That nose....

All the other teams have based their design concepts for the last few years around a high nose principle.
The stepped nose allows them to continue with the concepts that they are used to. To change to a low nose concept would be a lot more work and would require a major re-think of the entire car for the designers.

McLaren on the other hand, have been bucking the trend and designing their cars with a low nose principle.
This means that their design does not require the step as it is already below the regulated nose height and they can continue on the design path that they prefer.

 

Hey,

Pic "stolen" from a post elsewhere. Interesting comparison;

Cheers,
Ian
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Which one is not like the others ?

If Macca is on to something there may be no catching up.

 

The Mac has the lowest nose. Either they know something everyone else doesn't or they are in for a world of hurt.

 

It will be interesting.

 

They've had that low nose for the last years, no? It worked for them as well as the high nose worked for the others... I wouldn't be surprised if we saw exactly zero difference in terms of speed between the low (MCL) nose and the high noses.

 

If that's the case, it's like saying the nose doesn't matter. If it doesn't matter, then why does everyone spend so much time on the nose height?

It may work for them. But, it's interesting that everyone else went "new school" while the Mac's stayed "old school" when solving the problems of the regulation.

Personally, I don't care how a race car looks. If it finishes first, that's what's important.

 

I agree but still miss the if it looks right it is right days.

 

Well, I like the 156 sharknose but... it is 2012!

 

And back then thay might have said "it's not as nice looking as a type35 Bugatti".

 

True, what I was thinking. McLaren will be fine and fast.

 

It would be saying that the nose doesn't matter if the rest of the cars were exactly the same. However, MCL has had a successful overall package that included a low nose, while others had more (RB) or less (Ferrari) successful packages that included high noses. Different ways of design, similar outcome in terms of speed...

 

Yes of course. There is always more way to put a lap time together.

Pete

 

There was a short evaluation of the different nose theories in last weeks Autosport magazine that pointed out that the low nose concept and the high nose concept were merely different solutions to the same problem and that at the end of the day, neither one is right or wrong, they're just different.

 

Some solutions work better than others. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.