Sauber-Ferrari C31
Sauber today launched the C31 ahead of testing which begins tomorrow.
The C31 Ferrari was launched through team’s official website. Described as being an evolution of the C30, the C31 maintain’s design strengths while improving weaknesses which were identified at the end of last season. Developments have been made to the Drag Reduction System in an attempt to improve qualifying performance.
Chief Designer Matt Morris says: “The C31 is revolutionary where we had fresh ideas, particularly at the rear of the car, and it is an evolution where we knew we could carry over certain approaches. We had to improve on the weaknesses we identified on the C30, but at the same time we wanted to maintain its strengths.”
Sauber is once again powered with a naturally aspirated V8 Ferrari engine in addition to KERS which is also supplied by Ferrari.
As with the exterior of all cars this season there has been a number of key differences due to changes for the 2012 season. The positions of the exhaust have changed in order to prevent exhaust gases being blown into the diffuser. The front nose section has been lowered hence creating in most cases a stepped nose . Both of these changes are visible on the C31.
Refinements have been made to the design of the side-pods, which are still based on philosophy deployed on the C30 last season. Changes have also been made by engineers at the rear of the car. The rear suspension has been transformed from pushrod to pullrod for the C31.
The C31 made its track debut today for filming purposes. The teams 2012 line up, consisting of Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez, are both looking forward to getting behind the wheel as testing gets underway tomorrow and so does the 2012 season.
Matt Morris stated the team’s plans for testing.
“The current plan is to launch a fairly basic roll-out version of the car, which was defined quite some time ago. We will then be testing development parts during the upcoming weeks with a late upgrade for the first race on 18th March in Australia. Therefore the car will look quite different in Melbourne compared to the roll-out car.”
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