F1 Launches start today!

[yellowperil]

Lotus is showing their new car today with most everyone except Williams coming out this week and next. Hope they're better looking than last years cars. Might not be a good sign for Williams. Anxious to see the new Merc.

[yellowperil]

Lotus is unveiled, and it still has the step nose and is not much different from last years car. They claim the step nose will be covered by a "vanity" plate???? Can see it at "Planet F1"

[gamin]

Sort of on topic, for all you guys who have dish network, you will find nbcsn on channel 159. It is listed in error as being on ch 151. Just talked to the dish people. F1 will be on nbc/nbcsn this coming year. I liked the speed channel coverage and really hope nbc does a good job.

[sammyg2]

[herr_oberst]

Unfortunately, F1 cars are now tools designed for a job by engineers. 1's and 0's do not make a pretty car, just an effective one.

The Lotus front wing is hideous, and the livery makes it worse. I wish they would have banned barge boards when they had the chance.

But, I will admit that the steering wheels and the road wheels are awfully trick!

[motion]

I enjoy seeing all the complexity, but I do miss the simple lines of a '95 Ferrari F1 car. At least the tires don't have grooves!

[Reg]

Is Genii not the owner of Lotus? It's a shame that the main sponsor of the team is the team owner.

[sammyg2]

Form follows function. There is nothing uglier IMO than a car that's all show and no go.
The homely sleeper is beautiful IMO.

In other words the better it goes, the better it looks.

[stealthn]

I wouldn't kick it off the track for eating tires...

[BReif61]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

The Lotus front wing is hideous

I must disagree; I think the wing is beautiful. But I have an engineer's mind, so there is that to consider

[yellowperil]

Question. Seems one of the rule changes this year allows a body panel
to hide the step in the step-nose, then what is the purpose of the step?
Why not have a smooth decline to the front of the nose like last years
early McLaren?? BTW I too like the look of this Lotus, but the step itself is
hideous to me. F1 cars are usually quite graceful but the step ruins that look IMO

[Tervuren]

Originally Posted by yellowperil

Question. Seems one of the rule changes this year allows a body panel
to hide the step in the step-nose, then what is the purpose of the step?
Why not have a smooth decline to the front of the nose like last years
early McLaren?? BTW I too like the look of this Lotus, but the step itself is
hideous to me. F1 cars are usually quite graceful but the step ruins that look IMO

The nose structure needs to be below a certain height to insure if it spears another car, it impacts with crash structure, rather than say, another driver's helmet. To make the multilink suspension geometry work correctly, and to get maximum air flow under the car, the suspension needs to be high in the car. So the nose section is low, and the suspension behind it is high. Its purely a result of rules.

The ugly front wings of last year, are also a result of the rules. Its rear downforce that the car's need, not front, by "forcing" a certain amount of front square footage to the front wing in the rules, it pushes air away from the rear of the car, and keeps the speeds down. Rule makers need to keep the car's speed within the safety designs of the tracks.

[stuttgart46]

It's hard for me to tell the differences from year to year unless they are sitting right next to one another.

[Aragorn]

Originally Posted by stuttgart46

It's hard for me to tell the differences from year to year unless they are sitting right next to one another.

One of the hardest things I find about F1 is remembering who the teams used to be. Lotus was Renault which was Benetton? Red Bull was Jaguar which was Stewart? Where did Jordan go? Did it become Caterham or was it Virgin from a few years ago? Honda became Brawn which became Mercedes?

Unless there is a major rules change the cars more or less evolve from year to year but its interesting to see where they started. This year is most likely going to be an evolution of last years car with minor tweaks for most teams.

[Tervuren]

Originally Posted by Aragorn

One of the hardest things I find about F1 is remembering who the teams used to be. Lotus was Renault which was Benetton? Red Bull was Jaguar which was Stewart? Where did Jordan go? Did it become Caterham or was it Virgin from a few years ago? Honda became Brawn which became Mercedes?

Unless there is a major rules change the cars more or less evolve from year to year but its interesting to see where they started. This year is most likely going to be an evolution of last years car with minor tweaks for most teams.

Well, there are a limited # of F1 team franchises, so if you want in, you pretty much have to buy an existing team. Mercedes isn't really Brawn, when Mercedes bought it, the entire team architecture changed.

The same with Red Bull.

[intakexhaust]

Lotus reminiscing... the Bridget Bardot sexy edition 49

[intakexhaust]

Raikkonen had a decent comeback, hope 2013 is even better.

[yellowperil]

Originally Posted by Tervuren

The nose structure needs to be below a certain height to insure if it spears another car, it impacts with crash structure, rather than say, another driver's helmet. To make the multilink suspension geometry work correctly, and to get maximum air flow under the car, the suspension needs to be high in the car. So the nose section is low, and the suspension behind it is high. Its purely a result of rules.

The ugly front wings of last year, are also a result of the rules. Its rear downforce that the car's need, not front, by "forcing" a certain amount of front square footage to the front wing in the rules, it pushes air away from the rear of the car, and keeps the speeds down. Rule makers need to keep the car's speed within the safety designs of the tracks.

Good explanation, makes sense. Thanks. McLaren unveils tomorrow I think.

[yellowperil]

Sorry, Jan 31 for McLaren then most everyone next week. Gives something to look forward
to for F1 fans.

[Schumi]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Unfortunately, F1 cars are now tools designed for a job by engineers. 1's and 0's do not make a pretty car, just an effective one.

The Lotus front wing is hideous, and the livery makes it worse. I wish they would have banned barge boards when they had the chance.

But, I will admit that the steering wheels and the road wheels are awfully trick!

They did ban bargeboards. They have been banned for a few years. This car shown has nothing on it that would be considered bargeboards.

It has turning vanes near the front of the side pods and the normal, stacked endplate and midplate front wing. But no bargeboards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bargeboard_(aerodynamics)