However, changes to the rules at the front of the car, including the lowering
of the nose to stop cars launching into the air when they hit other cars –
such as when Mark Webber did at Valencia in 2010 – could produce some
startling, and quite frankly comical, aesthetic changes.
For a start, from 2009 to 2013, the front wing could be the width of the car
(1800mm), whereas now that has been reduced by 150mm to 1600mm. But the FIA
have also changed the height of the front bulkhead (where the front wing
attaches to the car), and the very tip of the nose itself. While the
bulkhead is just over half a metre off the ground, the very tip of the nose
is much lower, at just under a fifth of a metre.
The rules dictate the nose tips are 365mm lower than last year, and the ugly
noses with a very narrow forward section – which look like some rather
bizarre appendages dropping off the front of the car – are expected to
provide the best aerodyanmics within the rules.
Force India released this image of the VJM07 for 2014 on Wednesday
As former driver and now pundit Martin Brundle said last week: “One of the
team bosses said a couple of months ago he hated what the front of his car
looked like – I can’t use the word he used to describe it. We can’t seem to
get them elegant at the front.
“I hope we’re not going to get those appendages hanging off the front,
but it looks like the way it’s heading.”
Force India were the first to give a hint of what their front wing might look
like when they released this image yesterday, but crucially, the angle
prevents a full view of the nose of the car.
F1 also has form in this area. In 2004 Williams turned up with the remarkable
‘walrus’ front wing. Needless to say, it was not copied by the other teams,
and Williams themselves ditched it midway through the season.
The infamous ‘walrus’ nose on Williams 2004 car
Then, in 2012, changes lowering the front wing produced the horrific ‘step’
wings. The changes produced in many fans’ eyes some of the ugliest F1 cars
ever made, with the Ferrari and Caterham a particularly horrific sight.
Almost all the teams had a ‘step’ nose of some kind, because the rules only
stipulated the very front portion had to be lower than a certain height, so
the teams wanted to make the rest of the nose as high as possible to allow
for greater airflow under the car, in the name of improved aerodynamic
performance.
Now there’s nothing to say that many of the teams will go with this
“anteater”, or, if we’re honest, “d***” solution. The brilliant of the new
regulations in some respects is that we could see a lot more variety than in
recent years in the car’s appearance. But regardless, it seems F1 has once
again been unable to come up with a set of regulations which do not produce
an ugly front end.