Love is in the air – the MP4-25 and friends

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Written by Kate Walker

Monday, 01 February 2010 18:54

February is the month for lovers, or so the adage goes.

Whether you believe in the crass commercialism theory, or celebrate St. Valentine in a more traditional manner, there's no doubt that love is very much in the air. My valentine this year is going to the MP4-25, although it's not the only 2010 machine that's had my pulse racing.

Last week was a glory time in the dark days of the motorsport winter. After months of speculation and news that was ever more filler than real, both McLaren and Ferrari revealed their 2010 challengers to the world. Over the weekend, they were joined by BMW-Sauber and Renault. Mercedes GP finally launched their new machine – the release of last Monday was the BGP001 all gussied up in the new Silver Arrows livery – trackside at Valencia this morning, where junior Red Bull outfit Toro Rosso also took the covers off their first self-designed machine.

Much as I would like to posit opinions on the cars' performance, I am not a fortune-teller. Nor am I an aerodynamicist – I could not tell you, by looking, which cars will perform and which won't. If only I could – it would be a fab route to a job within a team.

Over the course of the next four days, we will begin to establish the performance capabilities of some of 2010's chargers. We will be able to see which of these Mark 1 cars are able to keep the pace, and which cars might need a serious rethink before Bahrain. But this week is only the first of four weeks of winter testing, and no one expects the cars we see running this week to be the cars we see lined up in the Bahrain garages.

This first week of testing can be likened to a Friday night out on the pull. You arrive, scope out the competition, and see how confident you're feeling as you are. If you measure up, you can start breaking out the witty repartee and see what sort of attention you attract. If you don't think your chances are looking good, you might disappear to the bathroom to slick on some lipstick, or pop a tic-tac while psyching yourself up in the mirror. While lipstick and tic-tacs aren't on the menu, the teams will be going through a similar process.

Over the next four weeks, the teams will be making slight adjustments to their cars' set-up, and trialling various bits of aerodynamic kit in order to work out which versions of their car are likely to work on which tracks. Some teams are likely to be in a similar position to McLaren's this time last year – they made a wrong decision somewhere in the design process, they're off the pace, and they haven't got much time to identify and rectify the problem. If we're lucky, one – or more! – teams will be where Brawn were: fast, furious, and bang on the money.

More than most testing seasons, however, 2010 will see a sharp learning curve for drivers and teams alike. While lots of this generation of race engineers and technical bods were around in 1993 when we last saw no in-race refuelling, the only two drivers with the relevant experience are Michael Schumacher – who was unbelievably good at conserving fuel at speed – and Rubens Barrichello. Experienced engineers are going to have to learn how their young charges manage fuel and tyres in these new conditions, while 24 of the drivers need to learn how to drive and how to strategise with the new rule book.

Early lap times are likely to be set on full fuel loads, while drivers and teams alike try to get the measure of their new machines. Tyres will be closely examined for signs of wear, and lots of long distances will be run to establish the changing responses of suspension, brakes, and engine as the monster fuel tanks begin to empty. Ride height will be particularly important – the under-car skid blocks can only lose 1mm over the course of the race before disqualification beckons, but FIA rules also prevent devices which adjust suspension when the car is in motion. As the car loses close to 200kg of fuel over the course of a two-hour race, it follows that the car will begin to sit higher as the tank gets emptier, altering the centre of gravity and affecting handling – especially when cornering. The skid block means cars can't start artificially low to the ground, so engineering solutions – such as a button that allows the driver to adjust the suspension when he puts – will be of particular interest.

But back to love. I adore the MP4-25. I think it looks like a car from the future, although comments I've read elsewhere from fans with better memories than mine indicate it's a combination of the Woking team's greatest hits of the nineties with a bit of psuedo-Newey futurism. I think it's sleek, it's sexy, and its nosecone looks to me like it's designed to slice air. It looks fast standing still, and I have high hopes.

The Scuderia don't seem to have had as much aesthetic success with the F10. I'm not a fan of the red and white livery, although I know Ferrari have run those colours before. Santander's brand in the UK is red with white lettering, although that might be to soften the loss of Abbey? The white with red lettering looks cheap, and I'm surprised they went with it for their Ferrari branding when the British colour combi would have worked much better. But away from the colours – the car itself looks like a greatest hits of the 2009 machines. The body looks very BGP001, the nose cone is pure RB5, and the rear wing looks a lot like the late-season MP4-24.

Looks might not be everything, but given that Ferrari were the first to abandon all hope for their 2009 machine and switch focus to 2010 development, I expected something a bit more revolutionary. Out of the two teams to really disappoint last year, the new McLaren looks like it's spent more time on the drawing board. Reports from Italy over the weekend about a new B-spec car already under development at Maranello seem to indicate that Scuderia aren't 100% confident in their new machine either.

Of the other cars to reveal themselves in the past few days, Mercedes unveiled the MGPW01 on Monday morning, Sauber revealed the mean-looking (which I hope means fast!) C29 on Sunday afternoon, Renault launched the not-very-different-to-the-R29 R30 and new signing Russian rookie Vitaly Petrov a few hours later, and Toro Rosso took the covers off the STR5, their first self-designed machine. As I type, the engines have yet to rev. Tomorrow I will bring you an analysis of the first day of testing, and a performance run-down of the machines as we know them.

For now, however, the 2010 machines are sleek pieces of potential, and my heart belongs to the MP4-25. Kate Walker for Girlracer Magazine www.girlracer.co.uk