Teams' pre-season plans taking shape

Jan.18 - With five weeks until the first official winter test, F1 teams' plans are starting to take shape.

Williams said at the weekend that it will roll out its new Mercedes-powered challenger on the opening morning of the February 22 test at Barcelona.

"There will be no glamorous unveiling," said chief engineer Rob Smedley.

Ferrari, meanwhile, is making subtler hints about its launch plans, revealing an online competition for social media so fans can "get a front row seat for the live streaming launch" of the new car.

A date for the event has not been revealed.

The new Ferrari-linked Haas team's boss Gunther Steiner told Sky recently that it will not have a formal launch at all.

"(We will launch) in Barcelona," he said. "We have no spare time to do anything before so we will roll it out hopefully the day before the testing starts on the Sunday."

The other Ferrari-powered team, however, appears slightly behind schedule, with reports that Sauber will not run its new car until the second Barcelona test.

On the other hand, there are reports that Red Bull is "ahead of schedule" with its plans for 2016, and that Manor's new chassis has passed the FIA crash tests.

McLaren, meanwhile, on Monday became the first team to set a concrete launch date.

"Feeling blue? Seeing red?" the British team declared on Twitter. "You can ALL see the MP4-31 launch on Feb 21!"

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