By Jamie Makin
January 20 2005

It's been a busy week for us Sauber fans with the launch of the much anticipated C24 and rollout in Valencia. Somehow I've found enough time left over at the end of it to finally write the first edition of the SauberSpeak.co.uk weekly newsletter. After a long and somewhat uneventful winter, the team has emerged with an exciting new challenger - the 2005 SAUBER PETRONAS C24. The rollout in Valencia was an unceremonious affair after the cancellation of the launch in Kuala Lumpur. The car is an absolute work of art and has F1 fans all across the world getting psyched up to see it unleash its full potential. What a refreshing change this is after last year's launch of the C23 when most fans just shrugged it off a "blue Ferrari". The C24 is proof that Sauber is on the right track with their new wind tunnel and supercomputer "Albert" and that they are aggressively pursuing their own ideas for advancing the team up the grid.

The C24 itself looks to be just as aggressive as the team's ambitions. Its prominent features include a curved sidepods which slope in towards the car's bottom as well as revised aerodynamics to comply with 2005 regulations. The team tested it in Valencia with a unique front wing design with a third element but found it to be too nervous in the corners. Still, the car has proven to be reliable straight out of the box and shows the potential to be very fast. The team has almost two more months to get it ready for the first race so it will be fun to watch it progress until then.

While their team is working on their ambitions to move ahead, I'm working on some exciting new plans for this website. This newsletter is just one of those new things. My goal for writing this is to bring you my more personal views of the team, something I can't always do when writing my news reports. I'm also trying to create more fan interaction on the site. To make it a true "home for Sauber fans".

We had a great turnout for our chat on rollout day last Friday. For almost seven hours, we had Sauber fans from all around the world stopping by to chat as they checked out the C24. Thank you to everyone who attended! I will be holding more chats throughout the season. Most will be immediately after each race but there will be a few other "special event" type chats.

My other idea is to get more feedback on specific topics and publish fan reactions on the site's front page. The first topic will be your thoughts on the new C24. Are you excited about Sauber's prospects for the new year? Will the car be a true contender for race wins? Or is the team destined to stay in their midfield slump? Do you like the driver lineup? Or do you yearn for someone else to steer the C24?

You can send your comments to: feedback@sauberspeak.co.uk. Don't forget to tell us your name and where you're from.

It is my hope that this season will see more fans come to the site and start to get to know each other while we build a new community of Sauber fans. As always, if you have any suggestions for features you would like to see on Sauber Speak, just let me know.

Many of you are already receiving our newsletter which up to this point has contained just headline stories for the past week. You will continue to receive these updates along with the newsletter-exclusive content. For those of you not yet on our mailing list:

Click here to subscribe to the SauberSpeak.co.uk newsletter.

Soon these writings of mine will become "newsletter exclusive" content so only subscribers will have access to them. In the meantime, thanks for reading this and for visiting Sauber Speak.

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