[Official] 2019 Season Launch/ Pre-Season Testing Thread

[Moneyseeker]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Hope that Williams got the sponsorship money upfront, as I wonder whether the company will be around at the end of the season. Look at their accounts - 2017 ending accounts showed an accrued losses of some £16 million, roughly £4 million per year over 4 years.

They are apparently also funding Nic Hamilton in the BTCC, so splashing the cash.

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[Richard C]

My first impression is that I like the Williams livery. I know nothing about the brand.

Richard

[peebee2]

Nice 1990s F3000 look!

[ScotsBrutesFan]

I'm not sure about the Rexona branding and their "Tick"being in Black on the curve of the sidepods that have a black underside. Maybe once we see other angles in better light it stands out more.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Just to provide some clarity to this.
It is Rich Energy who have raised an objection to Whyte using their logo.
The objection is just in a single realm though - Clothing and apparel - so if Whyte are permitted to use the logo in that field, Rich Energy are faced with the choice of changing their logo, not using it on clothing, or accept that another firm has a (very) similar logo.

Whytes have taken a claim against Rich Energy. Rich Energy have been attempting to stop Whytes using the logo, despite them having used that logo for years.

Storey said it was all nonsense, once again ticking the box of "If your CEO keeps tell you how legit they are, they are not legit."

[S griffin]

Not a bad livery to be fair. Much needed funding too

[bella]

Originally Posted by karting

Can I ask, why is this a issue?

it's far harder to make decent profit from a crowded, well developed marketplace without a) a far superior product or b) a gimmick. why are people going to buy a can of rich instead of a can of red bull? i'm always suspicious of people turning up with a product that's essentially exactly the same as the market leader and expecting to beat them based on a bit of branding.

i mean, we're all suspicious of the williams sponsor for the same reason, right? at least they've tried to come up with a different, new product with the lifestyle product bundling thing in a crowded, mature marketplace. in theory.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Onto the Renault Launch

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by ScotsBrutesFan

Onto the Renault Launch

Attachment 52514

And the award for laziest livery designer goes to......

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Given the team colours and the lack of a non Renault Group main sponsor, there isn't a great deal more they could do that hasn't been done previously. I'd say an elemental of if it ain't' broke ...

At least the polished Black and yellow that is used is more stint and should stand out in comparison to the Matt Black and dull gold of the Haas.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

And the award for laziest livery designer goes to......

At what point does sticking to a consistent scheme and retaining corporate identity become lazy livery design?

The Renault R.S.01 was black on yellow - the black has increased and yellow decreased over the years, but they're still traditional RS colours.

[S griffin]

Black and yellow always goes well on a Renault

[Richard C]

We are in that short window in which all we can do is talk and complain about the livery as this is either 2018 cars with a different wing and paint, or renderings of something that will be close to the 2019 car, but with important details hidden or removed.

Then we will move to the next phase of actually see the cars at testing, and then complain about if they are the final cars or not and how many updates will happen at the first race.

Tons of speculation between now and the first race.

Richard

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

At what point does sticking to a consistent scheme and retaining corporate identity become lazy livery design?

See this years Renault for details

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

The Renault R.S.01 was black on yellow - the black has increased and yellow decreased over the years, but they're still traditional RS colours.

Traditional colours I don't have a problem with - let's face it nobody complains about Ferrari being red every year. It's just such an uninspiring design, last years was bad and they've not improved it (the RS01 is much better ).

[chillibowl]

Williams - not nearly as good as last year but i still like it and i have heard of the company as it announced some weird cell phone plans at CES this year (like free medical consultations with a phone plan) and some sort of 3D screen.

anyways, sounds like the company has experienced backing and are doing something different in the cell phone space. plus it is nice to see some more technology driven consumer products using F1 as a platform.

as for Renault - big fan of the black and yellow so i have no problem with it largely remaining the same.

but as it was in past years, seeing the Renault and Infiniti logos prominently featured on the same car makes me again question their raison d'être. pure speculation on my part but i always felt this reflects their lack of focus.

[Moneyseeker]

Note that Mercedes have launched their car and already doing shakedown at Silverstone, which is another reason why they are so dominant - preperation. Meanwhile Williams and Renault are still scratching about trying to finish the car for the first test and will miss the Spain shakedown.

[Chaynes321]

Originally Posted by Moneyseeker

Note that Mercedes have launched their car and already doing shakedown at Silverstone, which is another reason why they are so dominant - preperation. Meanwhile Williams and Renault are still scratching about trying to finish the car for the first test and will miss the Spain shakedown.

Because they have the budget/staff/facilities to start earlier and do things faster / better - better-skilled staff (more expensive salaries) better hardware/ software/better manufacture and testing equipment .... it all comes down to money

I am a lewis/mercedes fan but also a realist

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Mercedes have now launched and taken to the track..



And RedBull have again launched their car in a different scheme to that they will be using for the race season.



On a busy day Racing Point will be their new colours and possibly team name in Canada later today. It will be the 2018 car dressed in the new scheme.

[bella]

Originally Posted by Chaynes321

Because they have the budget/staff/facilities to start earlier and do things faster / better - better-skilled staff (more expensive salaries) better hardware/ software/better manufacture and testing equipment .... it all comes down to money

I am a lewis/mercedes fan but also a realist

of course it all boils down to money, but you still have to spend the money wisely.

i think, in fairness (and also just to be contrary ), the teams all start thinking about their following seasons car at the same time. and it's debatable whether the big boys have the best talent - who's the better engineer, the folks who work to a budget, a small company and management structure and get relatively spectacular value for money from car upgrades, or the big guys?

imo, the biggest difference is that a lot of the big boys stuff is in-house and they have less need to contract out to third parties who are also trying to do similar work to similar deadlines for several other teams at once. i think merc even rent out some of their factory facilities to other teams.

[S griffin]

I am liking that RBR have not gone for the status quo and given us an interesting new livery. The Merc livery looks quite nice too

[bella]

it's their standard testing livery nonsense, let's not get too excited.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by bella

it's their standard testing livery nonsense, let's not get too excited.

I also think that it's a camouflage wrapping to hide the detailing until they have to reveal the true car in Australia (or possibly Spain for testing).

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by S griffin

I am liking that RBR have not gone for the status quo and given us an interesting new livery. The Merc livery looks quite nice too

Based upon comments above... The RBR is a temp/testing livery. And they have a history of doing that right? And everyone also tends to love those, but they revert a mostly unchanged official livery?

Richard

[S griffin]

Haven’t heard anything about it being just an interim livery

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Haven’t heard anything about it being just an interim livery

It was described in their social media feeds as the "launch livery".