Caterham CT01 images revealed early

2012 F1 cars

January 25, 2012 at 10:53 am by
235 comments

The first pictures of the Caterham CT01 have appeared ahead of its official publication tomorrow.

Images taken from the current issue of F1 Racing have been posted online.

Caterham later issued an official image of the new car. The CT01′s distinctive stepped nose is a consequence of new rules aimed at lowering the noses of the cars.

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235 comments on Caterham CT01 images revealed early

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  1. Avatar Image

    Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys) said on 25th January 2012, 11:04

    It’s not actually that bad … from the front.

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  2. Avatar Image

    Stephen Jones (@aus_steve) said on 25th January 2012, 11:06

    if we ignore the nose.. the rest of the car is quite nice! green.. but nice

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  3. Avatar Image

    barkun (@barkun) said on 25th January 2012, 11:08

    oh my !!
    Caterham what have you done !!!

    That nose cone seems to be ‘pasted’ on it from a different car

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  4. Avatar Image

    sam3110 (@sam3110) said on 25th January 2012, 11:09

    Reading between the lines in various leaks etc. it would appear that Ferrari haven’t staggered it as much as this, but the lines of the nose and cockpit will be smoother, with the humps on either side.

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  5. Avatar Image

    GeeMac (@geemac) said on 25th January 2012, 11:09

    Ok, if you ignore the nose, it’s actually not a bad looking thing. Loving the very tiny sidepods.

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  6. Avatar Image

    tandrews (@tomand95) said on 25th January 2012, 11:10

    Wouldn’t a staggered nose like that cause a lot a drag in a straight line? The 2011 car’s nose was not that high, http://www.formula1.com/wi/597×478/sutton/2011/d11bra1691.jpg would that still be allowed in the 2012 regulations?

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      tandrews (@tomand95) said on 25th January 2012, 11:14

      oops, looking closer i can see the nose only was humps on the sides and not a straight wall of elevation, that answers the drag question.

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      Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys) said on 25th January 2012, 11:17

      @tomand95 – No, it would not be. The 2012 regulations state that everything forward of the bulkhead may be no higher than 55cm. Everything behind the bulkhead may be up to 62.5cm. That’s a difference of 7.5cm between the two cars. Besides, you cannot simply take the nose off one car and put it onto another. Cars are designed holistically, which is to say that the every part of the car works in unison with every other part. That’s why HRT were unable to qualify in Melbourne last year; they put the front wing of the Hispania F110 on when the F111 front wing failed the crash tests. But because the front wing was designed for a different car, it didn’t work as well with the aerodynamics as the F111 front wing would have, and so the car was very slow – too slow to qualify within 107% of Vettel’s pole time.

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        tandrews (@tomand95) said on 25th January 2012, 11:30

        yeah i was wondering if a similar nose design could have been used, of course as you mentioned and different nose that hasn’t been developed with the car would not match it’s aero package, resulting in a slow car. I wonder what sort of clever designs teams can come up with?

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  7. Avatar Image

    ScuderiaVincero (@scuderiavincero) said on 25th January 2012, 11:11

    The horror!!!

    Just kidding.

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  8. Matt said on 25th January 2012, 11:11

    It looks a product of the new crash test…

    But seriously it is a pure copy of what Scrabs has predicted, don’t you think?

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    Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 25th January 2012, 11:13

    Ferrari said their new car was going to be ugly as well… what hideous new breed of cars will we be subject to this year?

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    Girts (@girts) said on 25th January 2012, 11:16

    Oooh, it’s such a cutie!!!

    Seriously, I have no problem with the look of it although it might take some time to get used to the unusual nose.

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  11. Avatar Image

    Gareth (@gazz1989) said on 25th January 2012, 11:17

    To goagainst popular opinion……. I actually quite like it :D I like the differences in the cars from one season to the next.

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  12. Avatar Image

    plutoniumhunter (@plutoniumhunter) said on 25th January 2012, 11:18

    It’s a sad day for Formula One.

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  13. stubie said on 25th January 2012, 11:20

    Yikes

    Looks like a mechanical avocado anaconda swallowed a duckbilled platypus

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  14. Avatar Image

    Derfel17 (@derfel17) said on 25th January 2012, 11:21

    I think it’s a fake!

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  15. Avatar Image

    Roald (@roald) said on 25th January 2012, 11:23

    The car as a whole looks nice, but that nose, my god… I sure hope it’s the only car that will get to look like this! Although it might pressure FIA to change regulations somewhat to get the cars prettier again, at least I hope so…

    I think the FIA wants the actual nosetip pointing down in 2014, right? Can anyone confirm that?

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    • Avatar Image

      Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys) said on 25th January 2012, 11:25

      sure hope it’s the only car that will get to look like this!

      According to scarbsf1, most of the teams will do this.

      Although it might pressure FIA to change regulations somewhat to get the cars prettier again

      It would mean redesigning the entire front end of the car. Which would be expensive.

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