New maximum height of the nose went from 62 to 55 centimeters. It's supposed to effect the downforce and breaking of the front.

 

These guys have the state of the art wind tunnels and spend millions and millions, 24/7 in them but you, just by looking at couple of pictures can recognize an aerodynamic flaw in their car...

 

LOL

 

Well I don't see the kink in the McLaren. The kink is a verticle surface directly in the airflow. I don't think you need a million dollars to figure out that there is a better way.

 

As long as we're playing amateur aerodynamicist, maybe that kink provides a little downforce over the front axle. It could also have the effect of directing airflow over the cockpit.

 

Old racing axiom: If it looks right, then it is right.

 

Well that doesn't look right.

 

Possible, but considering the size of the front wing, I don't think the kink would add much if anything.

 

The kink is a rules thing only, it is to bring the nose down so it does not spear another driver's helmet in a crash. Caterham, Force India, and Ferrari all want high noses but they had to bring them down based on the rules change hence the kink in the nose. The rules change is based on safety considerations only and it happens to be disadvantageous from an aerodynamic standpoint. The high nose is desirable because it interferes the least with and drives air towards the front wing and front of the underbody tray/diffuser. Maclaren uses a different aerodynamic strategy which allows a lower nose, they have a "snowplow" under the nose that the other cars don't have.

http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com/2011/1...t-regulations/

I think the Ferrari nose is ugly. The Maclaren looks fabulous. I kind of like the Force India.

 

Montezemolo called, they want to sell their wind tunnel and hire you instead. He said he'd offer half of what their annual wind tunnel operating costs are, interested?
(Ferrari's annual wind tunnel cost is about $20 million)

By the way, Newey's car has the "kink" and Sauber's head designer just recently explained that they wanted to make the nose more beautiful but aerodynamics dictated shape and since the "kink" is more effective, they had to go that route.

But I guess you know better.

(In all seriousness, I think you're concentrating too much on what's above. The key is to route as much air under the nose as possible so to have sloping nose as McLaren, instead of the high as possible nose that comes with the "kink", doesn't allow as much air under the nose as the "kink" nose does.)