BMW Sauber C29 launch, 2010

Pictures: BMW Sauber C29 launched

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BMW Sauber have revealed their 2010 F1 car.

The car lacks any major sponsors although the team announced several deals into the run-up to the launch, some of which feature on the car. They include Scalp-D, a Japanese shampoo, and watch brand Certina.

Here are the first pictures of the C29.

Although the team is no longer run by BMW the team has retained the name in its title. But the car carries on the model designation used by the Sauber team until 2005, when it raced the C24.

The car is now powered by Ferrari and also uses the Ferrari gearbox.

Technical director Willy Rampf described some of the changes to the car:

The increased length of the fuel tank means the car has grown longer overall. And because they are slimmer, the front tyres will be more heavily worked, requiring weight to be shifted further towards the rear of the car.

An eye-catching feature of the C29 is its highly intricate raised nose. Also very distinctive is an extremely long undercut at the transition from chassis into underbody. These and other aerodynamic measures also help to ensure optimum airflow to the double diffuser. Further changes were required to integrate the Ferrari engine and, in particular, the Ferrari gearbox.
Willy Rampf

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BMW have also published the car’s basic specifications including some of its dimensions:

Chassis: Carbon-fibre monocoque
Suspension: Upper and lower wishbones (front and rear), inboard springs and dampers, actuated by pushrods (Sachs Race Engineering)
Brakes: Six-piston brake callipers (Brembo), carbon pads and discs (Brembo, Carbon Industries)
Transmission: Ferrari Seven-speed quick shift gearbox, carbon, longitudinally mounted, carbon-fibre clutch
Chassis electronics: MES
Steering wheel: BMW Sauber F1 Team
Tyres: Bridgestone Potenza
Wheels: OZ
Length: 4,940 mm
Width: 1,800 mm
Height: 1,000 mm
Track width, front: 1,495 mm
Track width, rear: 1,410 mm
Weight: 620 kg (including driver, tank empty)

BMW Sauber launch pictures

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2010 F1 car launches

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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120 comments on “Pictures: BMW Sauber C29 launched”

  1. Thanks a ton Keith… lightning fast as usual :)

    1. BMW sauber this reminds me of Ferrari F2000 with the crazyy shark lid overall looks like an shark

  2. Looks very aggressive. Is that black and white? Can’t wait to see some more pictures!

    1. Yeah it looks great :D It seems like there will be more Black cars on the track this year…Renault is going to change the livery to black-yellow – her’s a pic http://f1.avtomanija.com/default.asp?rb=1&id=17461

  3. The car looks pretty compact….maybe its the angle… front looks like last year’s Force India…though the nose is wider

  4. Small ass.

    I still think those little rear wings look odd.

  5. It sort of looks like the Williams except with a shark fin.

  6. Bravo Keith, super quick.

  7. Magnificent Geoffrey
    31st January 2010, 13:43

    It’s the long front nose, shark fin combo again by the looks of it, isn’t it? Becoming a bit of a cliche now!

  8. CounterStrike
    31st January 2010, 13:43

    Glad they’ve not incorporated the RB5 nose. Black & white should look nice actually. But the title pic looks very basic.

    1. Seems like Ferrari are the only ones so far to pick out the bumpy RB5 nose – wonder if there’s something else to the RB5 that made that kink and bulge more useful than it is on other designs.

      Both this and the McLaren have fairly flat noses – something BMW were questioned over last year, and ended up revising. Evidently the mantra of Downforce (ie diffuser) wins out over whatever advantage Red Bull were able to get out of the Duck Billed Nose.

  9. thanks keith! i hope this team do well ;) i like the black and white too.

  10. The front wing looks pretty rudimentary compared to Mcaren and ferrari

    1. WOW… looks great from the side!

  11. Looks like its still got the red stripe on it actually…

  12. Sorry McLaren

  13. The car looks great! Very different to what we have seen before. Surprised they used the BMW livery, despite still being called BMW Sauber, but I liked their livery anyway.

  14. You can see Certina on the wing mirrors.

  15. Maybe it’s just the angle but the front nose looks very high and long.

    1. CounterStrike
      31st January 2010, 13:53

      Its long for sure. The nosecone connector is located way behind the bottom face.

  16. CounterStrike
    31st January 2010, 13:50

    The area behind sidepod looks very different from Ferrari, looks like its con-caving far far more than the F10.Looks like it was done to exploit the DDD rule to its fullest.

    That area might actually hold the key to channelizing air flow to the DDD.

    1. It’s strange though that Brawn were the team who were judged to have by far the best double diffuser implementation last year, and they had a low, swooped, curving nose that was very close to the front wing. Essentially the opposite of the cars released so far. This makes me all the more interested to see what the Merc looks like.

  17. that reminds me of a Formula BMW…

    1. It says the car ‘retains the colours used during the BMW era’, but it looks white, black and red to me…

      1. the sidepods might be dark blue actually.

        1. very black.

          1. can’t you see a blue tinge on the sidepod buldge?

          2. ah ok from the studio shot (see comment below) it’s clearly black. my mistake!

  18. I like the wheels :-)

    1. Yep, I like them too, it’s nice to see a team use some different wheels.

  19. Wonderful. And I’ve missed those Sauber wheels.

  20. does anyone else feel that shark fins are just plain ugly? It’s almost as bad as those funny little wings that used to be on top of the side pods

    1. I think shark fins look cool. :)

  21. CounterStrike
    31st January 2010, 14:00

    That basic shark fin is really a waste.

