Sauber C32 Ferrari

[Rikhart]

Most innovative car until now. By far.

Whats innovative about it, except slim sidepods? It looks quite boring frankly.

[stefan_]

[afiq]

Sauber made their gearbox casing themselves? Different suspension attachment points.

F2012 and C31 look fairly the same. This year they were completely different.

[Coefficient]

[...]

Those side-pods are just crazy, man. I still can't wrap my head around how they will get those tiny radiators to cool anything at all!

Can we still call those sidepods? If anything, they're subtlepods.

They appear small because they waist towards the top instead of the bottom which deceives the eye when one is so used to seeing it the other way round. Its probably to lower the CofG by having the bulk of the cooling gear lower down.

[turbof1]

Most innovative car until now. By far.

Whats innovative about it, except slim sidepods? It looks quite boring frankly.

You are joking right?

[McMrocks]

The inlets aren't that small but the sidepod is. They couldn't use as big radiators as other teams do. and the air can't extend much in the sidepod in front of the radiator . I hope they will have no problems with it.

[Blackout]

Dat sidepod

[turbof1]

Dat sidepod

(was too lazy to edit the text)

[Leon]

They appear small because they waist towards the top instead of the bottom which deceives the eye when one is so used to seeing it the other way round. Its probably to lower the CofG by having the bulk of the cooling gear lower down.

+1 I think the same

[Tim.Wright]

I highly doubt any of these launch cars have an engine fitted or much of the internals for that matter. I guess if one wanted to they could make cheap bodywork for the launch that was nothing like what they will run at the first test. Not to say sauber are doing that but damn those side pods are tiny.

You do reliase that to make a "decoy" bodywork, someone has to design the part, design the tooling which includes a pattern and then a mould, program the CNC machine to spend hours cutting the tooling board, layup a tool onto it, cure the tool, demould and trim an the post cure the tool treat the tool with release, layup the actual part, cure it, demould it, program the CNC machine again to trim it, fill it and paint it...

All while they are supposed to be flatout manufacturing parts for the start of the season...

[bhallg2k]

[...]

Those side-pods are just crazy, man. I still can't wrap my head around how they will get those tiny radiators to cool anything at all!

Can we still call those sidepods? If anything, they're subtlepods.

They appear small because they waist towards the top instead of the bottom which deceives the eye when one is so used to seeing it the other way round. Its probably to lower the CofG by having the bulk of the cooling gear lower down.

My eyes tell me that the turning vanes are as far outboard as the rules will allow, just like on every other car. Unlike every other car, however, there's a good six to eight inches of space between them and the subtlepods™ which are still undercut.

Those things are so small they even have to have a significant bulge to accommodate the exhaust.

[Matt Somers]

Sauber made their gearbox casing themselves? Different suspension attachment points.

F2012 and C31 look fairly the same. This year they were completely different.

I'd doubt it, i'm sure they will continue to get their components from Ferrari too. If it's anything like the McLaren gearbox though they will have several options in terms of placement. Andrew Green told us yesterday that the McLaren box they use has 6 options (from memory)

[korzeniow]

Hard to compare because of diffrent angles, but from this comparsion the nosecone of C32 seems to be lower:

[ESPImperium]

Another hi-res photos of the car:

Its the NACA style duct on the engine cooling hole on the back of the engine cover, im not sure what they want the air or are trying to do with it. May be something for the team to expand on in the future.

[timbo]

Most innovative car until now. By far.

Whats innovative about it, except slim sidepods? It looks quite boring frankly.

You are joking right?

Actually I agree with him, but not about Sauber particularly, but about each new car we've seen so far.
The launches at 2009 and 2011 were very exciting and we've seen many different solutions. Naturally with a couple of years of stable regs it comes to some kind of common optimum.
As far as sidepods, yeah, they look impressive, but if you look at some cars from the past, e.g. Lambo, Tyrrell 020, and of course some cars from 1983, they don't look extraordinary.