The distinctive nose at the front of Caterham’s 2014 car could be the popular victim of a development push by the backmarker team.<\/p>\n
“New management, new nose, new hope,” read a report in the German-language Speed Week, as it referred to Caterham’s plans to press ahead in the wake of the Tony Fernandes era.<\/p>\n
Caterham is currently last in the constructors’ standings, after its traditional backmarker rival Marussia finally broke into the points in Monaco.<\/p>\n
Finishing last in 2014 – a statistic new bosses Colin Kolles and Christijan Albers are determined to avoid – could mean the loss of about $20 million in official prize-money.<\/p>\n
And so it seems Caterham’s mysterious new Swiss-Middle Eastern owners have approved a timely development push.<\/p>\n
Italy’s Omnicorse claims departed backer Fernandes had essentially ‘blocked’ the further development of the uncompetitive CT04 car while he contemplated selling the Leafield based team.<\/p>\n
The new management has now ‘unblocked’ that programme.<\/p>\n
The report said that, on Tuesday, a 60 per cent model of the car entered the state-of-the-art Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, with the fruits of the work scheduled to debut at the Belgian grand prix after the summer break.<\/p>\n
The headline improvement will be a “more efficient nose”, Speed Week claims.<\/p>\n
The curious ‘double nose’ on the CT04, arguably one of the ugliest innovations in F1 history, is tipped to be gone at Spa-Francorchamps in August.<\/p>\n
But, before that, the new nose would require a new FIA crash test.<\/p>\n
“We obviously have a lot of work to do,” said team boss and former Minardi driver Albers, “but we’re prepared for the challenges ahead.”<\/p>\n
In 2015, it is expected that every car on the grid will feature much more aesthetically-pleasing nose designs.<\/p>\n
Next year’s rules have addressed the issue of the unseemly and unpopular ‘anteater’-style noses.<\/p>\n
“We can’t legislate against ugly cars,” said the FIA’s Charlie Whiting, “but what we can do is to try to get closer to what was originally intended.”<\/p>\n
The 2015 rules mandate larger minimum cross-sections of the noses, he confirmed.<\/p>\n
“They (will) have to be a certain height and a certain width and they must be symmetrical about the car centre line,” said Whiting.<\/p>\n
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