For those that care...The whole reason for the bumps is the regs for the year. (Alternatively, watch the BBC video... good old Gary!)
Quite simply it boils down to aero, and the development direction (started by RedBull back in '09 when the wide front wings and neutral central section came in) of trying to have the nose as high as possible, so as to ram as much air under the car to make downforce via the underfloor.
Whats happened this year (as already mentioned), is that the FIA spec'd that the nose heights had to drop to help avoid the noses penetrating the cockpits in a side impact (the tips were higher than the cockpit sides!). What didn't happen though was alteration to the reg's to force teams to drop the front chassis bulkheads (the bit where the nose mounts) to suit...
With the need to drive as much air underneath as possible, the natural way would be to make the chassis as thin as possible in this area, however, the reg's state that the bulkheads have to meet certain dimensional requirements in terms of cross section (and you can't have a driver with 2D legs!), which basically places a limit on how high they can make the underside of the chassis.
So the way round that is to raise the chassis up as much as possible... which when you combine with the new nose rule, leaves the step!
McLaren seem to have gone a different way, but then they are also the only team employing a snow-plow under the nose to help drive the airflow, with the hope to also gain a from having a lower CoG and better suspension geometry on the front. Time will tell if thats a good route, but last years car was similar, so no reason not to think it won't work.
Everyone else with a clean nose underside seems to have gone as high and flat as they can, and raise the chassis as much as possible, leaving the pronounced step. Most of the nose's are pretty flat and thin, although there is more shaping underneath than appears, and bare in mind they have to pass the FIA crash tests before hitting the track for testing this year.
I just hope they wise up and lower the front bulkhead a bit next year... please!
Regards
Ed
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