...'cause it sure is ugly.

2012 Ferrari Unveiled

Seems that nose look is catching...

2012 Force India

Now I *really* want McLaren to do well.

Looks like a lego car. Hideous.

It's gonna be an ugly season... but yeah, McLaren solved the problem nicely.

...

it better be fast

now to see what rbr are going to unveil

I'd have to add that it looks like those teams will need to be careful, as that nose could catch on things. Perhaps they need the number of McLaren's rhinoplasty expert. Unfortunate things like that can be corrected, you know...

Looking at the Force India and the Caterham, they at least have some sloped area in-between the highest outer points, where the suspension's mounted, giving it a bit smoother front-on appearance. The Ferrari's more of a total step up/down, which seems like it would have more of an aero cost in high-end straight line speed...maybe that blunt area helps plant the front end more, but you wouldn't think it would have that much impact on front downforce at lower speeds.

I'm curious to see what the other teams come up with...Mercedes already had a sloped nose, more like the McLaren but higher on the outer areas like the FI and Caterham...and you know Newey's gonna maximize the aero flow in the RB's.

We'll see what they do on the track come Tuesday.

I was actually thinking about the rule change last night... I mean, if the aim was to prevent the tip of the nose going over the cockpit sides of another car, why couldn't they simple have mandated strong vertical front spoiler mountings UNDER the nose that would stop the impact?

You mean the ones that hold the front wing to the nose?

If you look at say Liuzzi's crash at Monza this past year...where he got into the grass and ran into Nico and Petrov while they were in the first chicane and their sides exposed to his front end...with a possible wreck like that, it wouldn't matter how strong those mounts are since the height of the nose was what the FIA was concerned about.

A strong mount isn't going to stop a car moving 200KPH+ in putting it's nose over something's that lower than it is. And if you made it from some super-strong material, then it would only rip the sidepod apart of the car it hits, not stop the car's nose from potentially spearing a driver.

The FIA had to mandate the nose heights in the interest in safety....the designers didn't have to make the cars ugly to comply with them, though.