Renault and Williams became the latest teams to unveil their new Formula One cars yesterday. The Britain-based teams carried out low-key launches at the Algarve Motor Park in southern Portugal, where the first official test of the 2009 season began in wet conditions. Among the other teams putting new cars through their paces at the circuit at Portimão were McLaren Mercedes and Toyota.
While Renault and their lead driver, Fernando Alonso, are aiming to contest the podium positions this year, the Williams team were a little more cautious about predicting a jump from their lowly eighth-place finish last season to the top of the field, despite switching their development effort to the new FW31 car earlier than normal.
“It will be a very interesting year,” Sir Frank Williams, the team principal, said. “The new aerodynamic rules mean a different approach to the cars in a number of areas. However, by the time we get to Melbourne [for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in March], I would expect the usual suspects to still be dominating the top two positions.
“More importantly, I hope Williams will have made a significantly large step forward with the FW31.”
Ferrari have chosen not to attend the test at Portimão and, instead, ran their new F60 car at the Mugello circuit in similarly wet conditions in Tuscany, Italy, with Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion, at the wheel. The car completed 54 laps with no technical setbacks.
source: the london times
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