ROGER GREEN: F1’s ugliest season ever blog on Evo Community by Roger Green

ROGER GREEN: F1’S UGLIEST SEASON EVER

February 6, 2012 11:30 AM | Posted By: Roger Green
Rated 5.0 out of 5.0 by 1 member | 10 Comments | 5065 Views
Related Categories: F1

Can’t believe I’ve just splashed out on Sky HD so that I can watch the new F1 season in all it's detailed glory just when the teams have begun unveiling some of the most hideous cars ever seen. I mean look at this:

I know there are sound safety reasons behind the changes, but someone from the many design studios should have piped up somewhere during the CAD process and said: ‘Hey, lads these cars are gonna look bloody awful.’ The stepped duck-billed platypus noses will be gone from next year, but why can’t they just have done it already?

To be fair there have been a few fuglys in the recent past (see a couple of examples below), but has the whole grid ever looked quite so weirdly deformed? I don’t think so.

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COMMENTS

commendatore at 5:31 PM February 8, 2012

I have to agree that this next generation of F1 cars are generally spectacularly ugly (McLaren excepted)! I'm also going to suspend judgement until I see them race - The late and great Art Arfons made a wry observation on Thrust SSC, saying it was the ugliest thing he'd ever seen - but the faster it went the more beautiful it became .

LT at 10:11 PM February 7, 2012

Nezzarine - It has nothing to do with the designers. They were simply reacting to new rules mandating a standard nose height. I think what people are pointing out is that the rulesmakers should have considered the resulting ugliness and perhaps arrived at a better solution to the safety regs. You're right, it's more important to be fast and safe, but it would be nice if they weren't fugly as well.

jaysin at 5:51 AM February 7, 2012

Roger, I totally agree about the ugliness. For example, I think the Red Bull's wing-on-wing-on-wing looks far from elegant. As nezzarine points out, none of the aero addenda would be there without a purpose, but what, specifically, is the safety advantage of the duckface or other new and ugly design elements?

Martin S at 10:55 PM February 6, 2012

Roger - I can see where you are coming from, the idea that the rules and regulations are guiding (as they have before)the appearances of the F1 cars and letting them design racers that look awful is a misfortune. But, I have never regarded F1 racers beautiful by their physical characteristics, but rather by their blistering performance and deafening sound, and I seriously doubt those have disappeared from the new designs.

Roger Green at 3:26 PM February 6, 2012

So would I. Thinking about cancelling Sky and listening to it on the radio...

Hatchoo at 3:21 PM February 6, 2012

Roger - you regularly race cars. I on the other hand don't...I just watch other people race them and as such I would rather look at attractive cars racing rather than at fugly ones like these.

JohnD at 1:48 PM February 6, 2012

Mclaren seem to have avoided the stepped nose and produced by far the best looking 2012 car so far. Wonder whether they will have followed the trend by the time the first race comes.

nezzarine at 1:11 PM February 6, 2012

Roger - you regularly race cars, so I have a question for you: would you rather race an ugly quick car or a crap attractive one? The only thing that matters to designers of F1 cars is airflow/aero/downforce. If the greatest talents in the world of motorsport believe (with the help of some serious computing power) those shapes will contribute to the speed of the car, there are no further discussions. To suggest that F1 designers should give consideration to the attractiveness of their cars is delusional. F1 championship points aren't awarded on the basis of aesthetic merit.

Roger Green at 1:09 PM February 6, 2012

I'm not saying that at all. It's the rules that have allowed this to happen that are wrong.

nezzarine at 12:56 PM February 6, 2012

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