I've finished shaping the Haas car in recent days. Here's some shots of the car before I started attacking it with bodylines and final small details. The car came close to the GP4 polygon limit of just over 65,000 faces, and I've managed to finish the car with about 100 polygons to spare and no reduction in detail, so I'm quite pleased about that.
Not since 2011, when I created the Ferrari F150th, that I have created a 'modern' F1 car, having been focused on 1990s cars. So it was noticeable that with all the more complex winglets and details that everything took a while longer. For example, the 1990s cars had 3 flaps on the front wing and maybe a vane or two underneath, but now there are 5 elements with more complex curves, with curved holding devices and tyre sensors.
Obviously the recent attention on the bargeboards area has sprouted so many extra vanes, with the Haas in particularly having lots of different elements. Thankfully there were just a development of the previous year's car, so it did not take too long to decipher photos. I decided to go for the gills on the side of the cockpit, as per the launch version and I almost regretted it when I was running low of polygons towards the end. I hope it adds just a little added interest as they tested various configurations of it during testing.
For 1990s cars, I would usually be spending lots of time trying to brighten up photos and take a best guess, but thankfully at the launch of the real car in Barcelona, there were some very clear shots of the diffuser. The only element I did not include was the slotted vanes on the underside. The rear fins are unique on the Haas, with the S shaped vents. They seemed to have eliminated any vents at the leading edge of the rear endplate, which suited me when I was modelling it.
From a more aerial shot of my car, you can see a bit more of the detail on the floor, the slotted vents and all their associated vanes and flips. In order to get all that detail, I had to be economical on the main shape whilst still keeping it smooth, which I think I was able to achieve.
