According to Williams technical director Pat Symonds, Red Bull Racing has been a key architect for how Formula 1 cars are going to look in 2017.
Mirroring what Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz said recently about next year’s cars, Symonds also stated “I do think the cars look nice,” in an interview with Autosport.
“When we first started talking about the 2017 cars, I was worried because there was this real drive for a retro look. A retro look wouldn’t have done anything. But I really pat Red Bull on the back for doing a great job in styling the car because what they did was take away what the Strategy Group had asked for and they really styled it. They started with the premise that we want the car to look like it’s going fast even when it’s stationary and I thought yeah, that’s a really nice way of expressing it.”
The Williams exec went on to describe 2017 cars, saying they’re wider, with wider wheels and lower and wider rear wings.
Aside from being wider, the front wing is “swept back a bit, as the car is, but it has a bit of sweep on it. The front of the sidepods have a bit of a sweep on them, the rear wing endplates lean back a bit. They have this look of being dragged by the air. I like it.”
Ironically, Red Bull is also considered by many to be back in title contention next year thanks to the new regulations. The fact they had such a large role to play in terms of designs for 2017 could mean they’re already one step ahead of everyone else – which has also been the case in recent history when it came to developing an F1 chassis.
