New year, new thread I guess.

Even though not relevant for this year it looks as though the Valencia GP future may be in doubt. Clicky

Can't say I would be that bothered to tell the truth. It's a good looking track in a stunning location, but the racing has never been that enjoyable for me. Having a European GP was good to act as an extra race, but what with having so many races now; on new tracks, and with other classics that have and are going unused, it does seem to be a bit of overkill.

The possible cause of course is cost, and I can't imagine Bernie considering dropping the fee for even a microsecond. However with S. Korea having already made a similar request, it does make me wonder about the future of F1.

Of course we also have the coverage to look forward to (or not). I'll be in Denmark so I'll have over considerations other than just Sky or BBC.

A little revision and clarification of the blocking rule and a couple of other things here.

Nice one, not quite the glame first page which I built over the last couple of years but not sure people used it for info anyway

I'm really looking forward to this year on track and trying out the sky channel.

The return of Ice man and to see if any team can get near the Red bulls straight off in Australia.

I did

I notice ITV/F1 website was closed down on the 1st of Jan

Yes, I noticed the ITV site was closed just before Christmas, was surprised it stayed live for so long after they lost F1 to the BBC. The ITV forums closed last year, a lot of the members went to The F1 Forum

In other news...

Robert Kubica breaks right leg in accident
The poor guy, just as he was making some progress too, I fear this might mean the end of his hopes of returning to F1 any time soon - maybe ever. Such a shame.

Oh dear, the nose on the new Caterham is horrible

Clicky

Yeah, I believe James Allen is now working for BBC radio. Gawd knows what's happened to Crofty - unless he's gone to sky with Martin Brundle.

Looks like a bloody Platypus.

Yeah, Crofty is commentating with Martin Brundle on Sky. He'll also do the Practice sessions with Anthony Davidson (Brundle just does the race itself - plus other technical features). Not that I'll see any of it mind!
* mumbles Bloody Sky *

The Caterham "ridge" nose is apparently due to the new technical regs, so we might be seeing others following that route - something to do with the nose having to be higher for crash tests. You'd think that ridge would add considerable drag through the air, wouldn't you?

Not necessarily I'd have thought. Air resistance is influenced by profile much more that angle of attack per se.If the nose is the same shape but the profile is more horizontal than curved downward as it was before, it may actually reduce drag slightly. However, I could imagine under certain circumstances cause an event which massively reduced the downforce at the front (acting as a reverse aerofoil if you will). Part of the reason F1 cars curve down at the front is so the pressure wave in front of the car pushes it's nose down onto the tarmac in a controlled way. I can't immediately see how it's an improved safety measure.

Jon

Sorry, I got it wrong, the nose has to be lower, not higher as I said! Still, I'm not fully understanding the reasoning behind it...



...I suppose with a slightly lower front of nose there's less chance of it hitting the upper half of a rear tyre in a collision which might force it into the air. I would have thought there's more chance of the tyres hitting the back of another car, not the nose.

Maclaren's 2012 car launched today, the MP4-27...





Interesting they've not got the "platipus" nose, I wonder how they got around that little problem? More sloping angle on the nose, perhaps?

EDIT: Extra one for you...


(bigger version here)

Hmm, so Ferrari have launched their 2012 offering and have gone down the stepped nose route...



Slightly better than the Caterham, but still don't like the look - let's see if it's fast though. If it's fast, then I'm sure the Tiffosi won't mind what the hell it looks like!

Force India have also launched their car, again with the stepped nose - bit more pronounced on theirs...



Interesting that the Force India has a little horizontal winglet protruding out the front of the nose, I wonder if that'll get banned? Or have they found a grey area in the wording of the regulations perhaps?!

I think it makes the front end look really fragile, and it's fugly.

According to the regs it says something like the side profile of the nose must be a flat line up to a certain point.

Caterham has used a flat side with a carved out middle so that the profile is still flat.

Ferarri and Force India seem to have done the same as Caterham but without carving out the middle of the nose.

McLaren has just made the flat line continue further down the nose resulting in a higher nose point.

As far as I can tell anyway.