Quote:
Originally Posted by David Church
The only thing I can think of is they've done this for safety, you know those crazy yanks!
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Yes, it's entirely down to safety. It's to try and keep the cars from being launched into the air when the following car touches the rear tyres on ovals, the sort of accident that killed Dan Wheldon and broke Will Powers back after he was launched 30 feet up in the air at Las Vegas last year.
It also generates more downforce than the old cars and is designed to enable closer racing and more overtaking than the old Dallara, which it certainly did last night compared with the boring race last season. It also showed you can lean on the car in front with the substantial front wing against the side of the rear wheel protector. If F1 had been using these Dallaras at Malaysia both Button and Vettel would have had no damage when hitting Karthikeyan.
Having watched the pre-season practice sessions and the two races I've already got used to them, although with some paint schemes they are still pretty ugly from certain angles.
For those who haven't seen them in action: