Thread: NEW RECORD for Ugliest Aero Bits EVER!

...hail satan?

What?

Do you have a problem with Viking helmets or something?


Freaky looking.

That's wierd, ugly and cool all at the same time!

Might explain Quick Nick's slow time today

I thought the horn thing had gone out of fashion. Haven't McLaren dropped theirs and they're the ones who came up with the idea in the first place.

Can we have another ban for safety (read aesthetic) reasons?

that car makes me horney.. gettit!?!?! HORNey... bwahahahahahahaha

That's hideous. I wonder if it'll be banned like the nose towers... I hope so

wrong car it would look good on a redbull

Originally Posted by blakebeatty

A new low from the team that brought you the walrus nose (ok - only partially responsible), and the twin-towers nose cone winglet...

Man, i hope that this does not make it out of testing

I actually applaud them for trying something unique in the chase for downforce.

Everyone whinges, "oh, where's the uniqueness of today's cars?" and then they complain when a new as-yet unseen on the race day device comes out.

Make your minds up.

now i'm finnished laughing at my totally hilarious joke i can look at this a bit more seriously. I gather then intention behind the horns is to speed up the airflow from the front of the car, through the middle and over the rear wing at the back, thus creating more downforce. However what i dont get is that before it can get from the front of the car to the rear wing it must first pass the drivers helmet, which is a part of an F1 car that happens to create a hell of alot of drag. So to me, this suggests the horns will accelerate the airflow over the drivers helmet, thus INCREASING drag... not good. Yeah there will be a gain in downforce but would it be worth it when considering the increase in drag? The other thing i wonder is the original horns by mclaren where developed during adrien newey's time, yet he never brought the concept to red bull... that suggests to me that the original founder of the horn idea believes its not a viable concept....

either way i agree that it would suit the red bull car better

Originally Posted by tamburello

At last, someone who appreciates the art.



The airflow is not necessarily speeded up, just made more efficient by being directed towards the rear aero devices. That in itself would actually reduce drag, even around the second most un-aerodynamic thing in an F1 car.

ok then, i just thought that it would have been better to direct the air away from the drivers helmet, and then let the rear horns re-direct the air back over the rear wing, best of both worlds. I guess its easy to say and hard to design though huh..

also whats the keel arrangement on this bad boy? The lower front suepension arms dont appear to attach directly to the bottom edge of the tub as one would assume a zero keel arrangement would, and it doesn't appear to be twin keel either... are they using the renault V keel?

there is a lot going on around the front of that car, i'd imagine they'll try to clean it up before the start fo the season, or parhaps thats just a very high downforce configuration for all the street circuits this year? if they want to win a race it might make sense to concentrate on making the car especially good at either high or low downforce circuits whilst sacrificing some of the all round ability?

According to Nick Heidfeld:

"I would say the balance of the car is too wide - meaning it is not only understeer and not only oversteer depending where on the circuit it was. We've made some set up changes and the aero adjustment is getting better, but it is still not where it should be."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/64816

Perhaps the new aero bits are planned additions to get the car where "it should be" i.e. normal new bits going on a new car pre-season. Or they may be an attempt to address problems that have emerged in testing.

I wonder (and I couldn't say myself personally), if the bodywork regs were actually loosened up (i.e. design whatever the hell you like within a 3D box specifying max width, height, length), rather than tightened up to try and get rid of all these appendages, if they would actually disappear, or become less frequent.

With the regulations as tight as they are, it seems all these aero pieces are the only way to chase extra downforce and aero efficiency within the regs, perhaps if it was all thrown open we would start seeing more "natural" car shapes again?

I would guess you would end up with something similar to a Peugeot 908 Le Mans car (with a single central seat and narrower cockpit bubble) eventually

Its only ugly until its fast then everyone will love it.

With the horns coming outwards from the nosecone, would that redirect the air either side of the driver or would it still go straight back?

It's right that they would be brilliant on the RBR.

I think the BMW should be good on the tighter circuits, as I imagine that massive front wing would make the front end nice and responsive. I'm sure they'll do well on all circuits, I mean they usually do well at Monza, and even the ghastly Honda could have won that race last year if it had some straight line speed

It's not as bad as Honda's elephant ears from last year. It was only used once during testing.

I wouldn't have thought that it was a quick fix solution, based simply on the fact that they used the twin tower wings last season. I'd imagine this is a refinement of the concept, and more cleverly designed (bearing in mind those vertical fins were banned on safety grounds, like the Arrows tea tray of 2002) to be legal and useful. Considering the Ferrari mini-wings either side of the cockpit, and the Arrows wing of 2002, I'm surprised more teams haven't tried these concepts out.

Looks to me like a piece of ALBERT2 design...

Ahem, it's 1972; I give you: The Eifelland-March!



How's that BMW looking now huh?