What is the answer to the front of F1 cars? Kobayashi, Newey etc have come out and said the new lower noses are dangerous as the cars 'subamrine' underneath each other in the event of a rear impact, but the high noses of the past cause cars to ride up and over a car in front. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/113113 Low noses are better for side impacts as they don't puncture the chassis as badly as high noses, but if they go head first into a tyre barrier also have a tendancy to dig down and lift the tyres up onto the chassis (see Heikki and Burti crashes in the past) So what is the answer? Is there one design that is safer than another, or does it have to be accepted that due to F1 car design there is no solution so the current situation of noses being about half way between the extremes we saw in previos years and the noses back in the 80's, which were practically on the floor, is the best compromise? At the end of the day, if you're going to smack into the back of another car at 130mph, something bad is going to happen!
Theres little that can be done sadly, you can't make driving round at those speeds safe from every eventuality. The next step is to sort out the rear of the cars to stop then being undercut, and then the barriers somehow getting anchored to the floors to stop them also being undercut. Every time you fix one problem you're essentially just moving onto the next one I do thing the noses should be wider, a narrow nose is more likely to get under something than a wider one I believe.
Indy car have shown that protecting the rear of the car does nothing to stop submarining or cars being launched over each other. A wider nose would help spread an impact, but then would still act as a ramp! Don't know if it's individuals making short sighted excuses for things happening, but so far none of them have come up with a solution. Perhaps they should adpot touring cars for F1?!
Maybe the answer is to protect the driver with a cockpit cover like a fighter jet? Although I seem to remember FIA looked at that and found another problem?
