The initial reaction to F1’s new “stepped-nose” designs was shock but they may just become the new orthodoxy, which could leave McLaren with a cold.

Ferrari nose best: F1 teams opt for a radical aerodynamic design | The Guardian.

Great headline on this piece by Richard Williams today. He reminds us that the experiments with wings in 1968-69 were universally panned as ugly, also, while today race cars without wings look downright silly. One could add that the same thing was true, more recently, with the raised nose pioneered by Tyrrell in 1990, which proved aerodynamically superior and spread through the entire F1 grid by 1999.  Still, I shudder to think that the two-stepped nose designs devised to comply with the new 2012 technical regulations will become de rigueur in Formula One, at least esthetically.

Mark Webber In the Red Bull RB8 At Jerez