  22. Another white car :-( o well, it looks quite simple in most aspects but they’ve definetely taken a different route with the front nose. Looks like they have two sealing flaps each side of the nose and the tub. And also quite wide to tight sidepods. CounterStrike is right about it exploiting the best from the DDD, seems to be what most teams have focused on this year. any pictures of the diffuser Keith?

    1. CounterStrike
      31st January 2010, 14:12

      Yes Dan. That might be the area of concern for Ferrari. Their sidepod curvature seems to channel the air more towards the top portion of the rear wing than the DDD itself.
      Its quite easily noticeable.

      http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/9752/aviaryf1fanaticcoukpict.png

      1. The F10’s sidepods look too similar to that on the F60 IMO. It isn’t compact and sculpted like the other cars.

        1. CounterStrike
          31st January 2010, 14:19

          I would say its the same actually.Maybe that’s the reason for Massa being asked to compare the 60 & 10.

      2. I don’t want to be seen as speculating, but Ferrari seem to have gone very simple on their whole 2010 design, dont you think? They can’t really play with their sidepod size/shape easily, and the front wing looks identical to 09, the nose is an obvious copy of the RB5. They can’t expect to gain a few seconds from just the nose and some tweaked sidepods, i just hope they have designed a monsterous diffuser or are keeping their hand close to their chest until testing/Bahrain.

        Sauber seem to have squeezed the same engine and cooling into a much tighter space. Should be interesting to compare everybodies diffusers and how they are fed.

        1. CounterStrike
          31st January 2010, 14:35

          But Dan diffusers are of no use if Ferrari haven’t managed to channelize the air flow to it efficiently.

          F10 & F60’s rear end look the same & the F60 was not designed for the DDD. You don’t gain much by just copying Newey’s nose.

          Either they are sandbagging or have some serious issues with their rear design.

          Are other teams also comparing the 09 & 10 cars at the test?

          1. Did i miss something, are Ferrari taking the F60 and F10 to the test to try side-by-side?

            We could do with some high quality light pictures of the snowplow/bargeboard area of the Ferrari, if they have a reversed snow plow like Brawn last year then flow around the sidepods wont be AS critical (not saying it still wont be critical, more air over the top of the diffuser helps to pull more air through)

          2. CounterStrike
            31st January 2010, 15:03

            Not sure is its side by side Dan, but surely a lot of the 60’s components will be taken to Valencia. That is also one of the reason to have Massa test for an extra day, for the feedback.

            We’ll know by the end of Wednesday. A flow-vis test would nail it for us.

            Can’t say much about the bargeboard, both look basic to me.

            http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/9752/aviaryf1fanaticcoukpict.png

            http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/9752/aviaryf1fanaticcoukpict.png

      3. Excellent observation Counterstrike.

        Ferrari Sidepods might be the key to their rumored troubles.

        The C29’s sidepods look like 2 ears. They gain in height as one moves away from the centre of the car. Strange indeed.

        Looks pretty different than the BMW of 2009. Thats good, IMO

  23. does that shark fin attach to the rear wing, like the mclaren?

    1. CounterStrike
      31st January 2010, 14:04

      No it doesn’t.

  24. also i wander if ferrari let them use the new smaller gearbox? hmm…

  25. No sponsors on the car at the launch, that isn’t a good sign.

  26. looks like reanult will be black and yellow judging by the uniform-
    http://en.espnf1.com/renault/motorsport/image/7783.html?page=1

  27. Car looks nice… Livery looks boring

    I really, really hope that isn’t their final livery. Mabye they are waitng for a big sponsor to buy both the team name and the livery… Orange perhaps- or is that just wishful thinking?!

  28. Didn’t know they wouldn’t release a livery.

    Very disapointing

  29. hahaha that looks boring!

  30. Wait, wait, wait.

    The team’s still called BMW Sauber, but it’s using Ferrari engines and gearboxes?

    What is up with that? I know that there are many reasons for the team to retain the BMW name, but it seems ridiculous to call the team that when they’re using engines from a completely different manufacturer. :?

    The car looks lovely though, apart from the shark fin of course.

    1. Changing the official name of the team meaning going through a formal process and getting the consent of all the other teams. Peter Sauber has more than enough on his plate at the moment.

    1. CounterStrike
      31st January 2010, 14:21

      At least its black, thats a relief. Sidepods look pretty decent.

      1. It’s not black, it’s dark grey, like anthracite or tungsten.

      1. wow the car looks mean from the front!!!

      2. wow, those sidepids look mean

      3. Looks fantastic in that studio space

      4. it does look mean

    2. nice find!

  31. At least all the cars arn’t the same this year.

  32. nice looking car, wud look even nicer with a proper livery. Can’t get my head round why they’re still being called BMW Sauber, it’s crazy…

  33. I like it.
    so far all this years designs have been better than last years, its good to see the cars starting tolook better despite the daft rules they have to abide by.

    Perhaps they’ll be like Brawn last year and pick up a different sponser for every race?

  34. Can u please put up more pictures? Thank you.

  35. I like that the Japanese sponsor Kamui brought in is a shampoo company. hehe

    Nice rims! A bit odd to say that about an F1 car haha.