Are 2014 F1 cars the ugliest ever?

YES - SAYS HENRY HOPE-FROST, SUB-EDITOR

Any doubts you might have had over whether the new crop of Formula 1 cars is the most - let me start as politely as I can - 'visually unappealing' in the history of the sport can be dispelled with a quick glance at Twitter and Facebook.

The social-media sites that assuage our thirst for instant news/gossip/scandal have been rife with mickey-taking and comedy comparisons. I've noticed anteaters, Proboscis monkeys, Beluga whales, aardvarks and platypuses getting all sorts of negative press as each machine broke cover.

And when these aesthetically challenged but otherwise innocent creatures are compared to racing cars, something has gone badly wrong.

Force India has tried to disguise its anteater design © XPB

The sport's powerbrokers may well be laughing all the way to their off-shore vaults, chanting 'any publicity is good publicity' as they go, such has been the worldwide 'interest' in whatever horrible nosejob has been unleashed on fans, but the wider world is laughing at F1 right now.

A classic example of how this ridiculous situation - based, remember, on an ill-conceived regulation - has got out of hand came last Monday when the Toro Rosso STR9, complete with comedy phallus, broke cover.

Legendary 'bedroom-gymnastics' emporium Ann Summers was moved to tweet: 'So it looks like Toro Rosso have taken inspiration from our sex toy collections'. Great work by Summers's marketing department but a damning indictment for the world's sexiest sport.

Closer to home, many of my friends, who wouldn't pretend to know what DRS or KERS are, have been on to me, usually opening the dialogue with: 'what the f***...' And, in return, I've had to justify why this has happened and how such clever, driven, resource-rich folk could come up with something so absurd.

And the worst thing? They all knew it would happen and nobody did anything about it. Only now are some teams publicly declaring that it's spoiling the image of F1.

They're not kidding.

Hope-Frost's pick of F1's best looking cars

BRABHAM BT44B

A good livery always helps, particularly if it's made up of those famous stripes synonymous with Italian drinks firm Martini, but the triangular sidepods, high airbox and snow-plough front wing of Gordon Murray's uniquely handsome BT44B are enough on their own, as evidenced by its plain-white predecessor, the 1974 BT44.

Stats: Raced by Carlos Reutemann and Carlos Pace in 1975. Winner of the Brazilian (Pace) and German GPs (Reutemann). One pole: South African GP (Pace). Second in the constructors' championship.

EAGLE T1-G

Len Terry's smiling 1967 legend, driven by another smiling legend, Dan Gurney, eclipses Colin Chapman's Lotus 49 of the same vintage, but only just. Both were classic three-litre grand prix cars, in that simplistic, slippery and purposeful way. But the American machine edges it for its cheeky grin, its dark-blue colour, the stripe and the Weslake V12 bolted on the back.

Stats: Raced by Dan Gurney, Richie Ginther, Bruce McLaren and Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1967. Winner of the Belgian GP (Gurney). Third in Canadian GP (Gurney).

FERRARI 640

When, in your impressionable late teens, one of your racing heroes wins on his debut for Scuderia Ferrari, it matters a great deal. Nigel Mansell's unlikely Rio triumph in 1989 in the 640 V12 remains an F1 high-watermark moment for me. The car's sloping nose, narrow, upright radiators and text-book Coke bottle shape gave it a memorable mix of aggression and beauty. A Maranello masterpiece.

Stats: Raced by Nigel Mansell and Gerhard Berger in 1989. Winner of the Brazilian (Mansell) and Portuguese GPs (Berger). Third in the constructors' championship.

JORDAN 191

Gary Anderson's Jordan 191 wasn't a stunning car just because of that luscious-green 7Up livery, although it undoubtedly helped. The distinctive shape looked incredible when John Watson gave it its first run at Silverstone wearing its black-and-yellow '911' clothes. The symmetry of the gently curving cockpit sides and airbox, those tapered sidepods and that gently anhedral front wing combined to make it almost certainly the last truly beautiful grand prix car.

Stats: Raced by Andrea de Cesaris, Bertrand Gachot, Michael Schumacher, Roberto Moreno and Alex Zanardi in 1991. Fourth in Canadian and Mexican GPs (de Cesaris). Fifth in the constructors' championship.

