F1 - Season 2012 *spoiler*

[Mad Dan]

That's awful, cars until 2009 were awesome...

[GeneSuomi]

2000 Jordan is one of my favorite cars. It just looks faster and more serious racecar than today's cars. Now I see just a bunch of rules and regulations on wheels.

[1nsane]

Makes me wonder, whether McLaren showed their real nosecone.

These last two cars prove the guys making the rules didn't think at all. "Hey, we want you to make the noses this low. The drivers' legs? Deal with it." I guess even the rules say the front of the monocoque has to be like it has been for over 10 years. And then they come up with the idea of lowering the nose like that. Why not make the rule so the farthest point of the nose cone has to be at height y, but otherwise it can be in a shape the designers want it to be, instead of forcing it to be at height y for the distance of x.
Also, for some reason I'm afraid we'll see atleast one set of broken feet this season, because now there's not that much stuff between the feet and the open air, or the barriers. The drivers' toes are especially on the line of fire.

If the nose is covered, that Force India looks very nice. Such a sleek bodywork. Ferrari looks just as conservative as it did last year. I guess the way the exhaust is located will prove how good or bad their car is.

About the old cars, I don't know... Looking at them now, I don't like all of the wing monsters. The only good looking cars from 2008 were Ferrari and Force India. And I kinda liked the 2011 cars, as they had gotten some of the flaps back to the front and rear wings, but otherwise the bodylines were very smooth because the exhausts were hidden.

[The Noose]

Looking at these cars I say that the McLaren is the best looking car.

[Trigger Happy]

How can you come with blaming FIA for the noses, 1nsane? The McLaren clearly proves, that it's deliberate choice of designers (to copy Red Bull's approach of last few years with as most air to floor from bottom-nose as possible for any cost). They are those guilty for the ugliness.

BTW I wonder why Ferrari didn't made the try at Fiorano. I know, that there's plenty of fresh snow, but the current front wing fits to the purpose pretty well - like e.g. this car:

[1nsane]

How can you come with blaming FIA for the noses, 1nsane? The McLaren clearly proves, that it's deliberate choice of designers (to copy Red Bull's approach of last few years with as most air to floor from bottom-nose as possible for any cost). They are those guilty for the ugliness.

But you see, you're talking about the bottom part here. That shouldn't really affect the shape of the top of the front cone. I personally don't see any reason why the teams would want to deliberately make a wall on the car, which breaks the airflow of the car on the top side so heavily. Unless they are _really_ thinking that might work as a "wing".

I guess Red Bull and Newey will finally show whether the rules are too strict, or if the McLaren idea is just a fluke for now.

Also, the other most interesting piece of news is, Karthinkeyan is back in HRT. We'll see for how long.

[Doorslammer]

Consider the following.

Thanks to many years of wonderful windtunnel testing (cheers, NASA), this is apparently the most efficient shape within the constraints of size for a train.



My point? The Ferrari designers and boffins had decided that through meticulous computer modelling and scale windtunnel testing that their shape is the most efficient as the rules allow.

Unfortunately, ugly is the future. Although I commend them for at least making the underside of the front quite tidy, something a lot of cars lack nowadays.

EDIT: On further inspection, it appears that something I predicted a couple years ago has finally started to come true. Looks like the designers are finding ways to make downforce at a point closer to the front wheel. It could be negligible, but every little bit makes the difference, I guess.

[Trigger Happy]

It has nothing to do with train unless train has a floor generating grip keeping it on rails.

It's simple:
A. as much air bellow nose needed to have best flow on floor as possible.
B. cockpit needs a hight - to allow physically driver to have there legs & related restrictions for crash tests.

So you can either keep the body as high as was in 2011 with cutting the front (nose keeping wing) and creating the ugly stair between nose and cockpit or decrease all the nose & front part of cockpit, but then decrease will eat some the room for air flow ''bellow'' the nose. And the designers think, that cons of the ugly stair in top will cost less on aerodynamic than they earn bellow the nose from flow on car floor, so it worth in sum. McLaren not, isn't fake - even McLaren's 2011 car would fit the 2012 rules of low nose, they simply don't copy this Red Bull approach all the years (like Ferrari and others do ATM).

[Yusei Fudo]

Why would someone want to do something so ugly -.-

[Alex]

Force India VJM-05 has been revealed:

[Yusei Fudo]

already posted by reh xD

[DuklaLiberec]

That's awful, cars until 2009 were awesome...

IMHO it's until 2007, due to the ugly shark fins.

[Mad Dan]

Yeah shark fins werent that nice but 2009 cars were ridiculous .

