Lotus looks like they have found a way around the new nose rules before the season even starts. It looks like the nose has the same limited width right at the front, but divided into left and right halves that are also the front wind struts. Clever buggers. Or cheats, depending on your point of view......
Lotus's engine builder is even scratching their collective heads.... Jan.24 (GMM) Not testing at Jerez next week is a setback for Lotus. That is the view of the team's engine supplier Renault, despite Lotus saying it will not be disadvantaged by the absence because other users of the French engine - Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Caterham - will be in southern Spain collecting shared data. But Rob White, Renault's technical chief, said that reasoning is not quite right. "The basic power unit is the same for all of the clients," he is quoted by Italy's Omnicorse, "and the information will be shared. "But each installation is unique," he insisted. "Of course, simulations are possible," White added, "but you can't understand everything with simulations alone."
Here's an idea: What if there was a slot just where the tea try hits the body. It could channel air through the car to then mix with the hot air that has gone through the cooling system. Then vent it out over the top of the diffuser to create some down force. The higher speed cool air would also act as an extractor for the hot air increasing the flow through the cooling system.
The McLaren could look worse. I don't think there's anything in the rules stating they have to stick with the same nose, as long as a new one passes the crash tests.
...which is where all the early insider nicknames came from. Then, realizing they had to play nice when talking to the public and media, someone came up with anteater nose...
I wonder if the shorter fork is less of a crash structure and more of an air channeler. If it's not as robust as the longer one, then in an impact the long one can take the force, and the short one disintegrates instantly. That way if it's not a straight on impact, the short one can get out of the way before the long one starts to work. They could be doing it that way to save weight.
I think you're partly right there. I'd guess they're both structural and equally supportive of the front wing, but the regs state a minimum cross sectional area of the front of the nose as the leading end of the forward crash structure. My money is on the longer bit being there to satisfy that part of the requirement while the separation of the two halves supports the wing better than a single member and allows channeling of the airflow.
In other news -- and this is not a joke -- the new Ferrari contender is to be called the F 14 T. This after a fan vote. Close that up a bit and you get F14T. FIAT, anyone?
...and in yet other big news, Eric Boullier quit his job at Lotus. Speculation is he's another, perhaps prime, contender for the McLaren Team Principal job.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-D5RPHqazc]Lotus E22 - analysis by Craig Scarborough - YouTube[/ame]
The sound of the new Merc engine, at speed. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkMh_PCfWTo]Welcome to F1 2014... #W05sup - YouTube[/ame]