You may have noticed that the Formula 1
season has yet to get started and, instead of enjoying the week building up to race nine
of the championship in Canada, we’re happy that we’re only three weeks away from round
one. 2. What a weird year this is.
3. And because this whole season has been pushed back – and, in fact, yet to be finalised
– the much anticipated technical revolution of 2021 has now been pushed back to 2022 as,
under lockdown, teams were unable to do the development work this year to prepare.
4. At the same time, F1 income has been throttled through lack of action so teams are in a much
more financially precarious position than expected so, in terms of car development,
2021 is going to be more of a 2020.5. 5. The FIA have constricted how much change
will be allowed to happen to the cars between season to keep costs down and to simplify
what is going to end up being a much more hectic year and a half as we barrel towards
the end of the current era of technical regulations. 6. So first things first – the tyres are
staying the same for 2021. 7. Alongside the original plans to massively
update the cars for 2021, the wheels were also moving from their current 13 inch diameter
to an 18 inch, low-profile spec but as the accompanying tyres were being designed to
suit the new cars, these new wheel specifications have been shuffled along with everything else.
8. As a consequence, Pirelli are going to keep exactly the same tyre family introduced
in 2019 right through til the end of 2021. 9. This presents a problem as Pirelli normally
update their tyre compounds to meet the requirements of the gains in performance over several years.
As cars get faster and corner harder, this puts added stress on the rubber and Pirelli
can’t guarantee the current spec tyres would be suitable through to the 2021 season.
10. So instead of going through the expensive process of developing a whole new set of tyres
just for 2021, the FIA have mandated that the cars in 2021 have their aerodynamics nerfed
slightly by cutting away part of the floor. 11. By reducing the area of the floor, as
so, they expect cars will lose about have a second in performance: roughly the` equivalent
that they would gain between seasons. This small rule is a simple move that will save
a lot of money and effort in extending everything into 2021.
12. Further to this, quite a lot of the 2020 car will be frozen into 2021, meaning almost
no changes can be made to parts of the car. These are known as ‘homologated’ parts,
which essentially means they’ve been approved and signed off by the FIA.
13. Now these parts have a small amount of scope for adjustment which I’ll get to in
a second but essentially from the beginning of the 2020 season to the end of the 2021
season there are parts of the car that are locked in across two seasons and there are
parts of the car that can be developed, changed, updated and so on with as much freedom as
in any normal season. 14. The parts of the car that can be messed
with are basically the bits the audience can see. So that means most of the aerodynamic
parts, like wings and turning vanes and bargeboards and diffusers and floor geometry and stuff.
15. If also includes most of the non load-bearing bits of the suspension, like the smooth fairings
that wrap the arms. And, of course, all teams will be allowed to have a special Monaco spec
front suspension assembly for free, cause they need it to navigate the tight streets.
16. Almost everything else is locked down and can’t be developed. So when I talk about
homologated parts and freezing development from here on, I’m only talking about these
parts of the car. The aero and other stuff is going to remain free to fiddle with regardless.
We’re just talking about this stuff now. 17. So this locking down of parts comes in
three phases. 18. The first freeze point is officially called
“R1-2020” which (if everything goes as planned) starts from FP1 of Round One in Austria.
From that moment on, the first bunch of homologated components are locked down.
19. The next freeze point is called “mid-2020” and starts from FP1 of round eight, 2020,
which is currently scheduled to be the Italian GP on 4th September. If everything goes rims-up
again and the calendar is delayed then “mid-2020” will kick in no later than 15th October, as
which point the second bunch of components get locked down.
20. The third freeze point is “R1-2021” and that’s first practice of round one in
2021. At this point no changes can be made to any of the homologated components for the
whole of the 2021 season. At all. 21. Now, there are some small changes teams
can make to components once they’ve been frozen, without any need for spending ‘tokens’
(which I’ll get to in a second). And these changes can only be approved if strictly necessary.
22. So if they need to update a part for safety reasons, reliability or cost reasons, the
FIA might allow them that change. Also if the FIA introduce a mid season rule change
or clarification, obviously teams can change parts to stay legal.
23. And if there is issues with driver comfort, the FIA can approve necessary changes, including
if a team takes on a new driver and needs to get them comfortable in the car.
24. Aside from that, the only way a team can make changes is through a very strict token
system. And I mean very strict. Wiggle room here is tight.
25. Teams have two tokens they can spend on development of parts that have already been
frozen. In total. Some parts are worth two tokens and some are worth just one, so as
a team you could either update two low-key parts or one high key part.
26. The first thing to make clear is that no developments can be made after R1-2021.
That’s a complete lockdown from that point, tokens or otherwise. 2021 is basically development
free for the homologated parts. 27. But if you want to update a part that’s
been frozen in the R1-2020 or mid-2020 phases you need to submit your development request
to the FIA under strict timeframes. 28. Your initial brief for R1 parts has to
be delivered just 5 days after the factory shutdown ends. Your more detailed explanation
of the part change has to be submitted just nine days later and your full blown technical
blueprint has to be in FIA hands no less than 60 days after the factory shutdown ends.
29. The mid-2020 timeframe is pretty much the same except using round 3 as a reference
point instead of shutdown. 30. So yes, teams should already know what
developments they intend to make before the parts are frozen, which really gives some
insight into the way car development works in F1 teams. They are building parts knowing
already what the next generation of that part will look like.
31. And I wasn’t lying about the FIA being strict about this. If you spend a token in
submitting a request for a parts change and then change your mind and don’t mak e a
new part – well, tough, you don’t get your token back. No refunds.
32. If you do develop a part but then decide it’s rubbish, you can roll back to the old
part. But you can’t get your token back. No refunds.
33. If you get a new engine supplier in 2021, like McLaren are doing with Mercedes, you
have to spend both of your tokens in getting that engine installed properly. This is because
cars are designed to fit their engines and McLaren would have to make chassis modifications
to install the new Mercedes engine and to make sure they don’t sneak in some free
chassis development, they have to hand over their tokens.
34. What about a customer team who buys homologated parts from other teams – like how Haas buy
suspension off Ferrari? Well, if they buy an updated part from another team they have
to use the equivalent tokens to do so. Fairs, fair.
35. There is a caveat to this though – some teams use old-spec components. So, if in 2020
you’re a customer team using someone 2019 suspension, in 2021 you can upgrade to the
2020 version at no token cost. 36. So this all seems very complicated but
in simple terms: 37. Across 2020 and 2021, wings and other
aero devices will still be freely developed and you can enjoy seeing what aerodynamic
innovations teams being to each race. 38. Most internal parts of the car will be
fixed across both seasons so the 2020 chassis will be used again in the 2021. There may
be some small updates to the cars but most parts will be frozen. These are parts you
probably will never see anyway. 39. Through the whole of 2021, the whole car
is frozen apart from the wings and diffuser and stuff as mentioned earlier.
40. Does this mean performances between teams will be the same for two years? No because
they can still play with the aerodynamics of the car and make one or two chassis updates
that may make a significant difference to the behaviour of the cars. So don’t despair
if you think this will mean teams who suck in 2020 will be stuck in sucker for 2021 too.
41. Overall, F1 has had to respond to the tricky consequences of the pandemic and this
seems to be the best way to keep costs down but allow teams to continue developing their
cars in some way. The road to 2022 is definitely going to be an interesting one!