[1nsane]

So you can either keep the body as high as was in 2011 with cutting the front (nose keeping wing) and creating the ugly stair between nose and cockpit or decrease all the nose & front part of cockpit, but then decrease will eat some the room for air flow ''bellow'' the nose. And the designers think, that cons of the ugly stair in top will cost less on aerodynamic than they earn bellow the nose from flow on car floor, so it worth in sum. McLaren not, isn't fake - even McLaren's 2011 car would fit the 2012 rules of low nose, they simply don't copy this Red Bull approach all the years (like Ferrari and others do ATM).

Indeed, I bumped to an article about the new ideas of McLaren. And there was a picture which showed and explained, that the car does indeed fit in the restrictions. I have to say, I'm genuinely surprised about this, because the part where the nose starts to go lower still looks like it is too high. But it looks like the actual chassis is so slim (and the driver have less space for feet, I'd guess), so they can cut the crucial centimeters right from the start. It also said the McLaren could do this because they have a long history and knowledge of using the low nose. Which is also true. While all of the other teams have been switching back and forth with the front height, Macca has stuck with the low nose all the time.

Welp.. I'm still interested to see what RB can come up with.

[Doorslammer]

It has nothing to do with train unless train has a floor generating grip keeping it on rails.

I'm using it as an example of something that's become lumpy as heck, yet works efficiently. You can relate closely to it's front end and the Ferrari's nose cone idiocy, some scarily common shapes kicking around there.

[Alex]

Williams-Renault will unveil their car on February 7th. The driver line-up is Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna.

[GeneSuomi]

That has to be the worst line-up in 2012 And since William's budget is pretty bad at the moment they may have to fight against HRT and VIrgin. Caterham will be way better than last year.

[Bouncebackability]

That has to be the worst line-up in 2012

I think HRT take that accolade with Pedro De La Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan

[The Noose]

Welp. Here's the new Lotus E20.

[Alex]

Good to see the Lotus legacy is continued,

(although it should be Renault )

despite the Lotus that we called Lotus is now Caterham and the Lotus that we now call Lotus was Renault. It's like the Toleman/Renault/Benetton confusion.

[1nsane]

Pic

A picture of the car for the people like me, who don't want to load a 20 minute film to see a car.

Looks like Lotus has managed to hide the drop quite well. Otherwise the car seems quite ordinary, so we'll have to wait until the first race to see whether the conservative way is better or not.

[Bouncebackability]

I agree 1nsane, its the best looking flat nose so far, probably because its not as severe as others and its black bodywork so you cannot see it so well. I do hope they all revert to McLaren style through the year, I cannot stand this look.

[Trigger Happy]

I'm afraid not, BBA, they would have to redo the monocoque's high. And IIRC they cannot update it during the season once it's reviewed by FIA and passed crash tests?

[bduddy]

The FI's nose is ugly, of course, but at least the rest of the car is much better than the Ferrari. As for the "Lotus", well, I think they've managed to show us that maybe it is possible to make the flat/ugly nose look OK....

[1nsane]

I'm afraid not, BBA, they would have to redo the monocoque's high. And IIRC they cannot update it during the season once it's reviewed by FIA and passed crash tests?

Yeah, it's pretty much like that. It's a bit of a shame since it was so cool to see the mid-season monocoque changes.

The funny thing about Lotus is that they actually have those "octopus eyes", so they really could go for the McLaren styled front if they wanted to. They don't have the same kind of wall as Ferrari and FI have in there. Ferrari and FI won't be able to revert to the McLaren style.


Edit: Sauber has been revealed.

And they are going for the extreme duckface. That is the duckiest of the duckfaces seen so far. But the livery is cool! Their intakes are pretty small, we'll see if they will run into some cooling problems during the hot races. They also seem to have gone for a more radical way of leading the exhaust gasses out. I'm guessing (and these are just my guesses, have to get a clarification for it), that the pipes are either right on the floor panel, hidden behind the suspension, or they have done some sort of a piping in the middle that pushes the air out and effectively to the bottom part of the car.

Edit 2: Red Bull has been revealed

Still waiting for the press pictures of the car. Also, notice how they have named the video...

As for the car... The little that can be seen of it so far, they have also gone the "wall" route. Except that they seem to have a hole in the drop, so maybe that is an intake for something. I'd expect Ferrari to do something similar, actually. They seem to also have hidden the exhausts quite well, this is something McLaren might look into. They also seem to have some very drastic wings on the bottom of the nose cone. Maybe something the FIA will put their eyes on. Otherwise it's still quite hard to say.

Out of these cars, I have to say the Renault actually looks the most promising along with McLaren.