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

  16. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

    1. That’s right, Peter Sauber now gets an unlimited supply of shampoo.

      Sensational “news” today that Michael Schumacher dyes his hair. Can’t wait for the TV ads, with Schuey applying his acting talents to a Just For Men script…

  36. There is a very big lack of advertising on that car which must be a major concern.

    You can see the little advertising they have got (some just above the rear wheel on the rear wing) but that advertiser could hardly have paid mega bucks for that you can hardly see it!!!

    I hope we dont have to many of the new/re-branded teams dropping out this year.

  37. Is the Renault getting unveiled at 15:30 or 16:30 uk gmt?

  38. The link from nose to the front wing is just like F60 from last year. The front wing plates are the same as of last year’s BMW SAUBER. I think this car wont have enough downforce coz of the design of the front wing.

      1. Ferrari would love to force all these guys with an “extreme” ddd solution with its covers on :D

        1. during the race of course.

  39. It has very tiny sidepods like the Mclaren. Not as square but very high up. Also has the channeling under the airbox.

    Overall, the word that springs to mind is tidy.

    p.s. The black/Navy is a dark grey on the studio shots. Guess it will look different on different circuits in different conditions

  40. God Id love to see how they would put a Sauber F1 car into a shampoo advertisement!!! :D

    So I’m guessing by that that there are sponsors but for some reason Sauber haven’t put them on the car yet

    1. ‘a fast, efficient wash’

  41. I wish Peter Sauber all the best. He appears to be one of the good guys in F1. However, with no apparent sponsorship, a bland white color-scheme and two really unknown quantities in race drivers, this car could underperform the USF1 and Campos entries! Kobayoshi will blow DelaRosa away.

    1. Brawn did pretty well considering they turned up to the first test without any sponsors!
      Pedro must be a good development driver to have been Mclaren tester for so long. Maybe he’s taken a few ideas with him!!
      I reckon Kobayashi might follow a similar career path to Massa. Pretty wild for a couple of years with Sauber then snapped up by one of the big boys

  42. At first I was disappointed when I saw the on track pictures on my phone, the livery looked like it was blue and white like the old BMW so it felt pretty pointless. But looking at the studio shots I now love it.

    Although the livery looks plain and will probably change a bit with sponsors, I like that they’ve managed to make the front wing look smaller with the use of black and white, and that the colours on the side pod follow the lines of the car.

    I was expecting all the new cars to have those Red Bull horns on the nose but apparently not!

  43. Why Sauber has still kept the blue and red stripe of BMW/BMW M division? It is okay that for some reasons BMW name can’t be removed officially but why then going on and stretching the BMW link by giving the car BMW colours when BMW is not at all involved. Can anybody explain this?

    BTW the front of the car looks quite new, not seen this type of nose before. Also overall car looks very aggressive.

    1. Very odd, unless BMW are providing to low level sponsorship, or Sauber is hoping to woo BMW back now that Mercedes have their own team.

    2. Prisoner Monkeys
      1st February 2010, 1:51

      This is why you don’t use GP Update as a news source: they only report half the story.

      The nature of Sauber’s status as a team remains unresolved. As they are using all the old BMW Sauber equipment, faciities and personnel, there is a case for them to be considred a new incarnation of an old team rather than being a new team outright. If this is the case, they may be entitled to television rights the way every other team is, and so they are keeping the BMW name to further this argument. Peter Sauber confirmed that the BMW name has to do with the Concorde Agreement and television monies, and every news outlet save for GP Update printed as much.

  44. There are rumours in the French media that the second seat at Renault could go to Nicolas Prost.

  45. The reason the car looks white and blue in the outdoor pics is ‘coz we’re all so used to lookin at the bmw cars…and any ambiguity in the colour makes us think in the same old direction

  46. Apart from the ubiquitous shark fin, this car actually looks lovely. Needs a decent livery though.

  47. The “BMW SAUBER FERRARI”

  48. I love the livery, it really suits a beautiful car. I hope it’s fast, just a shame about the drivers although Kobayoshi could shine this year if he draws on de la rosa’s experience.

  49. Haha,the diffuser cover is becoming a complex piece now! mclaren hAd one, BMW have one, it’s all much more advanced than austrailia 09 when the brawn mechanics were sitting on the grid to block their diffuser from view!

  50. Looks beautiful

  51. Counterstrike
    My mistake, now have seen the HQ studio photos, the stripe colours on the nose are actually red and black. So that’s fine. BMW’s stripe was red and blue. Still i think the design idea is same but Sauber substituted BMW’s blue with black. I hope this year they get allowed to change the name too. BMW Sauber Ferrari is ridiculous.

    1. No JUGNU, I was not talking about the colours,but the BMW name. I am flabbergasted as you are on Sauber retaining the BMW name. Just ridiculous!

      Maybe the BMW on sauber might represent

      Big Money Wasted lol :P

  52. Interesting to see that they covered their diffuser hehehe I did not see photos also of the diffusers of ferrari, mclarenand renault :) hmmmm…. they are really battling it out already hehehe

  53. I really am liking these shark finned formula 1 cars. They look like station wagons a bit. I really am liking the new cars a bit.

  54. I really like the look of the C29, looks aggressive but tidy and just loving the wheels! I hope that the lack of sponsors on the car is due to the deals not being confirmed yet rather than there not being any.

  55. i thought BMW pulled out last season. am i wrong?

    1. Jarred Walmsley
      31st January 2010, 20:26

      Nope, however due to the time consuming process of changing the name, Peter Sauber has elected to keep it at least for the 2010 season.

  56. all the cars look good now :D

  57. In the latest introductions two things make me concerned. The lack of sponsorship on this car, and the simplicity of the Renault front wing. Hopefully we are not into a period where the front runners simply disappear up the road while a majority of the field worry more about the financial bottom line than the finish line.

  58. The livery looks a bit…A1GP. Not helped by the lack of the sponsors.

  59. why keep the most boring livery in history??

  60. I love the wheel rims. I think this is my favourite 2010 car so far. Shape-wise it is very sleak, and livery-wise the white and charcoal looks great. It looks as if it’ll be fast. Especially seeing as it’s got BMW and Ferrari engines in the back.

    1. Lol the C29’s got TWO engines eh?! It’s gonna be fast! :P Agreed on the wheels and the overall look.

  61. When is a BMW not a BMW… when it’s a Ferrari. If it wins any races (which it won’t) wonder if Ferrari will pay to have their name on it…

  62. A very interesting thing so far everybody have gone with the shark fin but Ferrari.Not the prettiest car in the world,but really hoping the team perform well.

  63. wow…this is a nice car but so plain..but i like it

  64. Looks like a low key launch which seems a shame as they could have done with some hype. It does not appear to have anything different to it compared to what we have already seen but I do wish them luck.

    It’s all a bit confusing with the BMW name but Ferrari engine etc…

  65. This car looks mean!! Hopefully its got the pace, would be a pity if Koby doesn’t get a pacy car under him this season.

    I like the rims, it looks so different from what we see these days, looks very retro!

    I wouldn’t be too surprised if this car has a complete different livery come Bahrain. They dont have sponsors as such just now, so I guess their colour scheme will be dictated by who eventually takes up the liveries.

  66. Valuable information and also excellent design you got here! I would like to thank you for sharing your thoughts and also time in the stuff you post!! Thumbs up

  67. BMW Sauber C29 is made for F1 Racing Fantastic car.

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