Dutch artist Andries van Overbeeke gives his interpretation of Formula 1 with a series of renders in his ‘Echoes of Nearby Future’ series
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After a weekend of retro racing machinery at Goodwood and new records set at Pikes Peak, perhaps it’s time to take a look into the ‘nearby future’.
The below is a design by Dutch artist Andries van Overbeeke, and although the design is similar in style to that of Jihoon Seo we featured last month, there is a little more to this Williams-Honda re-invention. There is a metaphor for instance that inspires the design that’s a tad wordy, but the gist of it is thus: Formula 1 used to be innovative and awesome, now it’s retrained and uninteresting. These re-designs are hoping to change that.
Take the new canopy for one, a feature inspired by the events that cost Formula 2 driver Henry Surtees his life at Brands Hatch in 2009 and put Felipe Massa in intensive care just a few weeks later in Hungary. Although safety is a key concern, Andries’ primary motivation is to design a closed Formula 1 cockpit that simply ‘looks good’. They’ll be time for crash tests and sporting regulations later, we imagine…
It goes further, for while the sidepods are inspired by McLaren’s MP4-26 from 2011, Andries’ creation is both wider and long, but also runs on wider diameter tyres for improved grip. Let’s not forget the all-important matter, racing. The wider platform allows more mechanical grip, while the smaller, less aerodynamically sculpted front wings are less sensitive to the ‘dirty air’ produced by the car in front whilst slipstreaming. There’s a little more technical babble required for that explanation but we don’t have all day.
The close-canopied McLaren-Honda though is not the only F1 re-design Andries has ahead of the 2017 season. If you’re a Williams or Red Bull fan, then the below designs might be of interest to you.
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– Shots courtesy of Andries van Overbeeke
