These days all Formula 1 team are down at Jerez circuit in Spain to take advantage of its sunny days and do some testing. That’s also where Sauber unveiled their new car, the C31.

Yes, it has the step nose. But this is the prettiest 2012 F1 car we’ve seen so far. It’s just cool some how, in spite of the rather dull livery. The rear-end design with that diffuser is particularly good.

The car has a a high chassis design and optimized front suspension for integration with the chassis and the upright. Packaging was further optimised under the side pods in order to open up more aerodynamic development scope in that area. The cooling layout is based around a similar philosophy to the C30, because that proved to be effective. It helps to get the volume of the coolers forward and allows the design of very compact rear bodywork.

Sauber C31 maintains its Ferrari engine, and driver lineup with Kamui Kobayashi (25) and Sergio Pérez (22). 2012 marks Sauber’s 20th year of presence in Formula 1.

Summarising all the efforts put into developing the new Sauber C31-Ferrari, Chief Designer Matt Morris says: “The C31 is revolutionary where we had fresh ideas, particularly at the rear of the car, and it is an evolution where we knew we could carry over certain approaches. We had to improve on the weaknesses we identified on the C30, but at the same time we wanted to maintain its strengths.”