we give him a good car he can deliver.”

Yes, Jarno is often quick in qualifying but we will see if can take the TF109 on to become more than just a rolling road block for the drivers behind him.

As Ferrari’s Director Stefano Domenicali has pointed out, the rules regarding replacement engines have changed for 2009. Whereas previously “Each driver may use no more than one engine for two consecutive Events in which his team competes. “, the new rules specify only a limit on the number of engines a team may using during the entire season and mention nothing about consective races. So, as James Allen notes, teams will be able to use their engines as they see fit this year. For example, they could make sure that the same engine is not used for those circuits that are hard on engines like Monza and Spa and even use a different engine in the race from the one they used for qualifying.

Specifically, the 2009 FIA F1 Sporting Regulations say:

28.4 a) Each driver may use no more than eight engines during a Championship season. Should a driver use more than eight engines he will drop ten places on the starting grid at any Event during which an additional engine is used.

Last year a driver could find himself at the back of the grid even though he set a fast time if he suffered an engine failure and while sometimes this provided the chance for overtaking other times it meant he was just stuck behind slower cars. Whether these new rules will make it better or worse remains to be seen. At least with the consecutive race rules the damage was limited to one race. In 2009 we may get the situation where a driver has used all his eight engines and is then faced with the prospect of being stuck permanently at the back of the grid for the rest of the season.

It will be interesting to see what strategies the teams come up with to exploit this change in the regulations.

When Sebastien Buemi straps the Toro Rosso on in Melbourne this year not only will he be the youngest driver on the grid, he will also be the first Swiss driver to race in Formula One for 14 years.

While some countries like Finland seem to breed F1 champions no Swiss driver has scored points in the last 25 years. What’s wrong with Switzerland? After all, Lewis Hamilton lives there.

Switzerland does in fact have a history of Grand Prix racing, starting in 1934 at the old Bremgarten circuit. Originally built as a motorcycle racing track in 1931, the circuit itself had no true straight just a collection of high-speed corners sweeping through the forests north of Berne. The tree-lined roads and changes in road surface made for a dangerous circuit and the first race held at Bremgarten tragically claimed the life of driver Hugh Hamilton when his Maserati broke a wheel and he lost control at nearly 100mph. Bremgarten remained the home of the Swiss Grand Prix until 1954 when Juan Manuel Fangio won in a Mercedes-Benz W196.

Then the following year the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans saw the death of 84 spectators when Pierre Levegh’s Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR was involved in an accident and flew into the crowd, killing the driver as well. Over 100 more people were injured and the terrible accident prompted many countries to ban motor racing including France, Germany and Switzerland. But while motor racing was reintroduced in the other countries, it was only 50 years later in 2007 that the Swiss Parliament voted to lift the ban on racing. Incredibly, while 97 were in favor of lifting the ban there were still 77 opposed. However this legislation was subsequently not ratified by the Council of States so there is little chance that motor racing will return to Switzerland in the near future.

All this means that while Finland has produced more Formula One world champions per capita than anywhere else and France has a great heritage of racing, Swiss drivers have rather a hard time of it.

Sebastien Buemi explains:

Switzerland is not a good place from which to embark on a racing career. There is no help for the drivers, no infrastructure, no circuits, no support programme. In France for example, there are several well established schools and even so, it’s clear they struggle to get drivers into F1, so imagine what it’s like in a country that has nothing. It’s entirely down to the individual, but maybe my arrival in F1 will change that.

I hope so. Alonso’s huge popularity gave Spain a second race in Valencia. Maybe if young Buemi can ignite the same kind of support in Switzerland we might see a Swiss Grand Prix in the future too.

The F2009 is actually the F60. Ferrari were the first F1 team to unveil their 2009 car today, and the name commemorates the Scuderia’s 60 years in Formula One. Pictures of the new car were released on the Ferrari website before Felipe Massa took the car to the track at Mugello.

As expected the new Ferrari looks quite different from last year’s car with a high, narrow rear wing and a much wider front wing. The central section of the front wing is clear of many of the aerodynamic surfaces we saw last year with only stubby side elements. In fact the whole bodywork is much smoother with none of the slotted “gills” or little flick-ups that attached themselves like barnacles to the bodies of the cars over the season.

The Ferrari website describes the “possibility of using a Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS)” and goes on to say it is “centrally mounted on the engine under the rear part of the chassis”. Ferrari have admitted to being behind schedule in their KERS development so it remains to be seen whether this “possibility” is made use of in the opening races of the season. You can see in this picture of the new F60 steering wheel there is a dial marked KERS and a big red button labeled “K” that would seem to be the button for triggering the KERS boost.

Ferrari usually manages to build good looking cars and while the 2009 regulations have created quite a different looking car from last year I think it still looks pretty good. The smooth lines of the bodywork are nice and I’m sure we’ll get used to the new look. Now if they would only ban those wheel covers so we can see some glowing discs again!