F1: Red Bull hints at nose design change

Red Bull has dropped a firm hint that it may switch to a short Williams-style nose this season as Formula 1 teams continue to hunt for the best solution.

A change to the nose regulations introduced for 2015 has left teams facing a big headache about how best to recoup lost downforce and maximise airflow around the rest of the car. There is a growing consensus that the best way forward is the short style of nose pioneered by Williams – but that design causes complications in passing the mandatory crash tests.

Red Bull has evaluated different solutions, and has admitted that it is likely a switch of concept could happen.

"Of the few different noses we tried, it's the one we like best at present," chief engineering officer Rob Marshall said about the long nose used in Jerez testing.

"No doubt there'll be other ones in the future, and I'm sure other teams will be preparing other noses, wings and god knows what else. What you see on the first day of the first test isn't what we'll always roll out later on."

F1 2015's key technical battlegrounds

Marshall said that crash testing progress over the winter had impacted what version of the nose appeared at the first F1 test, as Red Bull had elected to start the homologation process so late.

"We had a number of different options, and we started our crash testing program a while ago," he said. "We hit some problems and we needed to try some easier ones and some harder ones.

"In truth, we got [to Jerez] by the skin of our teeth – not because our crash testing programme didn't go very well, because it did – but because as usual we started on the design of the car very late."

WILLIAMS CRASH TESTS NOT EASY

Williams technical director Pat Symonds believes the fact that his team was able to run a short nose from the start is proof of the effectiveness of the concept.

"It's the balance of getting a good aerodynamic solution and one that gets through a crash test as well," he said. "Our feeling was that aerodynamically we were running quite a short nose, but of course for an easy passage through the crash testing, a long nose makes life a lot easier.

"So there was a fair bit of balancing there. I'm very pleased with the solution we've got. It was a good one. It wasn't easy to get through the crash test but I think we have one of the shorter noses out there which shows the quality of the design."

Originally on Autosport.com