“If you hit the back of a car square on then you go underneath and you end up
with a rear crash structure in your face, which is a much worse scenario.
“There have been some accidents where you think would a low nose possibly have
made things much worse? There was the accident a few years ago where
[Michael] Schumacher span at the first corner and somebody mounted him.
Would a low nose have made that worse?
“I guess it’s like all these things, it might help in some scenarios, it hurts
in others. It’s one which I must admit; personally I’m not in favour of.
For me it’s introduced possibly more dangers than it has cured.”
As Formula One’s pre-eminent designer, having won championships with Red Bull,
McLaren, and Williams, Newey’s warning over the safety of the new cars will
carry weight in the paddock, although this is the first time such vocal
criticism of chassis rules which have been three years in the making has
been made public.
In a press conference this morning, Red Bull’s team principal said he shared
Newey’s concern.
“Adrian’s never been a fan of this nose concept, torpedoing a car underneath
another, rather than going over the top”, Horner said.
“That’s the duty of the FIA and they are responsible for the safety of the
sport. They have done their research and come up with their regulations. I
don’t think they are regulations intended to have noses that we’ve seen,
that aren’t beauties. Their prerogative is for safety and inevitably there
are always going to be some concerns and differences of opinions.”
Both Red Bull and Mercedes launched their respective challengers for the 2014
season in Jerez this morning. The RB10 has a narrow protruding section at
the front, while the Mercedes has a nose more similar to the slope of the
new Ferrari F14-T.