F1 Fanatic

I apologize if this has been asked before, but here’s a question that I’ve wondered for a long time: Why do F1 cars have raised noses?

Being from the U.S., I grew up watching Indy Cars instead of F1, so I’ve always been more used to the low nose. Since I’ve started following F1 in recent years, I’ve noticed up until the early 90′s, they looked pretty much like Indy Cars. Then around ’92-’93, the raised noses began to appear (was Benetton the first? Correct me if I’m wrong). By ’97, pretty much all the cars sported this feature. The real niggling problem in my head is why would this be preferable? My less informed brain imagines it would cause more undesirable lift than if it were lowered. But being that it’s been essentially a unanimous design for years now, there’s got to be some sort of practical or scientific reason.

Anyone know why?

I once read that the difference between low and high noses is purely aesthetical. But I’m a bit sceptical about that- every little car changes seems to produce a gain or loss in time to some extent, and the nose is more than just a small part. Perhaps someone with more aero credentials than me can explain?

Also, I wouldn’t say it’s that unanimous. Maybe in the last couple of years since the rule changes, but remember it was barely a year ago that Brawn won both championships with a droopy nose

Bump for knowledge, someone fetch John Beamer!

Erm, I’ve personaly only a very basic grasp of the concepts involved, essentially gathered from aero blogs such as his contributions, Scarbs’ thing etc but i’m fairly certain it’s about feeding the diffuser and manipulating the air around the main body more effectivley, not certain why running the wing lower makes it more effect then, but again, that’s probably the diffuser.

Modern low noses tend to be more of a weight distribution thing, with the bias shifting backwards last year Brawns advantage was lost, the noses came up for aero benefit, Merc had a shocker Redbull tried incredibly hard and still couldn’t loose either title.

Make a good article this question.

I think the reasoning behind it was that raising the nose gave you more front wing surface area with which to generate downforce (in Benetton’s case anyway), and to improve the airflow under the car (in Tyrrell’s case). I remember hearing that a loooooooooong time ago, probably in the early 90′s when all the teams started adopting it, but I could be wrong.

And ajokay is right, it was the Tyrrell 019 that introduced the concept, I think that because Benetton seemed to get it right (or because the teams followed their example rather than Tyrrell’s) they get the credit for it.

From a mechanical point of view a low nose would be the best. This would allow you to make pullrod suspension which lowers the centre of gravity which gives less weight transfer, which gives more traction. So it must give some kind of aerodynamic advantage that exceeds the advantage given by a lower centre of gravity. And that is a huge one!

“The main advantages of a higher nose need some thinking and knowledge of the complete car to see. At first sight the higher nose is equal to less downforce as by itself it pushes less air up over the nose. However if you have a look at Prost’s Williams FW15C and even more the Williams FW16 of the year after, surprisingly the nose is not aimed to push air up, but instead small at the front to allow air flow aside of the nose. The air that passes the nose forms the basic concept of a high nose cone. Having such a nose allows air to go straight through under the nose instead of having to bend around it. While it reduces drag for sure, the front wing planes can span the complete width of the car which in fact allows more downforce to be generated at the front. All air that passed under the nose is then guided under the car or split to either side of the car by the splitter located just in front of the sidepods.

Why now would we want so much air to nicely pass the nose and go into the sidepods or under the car’s floor? Quite simply where the most downforce can be generated, exactly the diffuser that locates at the end of the car’s stepped floor. The more air you get under the floor and the faster it can exit out of the diffuser the more downforce will be generated. The advantage of such a floor is even more obvious as downforce is generated not only in the diffuser but also under the complete floor.”

Full article on F1technical:

http://www.f1technical.net/articles/11