Cars next year to have a "modesty panel" on the stepped nose

I thought F1 was all about function over form?

 

Forest Gump's mother: pretty is as pretty does.

 

Thank God, those noses are terrible!

 

Can somebody explain to me why they made this change in the first place. The article says

How the heck did not allowing the nose to go higher than that point make them protext drivers from head-on or side-impacts? The front part of the nose is still in the same place and that is what will pierce the attacked car. My point is only the front point of the nose should be restricted in height by the rules, after the point who gives a stuff.

I just don't get it???
Pete

 

+1 so much non-sense there ....just mandate the height, and also the from shape (to less of a point), done!

 

Stupidly frivolous.

 

Well, the front part of the nose is a bit lower, and let´s not forget that the height of the tip of the nose is not so important as the whole nose cone height, as the tip breaks when crashing.

In a perfect world, they just should set a maximum height for the chassis at the point where the step is now. Of course, that would mean that everybody would need a brand new chassis for next year, which is not good news for Marussia et al.

 

The 2012 regulations required the nose to be lowered in order to allow the drivers better visibility towards the front. But the chassis peopel have found that more air under the nose makes for faster cars and have adapted the front suspensions with downward sloping arms to enable this airflow. The chassis designers did not want to change, and a hole in the regulations only required the nose lowering in front of the front tires. So this years drivers have no better visibility and the cars look ugly.

 

I'm 99.9% sure that's not true. "Visibility" was never mentioned as a reason - It was done to reduce the risk of a guy getting speared.

+1

There's no "hole in the regulations" - They kept the size of the survival cell the same, but mandated that forward of that bulkhead the thing must be lower - They all kept it as high as possible (for the reasons you cited), and hence the platypus "straight out" noses.

We really haven't had what I'd call a "pretty" F1 car in many years now;

The reduction in rear wings a few years back? "Fugly, they suck, I'll never get used to em!"
The huge snow plough front wings? "Fugly, they suck, I'll never......."
These platypus noses? "Fugly, they suck......."



As for the "modesty panel" - I've got bad feelings that someone will find a loophole there somehow..... As Matchett likes to say, "nothing goes on an F1 car unless it does good" - The only way they'll fit anything is if there's a benefit - Not to "please" us and make 'em look prettier!

Cheers,
Ian

 

I am sure someone will soon figure out a way to make an aero-aid device out of the panel soon.

 

I think the big front wing is the biggest contributor to ugly. The stepped noses on a few of the cars are very well done.

 

DNS ...double nose spoiler!