BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — Far too often over the years Formula One has been more about high-speed processions of cars rather than wheel-to-wheel competition. And that, as far as I am concerned, is not racing.
I want to see driver and machine battling it out with other drivers and machines. The situation has become worse in recent years because the complex aerodynamics of the cars cause the car following to lose so much downforce that the driver can’t get close enough to attack the car in front.
Over the years, the rules-makers have tried to address the predicament — most recently with the simplified front wing mandated for 2019 — but the problem remains. This time around, however, there has been a serious effort to solve things.
During the past two-and-a-half years, some of the best minds in the racing business have been working on the 2021 rules package that was revealed at the United States Grand Prix.
The 2021 cars are designed to create closer racing and more overtaking.
“That is what we all want,” Renault driver Daniel Ricciardo said, “so, hopefully, they (the 2021 rules) can achieve that. The positive is that it will be better than what it is. Will it be everything, who knows, but it will be better. As long as there is progress.”
People like Ross Brawn, Pat Symonds, Nikolas Tombazis, Rob Smedley and Steve Nielson, all of whom held senior technical positions with a variety of F-1 teams, now work for the FIA or F-1’s commercial owner Liberty Media. Working together with technical experts from the teams, Liberty, the FIA and other companies, they came up with the new regulations.
The 2021 F-1 cars will have ground-effects diffusers similar to Indy cars.
“We have simplified the front wing to create weaker vortices around it, in this way giving less opportunity to the teams to control the wake of the front wheel,” Tombazis explained. “There are no barge boards anymore. Currently, the barge boards are massively complicated devices.
“The (2021) car is fundamentally a ground-effect car. It’s got a long diffuser starting from the front of the side pod, going underneath and finishing at the very back. That is fundamental for the flow structures that we tried to achieve.”
Currently, a car that is trailing another car by one car length only retains 55 percent of its downforce levels compared to when running in clear air. In 2021, the trailing car will retain 86 percent of that downforce.
“The simulations show that it should achieve cars following each other much more closely and more able to attack the front car, which, ultimately, is what we are seeking,” Tombazis noted
But better racing will come at a price of heavier and slower cars. The current minimum weight of car and driver is 1,455 pounds and that will increase by 55 pounds in 2021. Add 230 pounds of fuel at the start of the race, and the F-1 cars won’t exactly be light.
“I don’t care,” Ricciardo said. “One of the most fun years I had in F-1 was 2014, and the cars then were eight seconds slower than now. As long as we are racing close and hard. Anything that is going to be close is exiting. I’d rather have good racing than single-file lap records. Then we might as well do time trials for the rest of our careers. So I’m OK with three seconds slower.”
“I think increasing the weight of the car is not a positive,” said Haas driver Kevin Magnussen. “But I guess it must have been inevitable, otherwise they wouldn’t have done it. The teams will overcome it over time. Probably the first couple of years, the cars will be a bit slower — if not quite a bit slower — then they’ll probably get close to where they are now at some point. Teams always find more and more performance. Hopefully, the cars will be very quick again. We all like to go fast and have a lot of grip. We want to drive the fastest cars on the planet.”
George Russell, who was a rookie this year at Williams, will be around to drive the cars in 2021 and for years afterward.
“The speed or the weight does not matter,” he said. “As long as it (the 2021 rules) improves the racing and brings the field together, then that’s all I care about.”
Fans sitting in the grandstands or watching on TV won’t notice or care if the cars weigh more or are a couple of seconds a lap slower when the drivers are battling wheel to wheel.
And neither will I.