F1 launches commenced today

[TokyoAussie]

The Force India nose reminds me of a dolphin more than anything else, but my choice for most hideous goes to Ferrari. It looks like a total afterthought, and surely must offend most Italians' sensibilities. Imagine a hump like that on a road-going Ferrari, and F1 cars are supposed to be the sleek-looking machines.

[Brace]

It's always a bit difficult to pin-point, how much, in which team, technical director and chief designer each contribute.
Patrick Head was Williams TD since forever pretty much, but designers changed over time. Newey was there in mid 90s only.
I remember that walrus nose for example was when Gavin Fisher was CD, but I remember that a lot of credit for that was given to Terzi (I forgot her first name, yes, it's HER ).
She was in charge of aerodynamics, but I wouldn't know what the exact title was.
I suppose those two were also there for a previous year (2003), which can be considered highly successful in terms of a car performance.
I mean, to be honest, they have been at the sharp end of the field since 2001, all the way until 2006. If you remember, even 2005 started decently, although not as sharp as 2002 and 2003, but still respectable.

I don't know when exactly Sam Michael became TD, but I suppose, that was not crucial.

We can only guess what was the cause of their troubles, but I suppose they never recovered from BMW's departure. Those two should have known better than to split up.

[Editor]

[bewildered_jim]

Small reminder; don't pay too much attention to the times...

http://www.pitpass.com/37027-Hamilton-leads-the-way-on-final-day-with-pictures
_________________
"With its F1 coverage from 2012 set to play second fiddle, the BBC promises to get fans close to the true experience - of being Mark Webber" #HIGNFY @don_lyall

[Podge 90]

oh absolutely jim, but I'm still taking heart in the fact Kimi is 'not slow'.

[bewildered_jim]

Yeah, it's quite a good measure of 'is the car a disaster or not'.

Lotus could well be very fast, they tend to jump out the blocks well every year since about 2003.

P.S; Name is Donald. Username is Jim because my friends and I used to use "Jim" as a synonym for "some random punter". Pretty stupid 8 years later or whatever.
_________________
"With its F1 coverage from 2012 set to play second fiddle, the BBC promises to get fans close to the true experience - of being Mark Webber" #HIGNFY @don_lyall

[Podge 90]

aaah I was just shortening your user name

[Jon notbutton]

Bringing this thread back to the new car launches and my conclusion is that the Merc has the best looking nose of all the "stepped nose" deigns but it is still not as pretty as the Mclaren.

[Anfield5]

Agreed Jon. It does look better than most of the "Prost" noses. It almost looks like its designed that way, rather than having the new nose design added at the last minute, wich unfortunately seems to be the case for most other teams.
Is it my imagination or are the front wing supports twicw as deep as on the other contendenders?
_________________
Movable body panels - welcome to the Wacky Races

[Jon notbutton]

I recall last year talk of an "F duct" style development on the Merc (found some pictures somewhere on the web).

At first glance I thought that the W03 front wing supports looked to be countoured in such a way as to allow air to be fed (back) through them and directed to the front wing.

However, if this concept works, they don't seem to be using it or they don't seem to have found extra speed from it so far.

[bewildered_jim]

McLaren and RBR looked pretty nailed on right now.

I feel it could be a pretty tight start to the season.
_________________
"With its F1 coverage from 2012 set to play second fiddle, the BBC promises to get fans close to the true experience - of being Mark Webber" #HIGNFY @don_lyall

[bawjohnson]

Wins for both Merc drivers...

[Jon notbutton]

And the usual suspects fail to show up at testing!

[Anfield5]

[easy_rider]