2014 pre-launch thread

On what basis?

 

I think the "hoover" is working... Okay, I'm in a sarcastic mood today
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True.

Is it bad that they're the only other team to have followed Ferrari down the pull-rod front suspension road?

 

Vortices coming off the corners of the stickers ;-)

Need to bury them under a coat of clear, ha-ha...

 

Unless of course they're deliberate.

 

I was being facetious, but it's interesting to see that level of detail in that picture.

 

We don't engage in levity about such things here.

Now pull my finger.

 

Sorry! Looks i mean

 

Indeed! In fact they seem to be helping the flow remain attached as it curls around the sides of the nose

Wish we had as nice a car as the Red Bull, sigh.

 

Darn, I thought you saw something the rest missed.

 

Sheesh, statements like this after day 1 when Ferrari tops the times and runs the most laps! (Unless youre talking about looks, in which case I would say Ferrari is still one of the nicer looking cars)

I think Ferrari had a fine first day! Much to be proud of!

 

The RB and MB look the best. The Ferrari and MP29 are ugly and disappointing but nothing looks like the Caterham. They look like they didn't get the Aerodynamics memo!

 

I'm talking looks of course. Also happy they topped the times - doesn't mean much on day 1, but better than last - and that they got in the most laps.

Red Bull just seems so nicely styled - I think Newey designs as much for speed as for looks. Surfaces so smooth and flowing. Ferrari, by contrast, seems lumpy with many discontinuities (stylist in me speaking now) and, as someone once mentioned in describing all their recent cars, looking like different people designed the different areas of the car. And let's not mention the nose - Red Bull so much nicer and certainly Newey could not be so wrong with his choice of nose.

What IS nice is that, like with the first year of KERS when everyone was saying Ferrari was so far behind in the development of KERS, they did a very good job to be ready from the outset where, for example, BMW did not even run their system. Looks like they did a good job preparing the technology again this time around. Those runs in the LaFerr mule helped, it seems

 

+1!!!! Stunning first day. Reliability will be every bit as important as anything else. Qualifying on pole at least for the first half of the season means nothing without a reliable car. God willing we will see Mercedes and Ferrari fight it out all year.

 

+1...not to mention they have the best sounding machine. There's a long way to go, but Ferrari and Merc are the teams that should be most happy right now.

 

How can the regulations create two very distinct nose designs, the penis and the vacuum? One with the tip of the nose ahead of the leading edge of the front wing and the other behind.

Surely they could have designed something in-between that doesn't look so ungainly.

 

I bet the stylist in you knows how an ugly shape can be disguised with a bit of black paint. The nose of the Red Bull is terrible, probably not so terrible like the Force India, but in 2013 and before standards it would be an abomination. Leaving that quill in bare carbon black they managed to minimze the damage.

I think the only 2014 car that looks good is the Mercedes-Benz, with the Ferrari, Red Bull (thanks to the clever pain scheme) and McLaren barely OK. I like the Caterham in a bizarre way because it has a retro 70s feel.

 

Agree about the black-painted area, but even without the black paint it has a relatively nice shape, looking like some 80's vertical nose (think RIAL, Ferrari F187/88...).

Overall, I just prefer the smoother transition from cockpit to nose on the RB.

 

The front wings look laughably overcomplicated now, and the proboscis noses are... phallic.

So much for hoping the new rules would lead to prettier cars.

 

I just watched a video of one of the new F1 cars going around the circuit in Jerez. Oh my goodness! Sounds like a Honda Civic with a fart can...

 

Hopefully it will improve once they go full power. I dont think it will be nearly as bad as we expect, but it also wont be anywhere as good as the V10/V8s of past.