Thanks to the miracles of modern technology it is possible to get a fairly decent comparison of the first of the new generation of F1 cars – even for someone with limited computer skills. A bit of resizing and a mirror image of the new Ferrari allows us the opportunity to compare the work of the different technical teams at Lotus, McLaren and Ferrari and their different interpretations of the rules.
The angles are not perfect, but it interesting nonetheless…
joeblogsf1 
It’s certainly shaping up to be a sexy F1 Grid in 2013 thus far.
Let me see, anything in common there – oh yes, just about everything in the envelope.
Devils in the detail though
Starting to ‘itch’ through lack of racing. Need GP soon.
The underneath of these 3 cars are all completely different.
Are all F1 cars photographed at the same studio? The Lotus photographer must have been a bit taller.
The monocoque sides of that mclaren are noticeably sponsor-free..
Lotus must be in love with that stepped nose.
I thought that the tapering job on the rear of the McLaren was extreme but the Fezza takes the ‘shrink-wrapping’ concept to another level! To actually be able to see so much of the other rear wheel is incredible.
They all look amazing… HURRY-UP MELBOURNE!!!
The rear is a bit like Williams with their small gear box.
What changed in the interpretation of the rules that means that (so far, including the Force India) there are none of the ugly noses ?
Interesting front area on the McLaren
Wheel arch on the Ferrari looks twice as long as the McLaren. Strange but I find them all quite pleasing to look at. On the honest Lotus, minus the fig leaf, the stepped nose no longer looks like a kitchen appliance.
Is it my eyes or does the Lotus (I still think of them as Renault!) look lower to the ground than the others?
It’s the angle it’s taken from, slightly above so you have less appreciation of the gap between the bottom of the floor and the ground surface.
An excellent example of the design driving a purely functional purpose, that is to say a low drag projectile for speed through the air which has the fortunate side effect of creating a beautiful object.
Thankfully some teams have dropped the stepped nose, and out of the three shown, the Mclaren has the best lines.
Did I not see somewhere a photo of a stepped nose (not to scale, wind tunnel model?) destined for the McLaren?
The fact that Ferrari applied all its decals backwards doesn’t bode well for the upcoming season. Oddest looking front end design as well. It’s like they’ve kept the stepped nose, but moved the hump all the way to the front.
Can’t wait.
Thats so the other drivers can read them properly in their mirrors.
Joe inverted the image in order to get a direct comparison – you can see the original image in his blog about the Ferrari launch.
Cool idea for immediate comparison, thanks. Top view comparison would also be good to see the comparative aero treatment at the back of the cars. It would also be interesting to run this picture again when the Red Bull (Aero Bull) is added. Please Ferrari no serious deficit to recover out of the gate, Alonso’s due and its time for Vettel to work for it.
I wonder how much of these Aero innovations/research are transferable to other industry Auto/Aviation? Hopefully not as little as one may think. I’d rather see the sport doing relevant developement (likely mechanical)
Can’t really tell about the Lotus, but Alonso and Massa must have really skinny legs.
strange, I can see both back wheels behind the Ferrari! Can this be true?is it that low at the rear?
The F138 directly addresses the week points of the F2012. However these include intricate areas such as the utilisation of exhaust flow in the rear of the car which is complex and will require some fine tuning. The extent of this will be the measure of the success of the F138 design process. Interesting the contrasting height of the McLaren and Ferrari exhaust exists. Ferrari has advanced evolutions of the aerodynamics in the wind tunnel which are to be introduced at the 2nd and third tests. It is essential that these evolutions work and this will only be the case if the problems with methodology and correlation from 2012 have been over came.
The most striking thing about these comparisons though may be the extreme lack of sponsor’s decals on the McLaren.