The F1 Thread

[jlo]

Gone under the radar today, but the dream team has been completed...

De la Rosa & Karthikeyan confirmed at HRT. 41 & 35 years old...what are the ambitions of this team?

 

[Nando]

I warmed to them slightly last year, but that is a complete farce. 8 million in sponsorship from Narain apparently.

 

[Carrotdude]

It does feel like a waste of time them even being around, at least Marussia and Caterham in particular are showing ambition and gradual improvement.

 

[Nando]

Red Bull has a stepped nose too, although not as dramatic as the Ferrari's.

Sauber has a nose very similar to the Ferrari.

STR due to launch today as well.

 

[Psychowolf]

STR following suit then with the noses. Is it me or does Red Bull's also have a little gap across theirs?. Interesting that they seem to have revealed their car by not actually showing a real car too. Only McLaren so far seem to have not gone for the horrible nose. A mistake that will see them playing catch up or do they know something the others don't?. First test at Jerez tommorow I believe.

 

[The Bear]

Red Bull's has a slot/vent where the step is.

No-one's sure if it's a red herring or an actual aero device.

 

[Nando]

McLaren had a very low nose last season in comparison to the rest of the grid, so they've continued along those lines rather than basically starting again with a high nose to maximise the airflow under the car like virtually everybody else.

 

[The Bear]

Yes it seems they anticpated the nose regulations in last year's car. It'll be interesting to see if that has any effect compared to all the stepped noses.

 

[Nando]

They've had a low(er) for a couple of seasons, the low ride height improves the centre of gravity but it results in a really stiff front end, they've been bouncing around all over the place at times over the past two seasons.

 

[Psychowolf]

Thought it was a gap but weren't sure as it's not an actual picture. Wonder where it goes or If Vettel just likes a nice breeze over his legs. Hope with the knowledge they got from previous seasons then McLaren can steal some ground on others from the off. Can't help but think others would have tried and seen more benefit in the stepped nose though for them all to be going the way of the ugly car. Really hate the noses, looks like they all hired the same engineer to take a hammer to the cars.

 

[Nando]

There's some very interesting stuff on the BBC from Gary Anderson and Scarbs is on overload with all the new releases.

The Ferrari is stunning from the side view, ruined by the hideous nose though.

 

[Nando]

 

[Nando]

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

so much bigger air intakes on the MP4-27 and although the rear wing is about the same size, it appears to be set much higher. The difference in nose height is quite marked isn't it?

 

[Carrotdude]

I read somewhere that the new regulations suited Mclaren and allowed them to continue their development as they were and still be legal whereas the others have had to change their strategy more, hence the step noses.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Looking at the side view the MP4-27 nose is lower at the point of the step in the F2012. Interesting. I would like to know how it passes the regulation technical spec, which I am sure it does, and what McLaren are doing differently to everyone else, especially now I have seen the RB8 which also has a step nose.

 

[The Bear]

As Nando pointed out, they are just on a slightly different front end phosophy compared to the others. They didn't have to worry about the maximum height of their nose as it already complied with the new regulations.

To be honest I don't think the stepped noses will mean a lot in terms of performance. There's barely any aero disadvantage of the lower front of the nose apart from a slight difference in channeling the air flow underneath the car, and hardly any weight in them either, as the chassis bulkhead ends at the step.

 

[Nando]

Kimi fans hysterical that he's topping the time sheets.

I guess it's nothing at all to do with all of Lotus' main sponsors being in attendance today.

 

[The Bear]

The times at the first test mean literally nothing.

 

[Nando]

Don't tell Kimi fans that. He's going to wipe the floor with everybody and make Ferrari wish they never dropped him apparently.