F1 launches commenced today

[gourami]

Sauber; another ugly nose.

Is McLaren going to take the Championship for the prettiest car?
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Watching F1 since 1998... trackside at Silverstone, Shanghai and Melbourne.

[gourami]

Apparently Torro Rosso features same said ugly nose according to a tweet trackside.
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Watching F1 since 1998... trackside at Silverstone, Shanghai and Melbourne.

[TokyoAussie]

Why is it that teams don't have a sloping nose from the suspension anchors down to the end of the nose? If McLaren can do it and it is legal, then...

I only pray that the Red Bull doesn't have it either. If it does, I am switching allegiance, again (not that I really have any).

[bewildered_jim]

[F One]

[Podge 90]

Thought this might interest you lot, just come across this post from a car forum I lurk:

"From a friend of mine that works at a non-McLaren F1 team:

Basically it's because the FIA regulations for the legal height of the nose were not published until halfway through last year. By which time most teams had already designed their chassis (and suspension, steering, etc.) to the regulation height which, for the chassis, is the same as last year. Hence as they couldn't feasibly change the height of the chassis halfway through the design process they had to stay with the chassis they had. So the legal height of the nose is 75mm lower than the legal height of the top of the chassis. The drop has to happen within 150mm from the front of the chassis. This results in these horrible steps. The noses are also quite flat because aero requirements need a lot of air flow under the nose, this is why a high nose is better - to promote more air flow under the car. Ultimately this means the shape of the nose is squished by the FIA legality boxes and the aero flow requirements.

McLaren don't have this feature because their chassis was already low last year so they could easily incorporate a nice nose that is still legal onto their already low chassis."

I feel a little more optimistic about the McLaren's......uniqueness

[TokyoAussie]

Red Bull grotesque; reminds me of the drink.

[AllanL]

While everyone else, McLaren apart so far, has seen fit to put a step in the nose to meet the new regs Adrian Newey has put a hole for the air to go into.

So where is it coming out and why?? Adrian OBE won't have put it in to cool the drivers tootsies I wager.

[bewildered_jim]

Is it that surprising that the top two cars of 2011 look a bit different to the rest?

I don't think the box will be a game changer performance wise. So to clarify; the rules have brought other teams more towards the kind of car McLaren designed in 2011...anyway? This...sounds optimistic.
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"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

[gourami]

It'll be McLaren's year. Button or Hamilton: you decide.

I wonder how long it will take for a stepped nose team to smooth, if not eliminate, the bump in favour of a smoother, possibly hooked, nose cone.

It's hard to imagine a large step doing anything but compromising the airflow up and over the centre of the car. Just imagine what the smoke trails do in the wind tunnel!
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Watching F1 since 1998... trackside at Silverstone, Shanghai and Melbourne.

[Jon notbutton]

If Button beats Hamilton what will be Hamilton's next move?

[bewildered_jim]

I don't think Hamilton and Button will ever be miles apart in the standings. They're both just too good to be completely destroyed by the other. Alonso did have a point in 2007, for all I don't like the attitude.

Point; Hamilton would be manly to stay, but if he went to RBR, well...
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"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]

*Conspiracy hat on*

FIA changing rules to suit McLaren to end RBR dominance

*Conspiracy hat off*


Fun this..

[Jon notbutton]

Williams, another ugly bugger!

Conspiracy theorist.... Well the only team not to have a stepped nose is McLaren? How did that happen? I don't believe in the conspiracy but why was every other team designing bath tubs where the driver could not see over the taps?

Over Buttn v. Hamilton. I never suggested that Button would beat Hamilton by a country mile. Merely wondering if Hamilton would stick around if the car suited his team mate better. If he went elsewhere... RBR didn't seem massively keen when he met them last year. Ferrari has no need for him. Where could/would he go?

[solarflare]

In retrospect I always marvel at how quickly the new shape of cars becomes the "norm" and the older ones look weird and ungainly...did it after they changed in 1998, did it again a few times in the early and mid 2000's, did it as recently as 2009.

But I honestly can't see how that will happen with these new cars. They all have faces only a mother could love. All horrendous, with the notable exception of the Mclaren. If they turn up with a stepped nose in Melbourne as some sort of response I might just weep.

At least in 2009 they looked reasonable (much simpler than the '08 fighter jets that had been aero-flicked to within an inch of their lives), just out of proportion. But these all look as if they've been put through the crash tests and not been fixed.
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Life is.....the gap between Formula 1 Grands Prix