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The concept of a pointy front end on an F1 car has become increasingly discussed as Max Verstappen has won consecutive world championships and a succession of his team-mates have struggled to perform in a sequence of Red Bulls that have been known for having this handling characteristic.
But what does that actually mean?
Well, Verstappen's preference for a pointy front end - a super-responsive one - allows him to get the car turned in quicker than if the front end was lazier or less responsive.
This theoretically allows him to get the car pointing straighter sooner in the cornering phase, which in turn means (provided there's sufficient traction) he can get the throttle applied earlier, harder and thus accelerate quicker out of the corners.
The penalty for that is the rear end breaking away at a potentially uncontrollable rate, but Verstappen's apparent skill is that he can live with an unbelievably nervous rear end and make it work.
It also means that in high-speed corners, like the ones you find in sector two at Spa, he doesn't get spooked by the rear moving around, so the team can theoretically add more front wing and improve that responsiveness through the types of corners where other drivers would usually be chasing the opposite: stability at the rear in order to have the confidence to carry the necessarily high cornering speeds.
So Verstappen will be faster than, say, former team-mate Sergio Perez through these corners because the front end isn't scrubbing speed through the corner from the tyres being slightly underloaded.
To put it most simply, the threshold at which Verstappen senses oversteer in a car to the point of it being a problem seems to be way in excess of the point most drivers would feel that same degree of oversteer and find it a problem they cannot drive around.
Verstappen isn't alone in having this preference. But as another former team-mate Alex Albon explains, Verstappen's able to cope with an extreme level of sensitivity.
"I like a lot of front end and nose. I’ve been team-mates [in junior categories] with George [Russell] and Charles [Leclerc] and I’ve always had way more nose than them. Basically think front-end sensitivity. And when I got into the Red Bull … I mean there was so much nose on the thing that if you blew on the wheel the car would turn," Albon explained.
"If you play Call of Duty, or a game like that, turn your sensitivity up to the highest it will go. That’s what it’s like to drive that car."
