Video launch of the new Lotus (another stepped nose car): There's a lot of extra crammed into 21 minutes and not a lot of the car itself. If you get bored with interviews, etc, skip ahead to around 15min - 18min to see the technical director explaining rule changes and their effects on the exhaust and the nose. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjgSaYQ_GeY]Amazing F1 stuff - Lotus E20 Launch - YouTube[/ame]
I tried to find out the spec's on the new nose req. but was unable to find anything that I could relate to why the cars "had" to go with the stepped down look. Only thing I could find was that the nose had to be a maximum height off the ground, nothing about how far back it had to go. Wonder if it has to do with the cars design and the crash test that is done. Maybe Mclaren was able to pass the crash test w/o having to step down the whole nose.........?
The new rules require the nose to be lower, but only just so far back, beyond that point you can raise things up again. Most teams want the front of the chassis raised fairly high for aerodynamic reasons, mostly downforce. As I mentioned above (see post #165), McLaren went with a lower front of the chassis so they don't need to step up from the new lower nose height. A few words from James Allison (Lotus Technical Chief) on the rule change:
Believe the height change is there in the Mclaren. They just chose a different approach, going for more of a less drag design whilst the others seem to be trying to get some downforce in their shape.....of course then we have Red Bull and their duct....lol
OK....after comparing very un-scientifically the side views of the cars so far, it seems that Mclaren went with the gradually curve the nose down vs an abrupt step in the nose. It appears that the bodies are all about the same height at the front suspension and about equal in height off of the ground.
The McLaren's nose must be as low as (or lower than) the others at the bottom of the step seen on the rest of the cars. It can't be any higher at that point because the new tech regs limit the height of the entire nose assembly from the front of the bulkhead forward. "... the height of the chassis immediately ahead of the cockpit can still be up to 625mm above the reference plane, but then in the space of 150mm it must fall to 550mm." See simplistic diagram here. Looks to me like Ferrari used the entire 625mm max height in a straight line all the way along the front of their chassis from the front of the cockpit to their step. The only way McLaren can have a smooth top curve from the front of the cockpit to the tip of the nose is if the front edge of their bulkhead is also no more than 550mm above the reference plane. It can then curve upward toward the rear to approach the 625mm max. That's only a 7.5cm rise so it can be hard to see but I think I can see it here. There's some good info here Launch Analysis: McLaren Mercedes MP4-27 and here 2012: Nose height Regulations.
Holy crap, HRT are already on the track at the first test session! They took a different route with their nose, sort of a cross between the stepped and McLaren's version. I think McLaren no longer has the lowest nose in F1...
