Who might use a "U" shaped nose on their car? Hollow through the middle so the air can still get to the tea tray while meeting the new regs. I like that idea better then the long skinny ones being talked about.
March can not get here soon enough, I miss my Sunday morning ritual of reading the newspaper, eating breakfast, and settling into the recliner to watch F1 around 7:30 am.
2014 car reveals are on the horizon. We won't see the Lotus for a while, they're even going to skip the first test. McLaren have announced they'll first show their car, on-line only, 24 Jan. Haven't noticed any other announcements.
Sorry, it's unfair of me to blame this on his temper. If Irvine is telling the truth, the other guy -- angry about Irvine's contact with the guy's ex girlfriend -- started it when he hit him from behind.
We had pics a while back showing the awkward feet-high driving position in 2013 F1 cars. Based on a mockup I saw the other day, feet and knees may drop a bit in 2014 along with the front of the bulkhead. While we're waiting to see, here's an Audi R18 cutaway...just because. Looks a LOT more comfortable to me.
While we wait to see how these new cars look... When I see cars like this one I wonder what people thought of them at the time, esp. the team and drivers. I like to imagine the guy who came up with the idea trying to convince the rest of the team. And, unlike last season where the nose aesthetics were sort of forced by regulation restrictions, the nose below was designed with plenty of engineering elbow room. Imagine the drivers' faces when they saw the early drawings or mock-ups. Trot out this cool look today and see what your driver says. BTW, that's Ronnie Peterson at the 'Ring in 1971. Change the nose and it's a good looking car.
Exclusive Q&A: Gary Paffett discusses how McLaren's 2014 car is developing | Vodafone McLaren Mercedes News | Formula 1 Teams | Sky Sports Interesting. It makes sense that the FIA is trying to slow down the cars a little in the name of safety. I've heard it said that drivers never want slower cars, and given the choice between a two nearly identical cars, one that's safe and one that's not safe but 2 seconds faster a lap, they'll take the faster car each time and safety be damned. I think they were talking about that in the 1 documentary in fact. That might be the source of my paraphrase there. The teams will always push for speed, but it needs to be someone's responsibility to push for safety, so the FIA does that. Sad thing is, it makes for ugly cars. Still better than killing a driver every month though.
Why do F1 cars have to be pretty? As long as they're competitive, who cares what they look like? :confused5:
I think the point is that the new cars are never going to look as good as the cars of the past. I to long for the beauty of the past, but am excited about what the future holds.
This is true Dave. But at one time it seemed if it looked good it raced good. Those days are long gone I'm sorry to say. :frown2:
Fast is beautiful in it's own way and that's why I watch, but there's no reason I can't hope they'll actually looked cool as well. I'm no fan of things like the artificial vanity panels concocted in a panic by the FIA (worried 'ugly' noses would drive away viewers) and used by some teams in 2013. I say make 'em functional and fast. My beef is with the strangling tight rule restrictions that keep the teams from being able to do what they like...which I suspect is a bit of both, fast trumping pretty, though, of course. I wonder what the cars would look like if the non-safety aspects of the design rules were rolled back a few decades. Keep the rules that eliminate ground effects cars, set a relatively low restriction on maximum aero surface area, add a tight resource restriction to keep things from getting completely out of hand and then let them do what they want. Never mind, arm-chair quarterbacking in progress here.
I agree with the thought that in order to try and keep a lid on costs they've also managed to strangle innovation, but I don't think going backwards is the answer. I also grew up with the shape of racecars back when so I have a natural bias towards what I thought was cool when I was first exposed to them. However, those cars would be ssssslllllllooooooooowwwwwww compared to today's missiles on wheels, especially without the current aero. I think there's room in racedom for a formula much like the old Can Am, run whatcha brung.....but look what happened to that series when Porsche threw down the gauntlet of the 917...it almost became a Red Bull type" one make series very soon - well - one winner series anyway. The old IMSA Prototype series worked pretty well too, it had V-12 Jags, V-8 Chevy "Corvettes", V-6 Nissans (and later Jags) and even 4 cyl turbo Toyotas all running in the same class and the racing was pretty exciting. But aero is king now in pretty much any series, so we have these odd looking shapes now.....to young guys in their 20's just getting into F1, cars from back-when probably look odd.
If F1 went to customer cars you would have McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull, maybe Mercedes, and Williams at least for a little while. Who would buy anything but a Red Bull, at least while Newey is still there?