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New Caterham team to axe ugly 2014 nose

LONDON, England - The distinctive nose at the front of Caterham's 2014 car could be the popular victim of a development push by the back-marker team.

A report in the German-language Speed Week read, as it referred to Caterham's plans to press ahead after its sale by Tony Fernandes, read: "New management, new nose, new hope".

Caterham is last in the Constructors' points; Marussia finally broke into the points in Monaco.

Finishing last in 2014 - a statistic new bosses Colin Kolles and Christijan Albers are determined to avoid - could mean the loss of the equivalent of R214-million in prize-money so it seems the team's mysterious new Swiss-Middle Eastern owners have approved a timely development push.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS

Italy's Omnicorse claims departed backer Fernandes had essentially 'blocked' the further development of the uncompetitive CT04 car while he contemplated selling the team. The new management has now 'unblocked' that programme.

The report said that, on Tuesday (July 15 2014) a 60%-sized model of the car entered the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne with the fruits of the work scheduled to debut at the Belgian GP after the mid-year break.

The improvement will be a "more efficient nose", Speed Week claims. The curious 'double nose' on the CT04, arguably one of the ugliest innovations in F1 history, is tipped to be gone at Spa-Francorchamps in August but before that the new nose would require a new International Automobile Federation crash test.

Team boss and former Minardi driver Albers said: "We have a lot of work to do but we're prepared for challenges ahead."

It's expected in 2015 every car on the grid will have a more aesthetically-pleasing nose; the rules have addressed the issue of the unseemly and unpopular 'anteater' noses.

The federation's Charlie Whiting said: "We can't legislate against ugly cars but we can try to get closer to what was intended."

The 2015 rules mandate larger minimum cross-sections of the noses, he confirmed. "They will have to be a certain height and a certain width and they must be symmetrical about the car's centre line."

Stay with Wheels24 for the 2014 German GP this weekend.
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