strad wrote: ↑21 Feb 2019, 21:38
Remember when F1 cars were technical marvels, and pretty to look at?
I would answer that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. You might think they are ugly but to an aerodynamicist it might be beautiful.
I am not fond of all the aero devices but from a the other side I can see that they might be considered quite the opposite of how I see them.
Yes, but the fact that the aero devices are functional and add performance to the car has absolutely nothing to do with aesthetics. I agree beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I don't think a lot of people would suggest these 2019 cars are pretty to look at.
The issue is not whether an aerodynamicist would look at the car and find it beautiful! The issue is whether or not a designer or artist would look at the car and find it beautiful.
Development has frozen on so many aspects of these cars nowadays, the only thing left to do is explore aero gains....so F1 has turned into an exercise in perfecting aerodynamic performance on a purpose built race car, which benefits no one or any industry beyond the success of said race car.
It's shame, b/c all the money, thought, sweat, and manpower is going into "aero tweaking" these days, instead of say, innovation and development in the engines.
And on top of it, the cars look ugly. I'd love to see a freeze on aero rules and go back to open season on the power plants. That would be cool.
