Do the new rules make F1 cars ugly?

When the first pictures of 2009 spec F1 cars started to appear on various websites around the world, the initial reaction from many fans wasn’t positive.

The 2009 season brings with it the biggest rule changes affecting F1 for some time.

Each of the twenty (or perhaps eighteen) cars lining up on the grid in Melbourne next month will look drastically different to those that finished the amazing Brazilian Grand Prix last year.

At first sight, the new cars look out of proportion. But of course, that’s only because we’ve been used to the current proportions for so long, which like most things in F1 are determined by the sport’s technical regulations.

Once you get used to the new proportions, the simplistic beauty of the 2009 cars becomes apparent.

For me, the first image that comes to mind is the McLaren MP4/8. You know the one: red and white paint scheme with the famous Senna name on the engine cover.

So the high-mount nose is completely different to those of the early nineties, but the lack of ugly winglets and grills, the tall rear wing and a return to slick tyres certainly harks back to a time when Senna and Prost were fighting for titles.

In years to come, I think we’ll look back at F1 cars of the last few years as truly amazing pieces of engineering, but not as beautiful creations, certainly not when compared to the elegant Grand Prix racers of the early sixties.

If the new regulations achieve their goal of creating closer racing, and as an unintentional, yet pleasing consequence result in prettier cars, there is definitely reason for Grand Prix fans to be positive about 2009.