I don’t want to say “I told you so,” but I will anyway. I told you so. Niki Lauda, former three-time World Champion, is agreeing with me that these new cars are horrendous. Well, he isn’t so much agreeing with me (because he has no idea who I am) but is expressing the same thoughts as me about these cars, and in particular, the Renault. Last week, I said that the Renault looked like a duck while this week Lauda has come out to say that the Renault looks like a combine harvester. He has also expressed the same thoughts as me in regards to the McLaren looking the best as well. (Man…I must have some sort of psychic connection with this guy or something). Here is a comparison between a combine harvester and the Renault….you be the judge.
The more and more that I go on about this, of course, doesn’t change the fact that these are how they will look for this whole season. And thinking about this last night, I came to the conclusion that the reason I am so perturbed about these new designs is that they aren’t evolutionary. Most race series take steps forward when going into a new season, but Formula One seems to have taken a major step backward. Aerodynamics was the new black art; just as suspension tuning used to, and to a degree, still is. But now the FIA has effectively taken away all of the aero designers and told them to skive off. Formula One should be the test bed for new and innovative race car design, but these are so basic and unsymmetrical, that they almost hurt to look at. I recently watched a short video of the Toyota team testing their new car, and although it sounded like an F1 car, it sure didn’t look like one. Maybe I will try to find a radio station to listen to F1 on so I don’t have to look at them.
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