Anyone who’s followed the launch of the new 2012 F1 cars and the first period of testing last week, will instantly say the answer to that is McLaren. That would certainly be the fighting talk answer too. However. the true answer is the FIA, and their technical regulation tweaks for this year.
Possessing a hardcore – perhaps ridiculous – obsession with F1 (I’m single, give me break, it’s all I have…), I’m always ready and eager each year to catch the launch of the new cars. After a long winter break I find a certain excitement in catching a glimpse of each team’s new offering, even though as with many things, the anticipation is always greater than the reality – something you could argue about F1 in general! (No! How could I say such a thing, I take it back.)
The launch cars also undoubtedly change significantly throughout testing to the first race, giving even less reason to get too giddy at what’s initially shown to the public. Still, it marks the season is close at hand, news articles and rumours begin to grow, and I will soon have reason to get up on a weekend and not just stay in bed hugging Roxy, my pillow girlfriend (don’t worry she won’t read this – she doesn’t have eyes).
This year, however, there has been one striking feature of the new cars that has caught people’s attention; their noses. They’re not the prettiest let’s say and McLaren’s the only team (so far) to have opted for a nice sleek and sexy one. In fact on track, it almost looks like all the other cars are scrunching their noses up at the McLaren!
The Platypus Nose
The truth is though that new regulations by the FIA have forced this design change, as opposed to McLaren putting some extra stinky socks odour into their fuel, causing all cars in their wake to have screwed their nose up in disdain (via some magical personification spell – I don’t know, I’m not a practising F1 engineer).
Anyway, all the cars released thus far – bar McLaren – have come sporting an unsightly step on the car’s nose near the front wheels, giving them a platypus or boxer’s nose look to them. The reason for this is a regulation change stipulating a reduced maximum height for the nose.
This lowering is due to safety concerns. There were fears that the nose of the cars was becoming so high that in the event of a T-bone accident – when the nose hits another car’s cockpit side-on – the nose could strike the driver’s head. However, a corresponding reduction in height of the front bulkhead (the area around the front suspension) was not enforced.
Since it is advantageous to have the front of the car high to allow as much air as possible to flow under car towards the rear for greater downforce (but still needing the car body itself large enough to provide sufficient space for a kinematically sound suspension layout), designers have chosen to keep the bulkhead high, then introduce a step to ensure the nose meets the height of the regulations.
We are still yet to see the new cars from Mercedes, HRT and Marussia (formerly Virgin), but it appears the only team to have gone down a different route is McLaren. They have chosen to lower the whole front of the car and thus require no step. It looks far prettier but being the odd one out has got some fans concerned; it’s certainly been an early talking point. Have McLaren missed a trick and screwed up? I don’t think so. They’ve just chosen a different philosophy, a different way to skin the cat. McLaren have tended to run a lower front end than others for the past few years and so didn’t need to introduce an horrendous platypus nose.
Exhaust Talk (Again)!
While the looks of the noses has made an easy talking point due to them being visual and so striking, what is likely to turn out to be a much stronger factor in dominating performance revolves around the exhausts (again!). Last year the teams were blowing the high energy exhaust gases low down on the rear of the car (towards the diffuser), greatly increasing downforce. Furthermore, they were using clever engine systems to ensure the exhausts were still blowing even when the driver was off the throttle, thus maintaining the downforce throughout the corner.
It all seemed to be getting ridiculous, so this year the regulations have restricted where the exhausts can be placed, forcing them upwards and thus preventing them from blowing the diffuser. Additionally, the engines can no longer be allowed to keep pumping out exhausts when off-throttle.
However, it appears the exhausts can still be positioned to blow the rear wing or the brake ducts, for example, creating a performance benefit. And so exhausts are still likely to be an aggressive area of development. The FIA though, don’t want exhausts being used as aerodynamic aides, so we could be due some more of those wonderful off-track protests with Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo issuing one of his character tantrums like, “It’s not fair, they’re cheating, Ferrari should be the best! Go away you drinks company and silver dullards, you!”
A final thought is that it could be that Red Bull and McLaren are the ones to be most affected by the loss of the exhaust blown diffuser concept. They appeared to have the most highly refined designs last year: Red Bull pioneered it and when it was briefly stopped in Silverstone last year, McLaren seemed to be the ones to suffer most.
Silver Bullet?
In general though, the cars appear to be an evolution from last year, so the hope is the grid will be even closer. Force India appear to have a very solid car for instance. There are a couple of unique ideas out there though, with teams hoping to find something unique like McLaren’s F-duct from 2010. Ferrari have gone for a radical car though with a front suspension different to any others’ (pull-rod compared to the conventional push-rod layout). The hope is to allow better airflow to the rear of the car. My understanding though is that there’s not that much in the two types performance wise.
Red Bull have also come out with an intriguing slot in the ‘ugly’ step of their nose that has received much comment. Red Bull are guarded, saying it’s just for driver cooling but you can never know what legendary designer Adrian Newey has up his sleeve, what with the Red Bull being the best car for the past 2.5 years.
Early Testing Form
Testing got underway last week with 4 days of testing at Jerez, Spain. Though times at this stage are meaningless, former World Champion Kimi Raikkonen – returning after a 2 year hiatus – topped the leaderboard on day 1 for Lotus, highlighting F1’s knack for generating eye-catching headlines out of even the most low key situations.
Fernando Alonso finished fastest on day 4 but all was not well at Ferrari. They admitted their radical car is taking a lot of getting used to, specifically understanding how to get all the elements set up to work in harmony. Red Bull and McLaren meanwhile remained understated, calm and quietly optimistic. For McLaren this is a blessed relief following a terrible pre-season testing last year; only getting the car in shape just before the first race. Judging from the stories though, I got the impression Red Bull will still be the ones to beat the first race in Melbourne on 18 March.
The second test at Barcelona next week should begin to show a slightly truer picture of form, and whether we should prepare ourselves for another season of Sebastian’s Vettel’s finger being burned into the back of our retina!
Craig Dickinson