Rule change: Nose and chassis height reduced
http://www.formula1.com/news/features/2014/1/15408.html
Implications: For safety reasons, the height of the chassis has been reduced from 625mm to 525mm, whilst the height of the nose has been dramatically slashed from 550mm to 185mm. The major aim of these changes was to prevent cars launching upwards in the event of nose to rear tyre collisions (think back to Mark Webber’s scary aerial crash at Valencia in 2010).
Pravilnik.
http://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/ ... -12-09.pdf
15.4.3 An impact absorbing structure must be fitted in front of the survival cell. This structure need not be an integral part of the survival cell but must be solidly attached to it.
No part of this structure may lie more than 525mm above the reference plane.
It must have a single external cross section, in horizontal projection, of more than 9000mm² at a point 50mm behind its forward-most point. Furthermore :
a) No part of this cross-section may lie more than 250mm or less than 135mm above the reference plane.
b) The centre of area of this section must be no more than 185mm above the reference plane and no less than 750mm forward of the front wheel centre line.