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Caterham launches the CT01

The CT01 has a similar engine cover to Red Bull's RB7 © Caterham

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• Caterham CT01

Caterham has officially launched its 2012 car - the CT01 - in F1 Racing magazine.

The new car, which is the first for the team under the Caterham name, was first seen yesterday after some copies of the magazine were delivered to subscribers a day early. The team has released more images of the car today with the higher exhaust exits clearly visible at the rear of the car. Chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne said that the focus for the CT01 had been on aerodynamics and that the new regulations banning the exhaust-blown diffusers would help the team.

"Aerodynamics is always the main focus of performance and improvement," Gascoyne said. "Last year it was all about the blown diffuser, which we struggled with because not having it in 2010 meant we were always playing catch up throughout the 2011 season in comparison to other teams.

"The fact it's banned this year certainly plays to our advantage. Other teams had so much more development time, they were able to get much more out of it than we were ever able to, so that eliminates a little of the competition in terms of technical development. But really, aerodynamics is always one of the main features of development and that's why we've put so much additional resource into it."

The car features KERS for the first time, with the Red Bull system being integrated, but the main focus has been on the stepped nose. Gascoyne said that the interest was only because the Caterham was the first car to be unveiled and that the solution would be one that he expects a number of teams to adopt.

"Well the regulations have changed to limit the height of the nosebox to try to ensure that noses don't get too high. Our challenge is that you always want to get the chassis as high as possible to allow clean air flow to the underside of the car, and what you see on the CT01 is our solution to that. As we're the first car out it is obviously stirring up a lot of debate, but because of the 2012 regulations I think you'll probably be seeing this type of nose on most of the cars this year."

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