Grime beats glitz at launch time

Things move in cycles, and Formula 1 launches are no exception. Last week AUTOSPORT joined a small crowd in a freezing garage at Silverstone to watch Force India's new VJM05 drive down the pitlane and perform a couple of demonstration laps. Afterwards, everyone trooped inside for sandwiches.

Also present among the crowd was AUTOSPORT technical correspondent Gary Anderson, who in a previous life was on the other side of F1 launches through his years with Jordan, Stewart and Jaguar.

At the height of F1's mid-1990s rock'n' roll excess years, things got pretty extravagant - McLaren enlisted the Spice Girls to help unveil its 1997 car at London's Alexandra Palace. Anderson's rival to the McLaren MP4/12 was the Jordan 197, a car produced with fewer resources and yet still introduced to the world by being lowered from the ceiling at the Albert Hall following a 30-minute performance by Cirque du Soleil.

Gary Anderson doesn't like glitzy stage launches, like Ferrari's in 2004 © LAT

In contrast, the 1991 Jordan was revealed to the press in a garage at Silverstone, followed by a handful of demonstration laps. Afterwards, everyone undoubtedly trooped off for sandwiches. No team would be inclined towards Cirque-du-Soleil levels of extravagance in the current economic climate but, even if they could, Anderson is convinced that the 'garage and sandwich' approach offers genuine advantages.

"The 'sit-on-the-stage' launch like McLaren was a non-event to me," Anderson says. "It was just a few people standing there talking. Having the 'live launch', where the car actually runs... this is real to me. And Jordan, right through the Midland era and everything, has tried to do that. At McLaren, they could have put last year's car on there, and I bet that 75 per cent of the people there wouldn't have noticed the difference."

Not only does a 'live launch' with a genuine, running car seem more honest, it also offers the team a chance to get an early idea of what sort of equipment it's going to be stuck with for the months ahead. It's going too far to say that half a dozen demonstration laps replicates testing, but Anderson says that the teams do learn something.

"You'd be able to look at gearbox pressures, make sure that the gearbox oil pumps are all working OK, that the temperature climbs; making sure that they are all in harmony," he says. "You might look at things that are vibrating, making sure that the bodywork around the exhaust pipes is working..."

"In 1997 I went from the Cirque-du-Soleil thing to Jerez for the first test, and we were there the day before with the old car running before the new one arrived. The 1997 car was good compared to the '96 car, and within five laps Ralf Schumacher had gone 1.5 seconds quicker than he had the day before in the old car.

"So it was a major buzz knowing that we'd made a step, but at the same time we had a problem with the exhaust blowing onto the rear beam wing and it was overheating."

Jordan's 197 was 1.5s up on the '96 car on its first run, despite teething troubles © LAT

In this case, the Force India guys won't be able to do anything with this car before it goes to the test [ED: If there's a problem], but it will give them something to think about over the weekend.

Launching a car straight onto the track may give you the chance to see problems early, but it also means you have less time to prepare. And that means there is more potential for public embarrassment.

Static launches routinely consist of cars fitted with dummy engines and drivetrains, and often with either old or interim bodywork. Launching a running car, on the other hand, requires the team to have a running car ready to go and Anderson is quick to point out that there is plenty of scope for things to go wrong.

"The launches on the track are the real pressure, because everything has got to function," he says.

"I remember in 1993 or '94 with Rubens Barrichello - we did the launch, he left the garage and it wouldn't change gear. He went all the way around at about 20mph and then came back in.

"The whole time I was racking my brain. The problem was that on the steering wheel you had two notches - one was the safety one, and the other was where it should actually go. In theory, the steering wheel had to be in the second notch before the electrical plug would connect up to take the signals from the steering wheel, and it wasn't.

"Rubens drove into the pits, and I just pushed the steering wheel on properly and he drove off. That was a heart-in-mouth moment. But you get things like that happen, and you will get aggravation.

"You just hope that in the five or six laps you do that you'll learn a little bit, because it does get everything up and running. It also serves as a minor shakedown for the team. But you can end up with egg on your face very quickly. It's always high pressure, no matter what size team you are."