It’s a boy! Caterham unveils 2014 F1 car

It’s unusual for racing cars to have gender. If pushed, a driver might describe his car as female. Sebastian Vettel would certainly have done that in previous seasons – he named one of his cars Kinky Kylie – but this year’s F1 cars look… let’s say… male. Caterham’s CT05 embodies this “maleness” to a greater degree than most.

The rules governing the height of the nose for this year’s cars have resulted in some unusual-looking solutions being produced by the various teams. The front of Ferrari’s F14 T, for example, looks like a vacuum cleaner. Mercedes have produced the most “normal” looking F1 car, while Red Bull have produced a car that looks quite good until the small bulge at the end of the nose is noticed.

McLaren, Toro Rosso, Sauber, Williams and Force India have all come out with cars that have some variation on a thin extension of the nose that looks remarkably phallic. Some of them have attempted to hide the fact that their nose looks a bit strange by employing creative paint-jobs. Others have tried to minimise the size of the protrusion and, at least in the case of Williams, succeeded to an extent.

But Caterham have made no attempt either to limit the size of their “ant-eater” nose, as it is diplomatically known, or to disguise it with clever paint-work. Instead, they’ve let it all hang out. It’s so striking a feature that there has been almost no comment on the rest of the car thus far. The nose is the only talking point.

On first viewing, it appears that the rest of the car looks much as expected. The rear-exiting exhaust, larger side-pods,  and missing rear beam wing are all visible from a fairly cursory glance at the car. Caterham have included what became known as a “monkey seat” last season in the rear-wing centre upright. This is a small wing just above the exhaust of this year’s car. It is permitted by the regulations, but it remains to be seen to what extent it will be used by the teams this season.

The other noticeable change is in the livery. Last year, the rear of the engine cover was yellow, while the rest of the car was its now typical green. But for this season it seems the yellow is gone. The car is all green, at least at this stage of the season. Perhaps the livery will be developed at a later stage.