The decision to ban the T-wings and shark fins on the 2018 Formula One cars has been made during a meeting on Tuesday between the F1 Strategy Group and F1 Commission. The general consensus among the fans seems to be supporting the removal of these aerodynamic practices, but was this the right decision?
I hate the T-wing concept and I am quite happy that they are set to be gone by next season. To me, the T-wings just destroy the look of the cars. I like to see a single front wing and a simple rear wing. To me, the T-wings just make the cars look too much like the 2008 cars, which, in my opinion, were the ugliest cars to show up on the grid over the past decade. And of course there were the safety concerns that Racing Clothesline reported on before the start of the season. And unfortunately, we saw the concerns come to life when the Mercedes T-wing from Valtteri Bottas’ car broke off.
As for the shark fins, this is a concept that I actually don’t mind and my even go as far as to say that I actually like them on the car. While some people argue that the shark fins ruin the aesthetics of the cars, I would argue the opposite.
People complain that the Formula One liveries are boring, but now the teams have been given a lot of additional space to work with. There are many opportunities to be had with the shark fins. I much enjoy the livery designs that have the shark fin blend in to the design, like we see on the Williams, McLaren and Toro Rosso. The teams that make the shark fins look bad are the teams that have just painted it a solid color like Red Bull, Force India and Sauber or the a team like Haas, who have made their shark fin stand out separate from the actual design of the rest of the livery.
I think that the shark fins could also present a sponsorship opportunity for teams. After all, what a perfect location for your brand to displayed on. The shark fin could even solve one of the other talking points in the meeting: increasing the driver number visibility. Depending on the car design, the driver number is often just printed in small text on the nose of the car and the bargeboards. There’s just a lot of design potential with the shark fins.
I’ve always really liked the shark fins. That’s one of the reasons that the 1965 Jaguar D-Type is one of my favourite classic sports cars. I don’t see it as visually unpleasing and ultimately aesthetics are not something that I really care about. The cars can be super ugly, but if the racing is good then I’m happy.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer or company. Assumptions made in any analysis contained within this article are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the author.
