Whaaaa! Why Are the New F1 Cars Ugly?!

"Skif6996" (Skif6996) 02/01/2014 at 07:16 • Filed to: F1

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Because racecar. Stop your bitching. Racecars dont have to be pretty. It is nice when they are pretty, but stop complaining. We aren't a bunch of young girls who want a Yaris because it's cute. We are the kind of people who drive Volvo wagons. I just dont get it.

Crocket Bernet > Skif6996 02/01/2014 at 07:27

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I really don't give a shit about how an F1 car looks but it's hard to argue with something that looks like this.

Skif6996 > Crocket Bernet 02/01/2014 at 07:35

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I love vintage racecars but there is a reason they are vintage. You know what I'm sayin?

Tentacle, Dutchman, drives French > Skif6996 02/01/2014 at 07:52

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Here's a counter point to all the wings, winglets, flaps, slats, barge boards, ridges, double curved tiple layer bulged wing end plates, weird genital noses, and so on.

I think they distract from the car. It turns the modern F1 car into a goddamn circus. It's so cluttered, complicated and crowded, that the cars are hideous. Fast, undoubtedly so, but not pretty.

OK, so you have a point. It's not their goal to be pretty, it's their intended purpose to go fast.

There is, however, an important cost to all this clutter. It's the stong reliance on aero in todays F1 field, that they have had to resort to KERS and DRS. Because overtaking has become way too difficult. All this aero needs clean un-turbulent air to function. But each car is so heavily "aero'ed" that it leaves a very messy wake in which the next car can't get its downforce.

I pointed out all this in a post a few days ago. 2 decades ago, F1 cars were much cleaner. They relied much less on aerodynamics/dynamic grip. Because they had a lot of mechanical grip, and relatively little aerodynamic grip, draft-overtaking happened all the time. No need for DRS or KERS. Ask motorsports journalists, the 1994 F1 season was one of the most exciting seasons of all time. The overtaking stats make todays F1 seem like a fixed-order parade.

http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/formula-1-two-…

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I'm in favor of restricting most of the aero, in order to make the cars rely less on dynamic grip/downforce. Out with those silly noses. Away with those overly complicated what-the-hell-kind-of-front-wing-is-this?? front wings. No complicated wing end plates. Just single-curved barge boards, Up front a single wing, out back a 2-winged affair.

I just want drafting back. I want to see triple the amount of overtaking in a race. But I'm a bit sceptic that'll happen anytime soon.

TL;DR: Modern cars rely too much on aerodynamics. AND that makes them ugly. Take most aero away, beauty wins, and we get draft-overtaking back without silly DRS or KERS.

Goshen, formerly Darkcode > Tentacle, Dutchman, drives French 02/01/2014 at 08:57

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1994 was also the most infamous season of the last 25 years.

Joe_Limon > Skif6996 02/01/2014 at 09:41

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I would argue that all of the ugly f1 cars to date have nothing to do with going faster. The ugly f1 cars are usually due to silly rules and regulations that get put in place.

jariten1781 > Skif6996 02/01/2014 at 10:25

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It's not like there haven't been some hilariously ugly past F1 cars: