Ferrari, Sauber and a Pair of Lotuses Unveil Formula One Cars - New York Times (blog)

On the eve of the 2011 Formula One racing season, four teams have issued gleaming letters of intent.

The Ferrari drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa pulled the silk from their team's new F150 racer at a press event last Friday, held at Ferrari's Maranello, Italy, headquarters. Meanwhile, at the Circuit Ricardo Tomo racetrack in Valencia, Spain, the 2011 hopefuls Lotus Renault GP and Sauber also showed their new machines. And Team Lotus, still smarting after Renault withdrew its support late last year to forge a new partnership with Group Lotus — which comprises Lotus Cars, the sports-car manufacturer based in Hethel, England — took to the Internet to unveil its car to team-newsletter subscribers.

Team Lotus' action followed Group Lotus and Renault's announcement in December that the two entities would form a new Formula One alliance, called Lotus Renault GP. The alliance showed its racer, the R31, at the Valencia track wearing the classic Lotus black and gold livery, with the drivers Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov in attendance. On Monday, Group Lotus also announced the signing of a third driver, Bruno Senna, who is the nephew of Ayrton Senna, the three-time Formula One world champion.

Having competed in 2010 as Lotus Racing, Team Lotus will be in court on March 21 to defend its use of the Lotus name in Formula One. The car it unveiled via e-newsletter last weekend, the T128, still bore the traditional Lotus green emblem, appended to read "Team Lotus," but the running gear is almost entirely new, according to the team. The drivers Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen return from their 2010 campaign, during which the teammates threatened the big four — Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull — but did not score race points.

With the new cars, engineers have further honed their application of kinetic energy recovery systems, where at the touch of a button a driver can use kinetic energy generated during braking.Ferrari's F150, whose name pays homage to the 150th anniversary of Italian unification, can dial in 82 additional horsepower from its kinetic energy setup.

Ferrari hopes to avenge its 2010 season-closer loss, during which a Red Bull driver, Sebastian Vettel, claimed the overall season title following questionable directions from Ferrari's pit bosses that might have cost Mr. Alonso the honor.

The Formula One season kicks off in Bahrain on March 13.