F1 Fanatic

@giggsy11

I know its very tricky to judge but the way the nose curves I think they have retained the stepped nose

Very tricky indeed, considering that McLaren never had a stepped nose in 2012.

@Giggsy11 – He’s not really cluttering up the thread, he was correcting you, as a step and a slope are two completely different things.

It is quite clear that the nose is sloped, as it was last year, and I don’t see why they would go with the route of the stepped nose anyway. Many of their cars in the previous years have had lower noses than their rivals, and given that (arguably) they had the fastest car last season and they only need to evolve their previous iteration, it could be foolish to go down a different route, which would no doubt lead to having to change other parts of the aerodynamics.

Personally, I think the changes to the car will be very small, unless they have stumbled across something revolutionary. Probable incremental changes to the exhaust and diffuser areas, as well as front and rear wings (especially the latter due to the DRS being not as advantageous in qualifying this year).

Still, I think there is something to that airbox…though I don’t know how much that could really effect a team’s performance.

@giggsy11
‘I think they have retained the stepped nose’
the stepped nose was something the mclaren never had during 2012. it’s why most people viewd the 2012 mcalren as the best looking car on the grid. the stepped nose was literally like a step on a stair case. ie. williams, sauber etc.

@giggsy11

I categorised Step and Slope as the same thing

Apologies for being so pedantic, but technically speaking, the step and slope are not the same thing, and fundamentally differ in terms of car construction.

The “step nose” (as seen on the Ferrari and Force India cars) was designed to keep the nose as high as the rules would allow (550mm) ahead of the forward bulkhead, then make a sudden transition to the full regulation-mandated height (625mm) at said bulkhead. Whereas the “slope nose”, the late-2012 McLaren nose, was designed to improve airflow to the underside of the car, while also accommodating a lower forward bulkhead than on other teams’ cars (ScarbsF1 estimates 500mm). For the 2013 McLaren to have a full-fledged “step” in the nose would require a redesign of the entire front end, and a change in the team’s long-running philosophy of building low-slung cars.

Anyway, the nose does look noticeably narrower, maybe slightly higher than on the MP4-27. There also appears to be a vane or fin of some sort between the two front tyres – that bulge in the drapes is too tall, too far forward, and the wrong shape to be the opposite-side wing mirror.

Yes, it does have a stepped nose covered by modesty panel.