MASERATI 250F

Gioacchino Colombo's ubiquitous 250F is regarded by many as the perfect 1950s front-engined grand prix car. Described by Stirling Moss as "the best-balanced car I ever raced", it commanded a fantasy-in-the-flesh appearance, the sort of shape still created today by children's crayons. And its serene, graceful shape was complemented by a long and successful career. Factory stars tamed it and shoestring privateers were flattered by it.

Stats: Raced by scores of aces, including Alberto Ascari, Jean Behra, Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss between 1954 and 1960. World championship winner in 1954 and 1957 (Fangio). Eight wins (Fangio six, Moss two).

NO - SAYS EDD STRAW, F1 EDITOR

Nobody in their right mind would attempt to argue that Formula 1's class of 2014 is the most aesthetically pleasing in history. But it's not the worst.

For starters, you have to factor in the shock of the new. The noses look very different to those we became accustomed to under the previous generation of regulations, and those 'snowplough' front ends sparked derision when they first appeared. But it wasn't long before looking back at a 2008 car, with its comparatively narrow front wing and low rear wing, seemed grating in comparison.

The Forti FG01 - proof that ugly designs are no recent phenomenon © LAT

The Ferrari F14 T has had more than its fair share of critics. But look back at some of Ferrari's best-looking cars and they are far from classical beauties. Take the 1971 312B, for example. It's stunning, but you can see a family resemblance in the nose.

If you want to know what a really ugly grand prix car is, type some of these into Google Images: McLaren MP4/10, Hesketh 308, March 711, Williams FW26 (walrus-spec), Eifelland 21, Wolf WR5, Forti FG01, Tyrrell 001, Brabham BT34 (lobster claw), AGS JH22...

That's just a list of 10 cars off the top of my head. Doubtless, many of you are furious as some were hugely successful and stunningly effective cars. But they can be iconic, innovative masterpieces without looking gorgeous.

Take the Brabham BT34 - it's a legendary car and looks purposeful, but it's not beautiful and the only reason it feels sacrilegious to claim it's ugly is because of familiarity.

After all, a quick racing car will gain a degree of beauty of its own. F1 cars have a history of combining form and function to the best of the technology of the time and that remains unchanged.

The 2014 noses do look grating and F1 needs to put more effort into preventing unnecessary unsightliness because visuals are core to its popularity.

But you have to look to the 1970s for F1's ugliest era. Those cars were innovative, remarkable, cool, purposeful, iconic, distinctive, glorious and sexy but they were not, in any way, objectively beautiful.

Straw's pick of F1's worst-looking cars

BUGATTI T251

The Bugatti T251, which started just one world championship race, the 1956 French GP, proves that ugly noses are nothing new in F1. Lasted all of 18 laps before retiring with a throttle problem.

Stats: Raced by Maurice Trintignant at Reims in 1956. Retired.

BRABHAM BT34 'Lobster Claw'

The Lobster Claw Brabham, so named because of its distinctive front wing 'pincers', was an iconic car. But it was also an unpleasant combination of the most unsightly elements of an open-wheeler and a sports prototype.

Stats: Raced by Carlos Reutemann, Graham Hill and Wilson Fittipaldi in 1971-72. Fourth in Canada with Reutemann was its best race result and it gave the team ninth in the '72 constructors' championship.

MARCH 721

Built on the unsightliness of the March 711, with a hideous engine cover adding to the bizarre proportions of the 721. Looked at its worst when running with a tea-tray front wing.

Stats: Raced by Ronnie Peterson, Niki Lauda, Henri Pescarolo and Rolf Stommelen in 1972. Sixth in the constructors' championship, best race result of fourth with Peterson in the United States GP.

ARROWS A2

While gold-coloured, the A2 was anything but gold either in looks or performance. Front wingless, it relied on ground effect added to the downforce created by the wing shape formed by its bodywork surface. Purposeful, but ungainly.

Stats: Raced by Riccardo Patrese and Jochen Mass in 1979. Ninth in constructors' championship, best race result of fifth at Zolder with Patrese.

FERRARI F310

Thanks to John Barnard's conservative interpretation of the new cockpit side regulations, the hideous F310 was, as described by Charlie Whiting, "an armchair". The B-spec version of the car was a dramatic improvement.

Stats: Raced by Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine in 1996. Second in the constructors' championship, victories in Spain, Belgium and Italy.