McLaren is also pushing the envelope a bit as some of the stuff on their car are a bit camouflaged.

 

It won't be long now to see if Mclaren made the right move or if they have failed.

 

Little phsop I made for the cover image on the home page

 

Ugh...the front nose is hideous. Whatever regulations caused this change should be edited.

I agree that McLaren not following suit with the rest of the big hitters seems like they missed something. These teams that picked the ugly nose didn't do so for looks, there's obvious data that supports this being the optimal design for this given season. Guess we'll see if that's true soon enough.

 

Mclaren have been using a low nose for quite some time. I think they will be just fine for the season.

 

 

I would just like to add to this.

From what I have read so far, the FIA changed the regulations for this year to make the nose tip of the cars to be lower as a safety measure to prevent horrific accidents in the case of a T-bone. It was initially planned to make the noses even lower but other teams complained about how that would force them to redesign the tub of the car - which would be a very expensive endeavor - to accommodate for such an extreme restriction. As a result, they decided to only limit the height of the tip of the nose and hence why so many teams are having the stepped-nose design.

It seems that McLaren has not opted for a stepped nose because they have historically, in the past few years, opted for a low design to lower the center of gravity and their suspension geometry was very high sprung. So I guess they somehow thought that they didn't need to opt to make their cars like other manufactures with the stepped-nosed design since their past cars already fit the new regulations. Rather, they just need to improve upon the previous designs.

Other teams, however, like Red Bull, opted for a high nose design in the past to maximize air flow beneath the car and to better redirect the air-flow above the car for aerodynamic purposes. So it is understandable that they proceeded with the stepped-nose design to accommodate for the new regulations.

I also believe that there is a design element underneath the new McLaren that is not present in other cars seen thus far. But only time will tell which philosophy is the best...

I certainly hope McLaren got it right this year.