The last beautiful racing car and how they get uglier and uglier ...
The last truly beautiful F1 is already 27 years old.
Eddie Jordan's first F1 race car, the EJR191 from 1991, is one of the most beautiful single-seaters ever and was probably the last harmonious monoposto before the nose went up and all the hundreds of thousands of flips and flaps were added to the car.
The design trio of Gary Anderson, Mark Smith and Andy Green had built a car that had nothing wrong with it. The curved front wing was perfectly integrated into the nose. All the proportions of the car, such as length, width, cockpit position, height of the airbox and, finally, the three-part rear wing, were just right. There were no edges anywhere on the car, only curves. And finally, the attractive shape was underlined by a very attractive paint finish. The fact that this car was also really fast and gave a certain Michael Schumacher a great career is really only a minor matter.
In my opinion, however, the current F1 cars, which are far too long, are the ugliest things that have ever raced around the world's racetracks. A year ago, they took a step back in the right direction by widening the tires, but now, unfortunately, with the ever-lengthening wheelbase, they hardly look any wider at all. With their sipes, slots and all the aerodynamic air ducts, they look more and more like a scissor cut. The beautiful, wide, fast and aggressive-looking basic shapes are a thing of the past. The targeted air ducts around today's racing cars destroy their actual shape. Visually, they look like a pattern plan under the toilet seat (halo). If you compare the current cars with a classic racing car, they are certainly much faster today, but by no means more attractive. What's more, since the omnipresent use of the wind tunnel, they have become uniform.
They can only be distinguished from one another thanks to their paintwork, but even this has lost much of its creativity. While the cars from John Player Special, Marlboro, Gulf, Benetton or Martini were once legendary, today you always get the impression of a rolling spare parts warehouse. The color no longer supports the shape of the car, but looks like a kindergarten teacher's coloring book. A bit of red here, a bit of blue there, a bit of glue here and a bit of glue there, but unfortunately far from harmony between form and color.
Since aerodynamics have outweighed the mechanical grip of a car, the steering wheel artists have been pushed more and more into the background.
The new DTM cars will finally take a step back in 2018, albeit only a small one, and will be on the grid with fewer aerodynamic aids. Bruno Spengler: "The less downforce a race car has, the more challenging it is to drive it at the limit." This is the right approach and will allow the driver to make more of a difference again.
McLaren is returning to its traditional war paint scheme, if only because of major sponsorship concerns. Unfortunately, however, there is once again a lack of consistency, because otherwise the names of the drivers, who are now hidden under the toilet seat, would be displayed in the familiar large curved lettering on the side of the cockpit. In general, the drivers are completely sidelined behind all the technology.
The ugliest of all, however, is by far Sergio Perez's and Esteban Ocon's racing car, which is still called "Force India". The color scheme alone is a complete disaster, which has nothing to do with the color pink but with the layout. You could create an ingenious design from the pink car with blue lettering and perhaps blue drops of water, but what has happened here can't even be labeled as a mistake.
Finally, a few words from F1 people about the current situation:
- Sebastian Vettel: "Under the halo, you feel like you're in a touring car."
- Toto Wolf: "The halo should be removed immediately with a chainsaw."
- Lewis Hamilton: "When Federer feels fit, he knows exactly that he doesn't have to fear any of his opponents, and that's exactly how it is with me, which is why I want nothing more than for my opponents to have the opportunity to race against me with equivalent equipment."
