Sauber's is a launch I always look forward to, as one of the midfield teams they don't tend to be too shy about revealing almost all of the package at launch whereas others tend to hide many details.

The Swiss team, based in Hinwil, are one of the teams earmarked to be struggling financially. Although they have some fantastic infrastructure in place most of this came from their time under BMW ownership. That's not to say they haven't been investing but without major investment like BMW offered everything suffers.

I was impressed by some of the adventurous design decisions the team took with the C32 but their failure to understand the sidewall deformation of the early 2013 tyres hindered their ambitions last season, leading to several backwards steps before being revitalised when the 2012 construction reappeared mid-season.

The C33 was scheduled for release at 4pm CET but unfortunately Sauber inadvertently left the door open and the cat came out the bag a little early. When I released the image above on Twitter it was available on their website (granted somewhat hidden away, but still out there, I did however change the URL strand in order to get the side view too which caused something of a rumpus over on Twitter)

Front Wing

Sauber's design philosophy in terms of the Front Wing Endplates has been opposition to many of their counterparts of the last few seasons but the C33 changes that. With a premium on conditioning space now the Front Wing's overall width has been reduced by 150mm (75mm either side). Sauber have ditched their previously vulumptious curving Endplate in favour of a straight edged one. The Endplate's hooked, allowing for the upper deltoid flaps to curve over to join with the outer footplate. The team have retained their approach to Cascades with the larger outbound one having a

Nose

It's obviously not the first one we have seen and is implemented in a different way to some of the others before it but Sauber have also gone down the 'Finger' nose route. Taking the wedge shaped rear section of the nose upto its maximum position affords the designers the opportunity to drive as much air under the chassis as possible. The connecting wing pylons are designed to maximise the amount of airflow that can pass between them and the 'finger' portion of the nose. The pylons are angled inward to invoke a Venturi style effect speeding up the airflow as it passes along the central portion of the car.

Sidepods

From the angles provided it's difficult to ascertain as to just how slim the C33's Sidepods are but suffice to say Ferrari must have done an exceptional job with the thermal efficiency of their Powerunit. A deep undercut is framed by a fairly standard Airflow Conditioner, however the team are once again using a leading edge slat over the top of the Sidepod to increase the speed threshold operating window of the Sidepod. (ie the airflow that passes over a surface will become detached at differing speeds due to surface length and angle of attack, the slat broadens this window).

The Sidepods reach around to the rear of the car and retain a fairly flat upper profile in comparison to some of the other cars we have seen thus far. That however means that a nice undercut is available so the airflow can make its way into the coke bottle region. A rearward shot will definitively prove the outlets position but it would appear that is taken car of alongside the exhaust outlet at the rear of the car.