How To Launch a Formula One Car

It’s February, the beginning of a motorsports season (unless, of course, you’re A1GP, which you’re not, because you actually exist) F1 car launch and test season, and in this year more than ever, the strategies for launching a car are many and varied.

If you’re an F1 fan, or even a general racing fan, you’ll be familiar with launches.

They generally consist of drivers, and more occasionally team principal, pulling back a cover, normally of a colour corresponding to the car beneath or the sponsors there on, and revealing a car that looks like it’s been polished to the point just before the paint gets rubbed off.

We get treated to a tidal wave of stories and press releases about how the whole team has been locked in the factory over the winter, designers forced to spend Christmas poring over the front wing design, engine technicians fighting surviving on Pro Plus as they squeeze that extra horsepower out of an old block, simply to get the car finished on time.