McLaren-Honda Formula 1 Concept with closed cockpit - Album on Imgur Will tick some off here with the canopy. Seems to recall the F92 with the raised sidepods which did not work well IIRC, but certainly interesting. Smaller front wings, but the rear wing is still pretty large, so aero balance may be suspect. Click the bottom to load the rest of the photos... Guy does some nice Solidworks work...
The red and white paintwork is already banned as it's blatantly a rolling Marlboro advert! You would have to add air-con to the car to counteract the green house effect of the canopy (Would you fancy driving a full GP in the heat of Malaysia/Bahrain/Abu Dhabi etc., etc., sat inside that bubble?) The canopy will cause a delay for a driver to get out/be extracted in the event of a roll over accident. And, the canopy in the wet would be a major safety hazard with no wiper on it! (and once it's coated in a layer of oil/race debris, rain on it will make the visibility pretty much zero!) The future of F1? - I seriously doubt it!
If you're a design student and want to stir discussions with your otherwise uninspired F1 designs which have most likely no engineering foundation whatsover, put some canopies on them
+1 While there's some "nice" rendering, there's nothing "stunning" or "advanced" there at all IMO. And given the (admittedly little ) I know of aero these days, they mostly look like *huge* lift generators to me - OK, that could be countered with the wings, but at big cost of added drag...... I very much doubt these have been run thru any CFD programs, let alone a real tunnel. Cheers, Ian
Cool looking car! But NO CANOPIES! Good points for 4rePhill. I just think the danger, challenge, and thrill of having your head exposed is part of the formula and the risk the drivers know they are taking.
I don't see a canopy ever on an F1 car. What do you do if the car turns over in kitty litter or it gets jammed in an accident? Does the driver fry under the bubble? What about a fire? Can he jump out just as fast? I see nothing but problems.
We may like them or not for aesthetical reasons, but canopies would be safer, no doubt. Sports cars have canopies (almost) and they´re doing fine; actually their intention is to ban all open cars for safety reasons. Even road cars with gullwing doors now have auto-detachable hinges to get out in case of turn over.
They would definitely have to add additional tech to make the car do things automatically in the case of a lot of incidents to free the driver. Which, for anyone that works in computers or systems, has to be a little scary. Especially since, presumably, a crash has just happened which might render those safety systems inactive. It's sort-of like NFL football. There is only so much safety you can have with 250lb men throwing themselves at each other. 200mph cars - same deal.
But the form of those cars is a lot different than a single-seater. I would also say that some of those panels are also so flimsy they are almost decoration. I do think it is a little insane to have open-prototypes racing on the same tracks like they do in these endurance races. Specifically because of how easily some of those cars rip apart and leave debris in the smallest collision. Did you see that Audi come apart at Le Mans? Someone kicks up those panels into the head of a prototype driver and it is lights out!
See? No one really discusses the mediocre design, everyone discusses the canopies Only waiting for a Jalopnik headline "THIS IS OFFICIAL: 2020 F1 CARS"
