Quote:
Originally Posted by svandamme
So this is a safety thing, for Tboning?
i thought that risk was fixed with carbon fiber monocoques
Didn't they have mandatory destrutive tests each year, just for that?
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A few years ago a side intrusion panel was introduced to reduce the risk of cockpit penetration in a side impact with another cars nose or rear crash structure.
The reason the nose has been lowered was the current trend of going with a high nose there was a danger the nose would be very close to the going over the top of the cokpit opening which would increase the chances of hitting a driver in the head.
This explains the new nose regulations quite well
http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/2012-nose-height-regulations/
For aero reasons there is a huge drive to increase the free volume under the chassis front to help smooth out the air flow to the radiator ducts and floor. As aero has the biggest effect on car performance everything else must take 2nd priority.
The downside of a high nose is you have just increased the centre of gravity of the car at the front which when you include the weight of the chassis, inboard suspension, pedals and drivers legs can be around 40kg. I guess McLaren think the C of G change would cancel out the aero gains so have gone for a low nose.
In F1 form follows function as car performance is everything.