The 2012 Formula One season is just a few weeks from kicking off and all this year's cars have been revealed at this point, but one thing has been bothering me: Why are they so ugly? With the exception of Mercedes, the latest crop of normally sleek racers are sporting a jarring bump right in the middle the nose. For vehicles that are the aerodynamic equivalent of airplanes for the ground, it seems like a problem. So what's driving this crooked nose? A rules change, naturally, and one aimed at improving safety.?
F1 is a sport of trends. One chassis builder will figure out a trick and start winning, then the others will follow and improve upon it. The trend as of late has been higher and higher noses that are flat underneath and curved towards the pavement. It seems like this would create lift, but the rushing air slams into a flat plate extending forward of the bottom of the body and through other ducting. This creates downforce. A higher nose means more air being scooped up, producing even more downforce.
As the noses got higher, they exceeded the minimum height of the driver's open cockpit?putting the driver at significant danger should a side impact occur. To address this, the rules were changed to place a maximum height on the nosecone ahead of the front bulkhead (essentially ahead of the wheels) at 55 cm. The area behind the bulkhead maintains the same 62.5 cm height restriction, so to same time, money, and previous aerodynamic developments, the teams are leaving that section alone. Thus, the 2012 lumpy nose comes from a battle between aerodynamics and new rules.
Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/auto-blog/2012-F1-car-design?src=rss
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