Gallery>> Ex-toyota F1 Testing The 2011 Tires

The Formula 1 2011 season is looking like a mouth-watering proposition. 2010 was a cracker with an intense battle for the championship, and next year will have an unknown spice thrown into the mix: all new tires. With Bridgestone exiting the sport at the end of this year's season, all the teams will be running Pirelli rubber from 2011 onwards. Speedhunters reader Abdullah-Al-Sayer happened to catch the ex-Toyota F1 team testing out the new tires.

Abdullah was attending an open track day at Bahrain's F1 circuit, when he stumbled upon a rare sighting in the pitlane…

…A naked Formula 1 car.

The Toyota F1 team had ceased competing at the end of the 2009 season. Abdullah spoke with the team, and was told they were using the Toyota F1 to test the Pirelli tires for the 2011 season.

Continuing on from what I was discussing with the Team NFS Z4, viewing a race car up close makes you appreciate their intricate – and beautiful – designs. Seeing an F1 car without its livery is certainly a rare privilege!

Testing tires is obviously taken seriously in Formula 1. Here you can see a never-ending wall of tires wrapped in electric warmers, while engineers download and decipher the car's telemetry.

A big thanks to Abdullah, who organizes the Gulfrun, for sending through these pics!

- Charles Kha

Photos by Abdullah Al-Sayer

Negativeffect.com

ADVERTISEMENT

Comments



Comments are closed.

32 comments

by Oldest
by Best by Newest by Oldest
1

Naked F1 Car = Pr0n!

2

you should hire a photographer that films secret things.. that would be awesome

3

Any chance of getting the first pic as wallpaper?



Maybe Toyota will get back to F1?

4

With F1 using little 4 bangers that are limited to 10,000 RPM, who cares about F1 anymore. They no longer have the unique V10 or V8 engines redlining at 19,000 RPM. Now they are nothing more than little ricers with a lot of downforce. F1 has too many rules to even let drivers pass. NASCAR goes by "rubbins racin" but F1 changed that to "Rubbins 5 position penalty". F1 drivers race in F1 because they are too scared to race in a real car with real drivers.

5

looks like TOYOTA is coming back to F1 in 2011?

6

Thank you guys for the support! keep up this amazing site!

7

lol at Lastspark comparing NASCAR to F1, there is just so much wrong in that comment im not even sure where to start.

8

It's interesting to see how the brake coolers are made. I now understand why the "wheel covers" were accepted as brake cooling parts.

9

is that a 7?

10

Its as if I'm seeing an f1 car for the first time!

11

woah! never seen those ducts inside the front wheels

12

Sweet !

SP should cover more F1 races/ insight in the future. No more BS drifting !!!

13

Amazing photos! It must have been so exhilarating getting the chance to stand so close to a naked carbon fiber F1 car!

14

those tires just keep going and going....

15

Abdullah, thanks a lot!

16

@lastspark - spoken by a true redneck

17

lol at Lastspark comparing NASCAR to F1, there is just so much wrong in that comment im not even sure where to start.

18

Lastspark is obviously completely clueless and/ or brainwashed. Wow.

19

Amazing Pictures Abdulla :)

20

I don't often comment on here, but check the site regularly, and i feel i must pipe up a little bit.



As much as I love speedhunters, the motor sport coverage is often a little shabby, if one was to check a dedicated motor sport site like autosport, f1fanatic or mulsannescorner you'd see accurate motor sport journalism.



In this instance, i'm referring to the fact that this is not the 2010 Toyota F1 car, its a the 2009 Toyota F1 car, in plain carbon bodywork. Pirelli initially used the car with all white body work, completely unbranded. Pirelli, the FIA and the current teams agreed that the 2009 F1 was the best car to be used to develop new F1 tyres as the 2010 Toyota, although finished, has never been properly run in anger, and as such is an un-known quantity as opposed to the well developed 2009 car, which in reality was probably about the 3rd (maybe 4th) fastest car at the end of 2009, and featured the teams 2010 specification suspension with a front inerter (previously only used on the rear of cars, may have also been a spring-less rear-end but i'm not sure of that), which was used for the final few races of the 2009 season.



BTW the proof of this is the chassis plate in the cockpit. "TF109" which is the chassis plate for the 2009 toyota formula one car, TF110, is the 2010 car, which was agreed to undeveloped for use as a testing base.



ref:

http://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=8553&sid=6547fbe4f527e98c65a49410f58cb619

http://f1around.wordpress.com/2010/05/21/tf110-%E2%80%94-o-carro-com-o-qual-a-toyota-competiria-em-2010/



i'd happily verify motor sport related articles if you'd like (foxonfirehere at gmaildotcom) - i'm a very anal, technically specific automotive engineer with some motor sport experience

21

"who cares about F1 anymore"..? Only the world rather then half (you know...the drunk, voting for Sarah Palin, and livin trailers half?) of a single country like that simple Nascar. Lastspark needs to go back to milking the cows and try not to compare simple multiplication (Nascar) to multi-variable calculus (F1). Its alright if he likes that "ANOTHER LEFT TURN!!" kind of racing as long as he keeps it to himself.

22

Elwehbi, Freddydaimler, Sherifa and everyone who liked this post. Thank you all, hopefully i could contribute more in the future :)

23

Great find Abdulla!

24

abdullah....where can i see more picture of this.....flickr or anything....

25

D1RGE: Thanks!



Teamsleepine:Check out my site just click on the link at the end of this post, if there is any pictures you like i could send it to you High Res. Thanks

26

Lastspark are you serious?



Nothing you said was correct. F1 still uses V8s man check the facts before you make blind comments you tard.



Also those "little ricer with a lot of downforce" are still the fastest way to get around a circuit.

27

Hey hey, not all us "republicans" hate F1!



I love MotoGP too!

28

Great pics of what ever car this is, gives fabricators like us dreams and something to aspire towards when building cars.

29

Great pics, it is always nice to see what is really inside an F1 car.



How about that steering wheel? Yikes!

30

Corey sorry bro. The f1 cars are going to use a 1.6 liter turbo for 2011. Check your FACTS before you look like a retard.

31

Nascar..



bwahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

32

Guys, no need to blast lastspark. F1 is in fact going 4cyl turbo in 2013. Still a different league than NASCAR, but all the technical innovations are being stifled out of the sport. One could say it is going in the direction of where NASCAR is. Seriously, the sound of V10/V8s wailing at 18,000+ rpm will be sorely missed.

OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS