Joint launch for F1 teams

Formula One teams are planning to present their 2010 cars together in Spain next month instead of holding individual launches, bosses said on Thursday.

"We have agreed among all the teams to do a joint launch," Mercedes Grand Prix chief executive Nick Fry, whose team won both titles this year as Brawn GP, told a motorsport business forum.

Lotus F1 team principal Tony Fernandes told Reuters that Valencia was the planned venue for the launch at the end of January.

"We do wish to turn it into a proper event and we are getting a lot of help from the venue in investment in communication and marketing to do that," said Fry when asked whether it would be a public event. "I am going from here to a meeting this afternoon to discuss exactly this subject... At the moment I wouldn't wish to spill the beans on exactly what we are going to do but I think it is going to be very innovative. I think it is another clear demonstration of how we are working together We're not all just going off and doing our own individual launches. We can do something which is a lot more customer-friendly."

Fernandes said the proposed date would be too early for his new team to have a track-ready car, however, with the Lotus due for completion by early February for testing before the season starts in Bahrain in March.

"I won't have a car at that time. I could come with a Matchbox car," he said.