So, Formula 1 has done the impossible – it’s got teams to vote through a series of changes
to the rules in the sport’s best interests.
Granted, a lot of the teams were opposed to these new-for-2019 aero changes, but Formula
One Management and the FIA used a little loophole to ensure they didn’t need a majority from
the teams and here we are: three key changes for 2019.
So what are these new rules?
What problems are they designed to solve, and how will they attempt to solve them?
Well in 2017, F1 brought in a raft of new design rules in an effort to make the cars
faster.
That’s all they were designed to do – just make the cars faster, to the tune of about
five seconds.
Unfortunately all of these rules – wider cars, more aggressive aero and lower rear
wings – worked to make overtaking much, much harder.
The cars were fast but they couldn’t race.
Overtaking halved in 2017 from the previous season.
The opening race of 2018 in Melbourne was frightening in how little overtaking there
was and this spurred the powers that be into action.
Something had to be done before the next major set of rule changes in 2021.
Some tweaks had to be brought in for next year.
Formula 1 and the FIA was already deep into a long study into how to improve close racing
and overtaking in preparation for the 2021 rule set.
Working with engineers, including those in F1 teams, some ideas had started to show promise
and it was these early studies that inspired these three small changes for next year.
The new rules then: one – The front wing will be simplified, its span extended and
its outwash reduced.
I’ll explain all of that in a second.
Two: The brake ducts will be simplified with all winglets removed.
Three: The rear wing will be made deeper and wider.
So let’s go through these one by one to understand the thought behind each of these
changes and how it could help with overtaking.
The Front Wing will be simplified, made wider and produce less outwash.
Right, so if you want a full picture of how the front wing disturbs the air you should
watch my aerodynamics video by clicking here or the link in the description.
I’ll give you the simple version here.
As the moment a lot of the work of the front wing is to produce huge powerful vortices
to trap and calm the turbulent, messy airflow coming off the spinning front tyres.
As such, the hugely detailed, complex elements of the front wing are designed not for downforce
but for directing air right down the length of the car through vortex generation.
The problematic side-effect of this is that all this air flying around the outside of
the car (the “outwash”) created an incredibly disturbed wake behind the car.
And this disturbed wake makes it difficult for a chasing car to stay relatively close
behind.
See all the aerodynamic devices on an F1 car are designed to expect a nice simple airflow.
The front wing does a lot of work in meeting the oncoming airflow and starting to direct
it to all the right places down the body – the bargeboards, the sidepods, the rear wing,
the floor, etc.
But if the air meeting the front wing is all tangled and messy, with flow direction and
air pressure all chaotic and unpredictable then the front wing and the rest of the aero
on the car can’t do its job properly.
And this means, when following another car the through the corners, the chasing car simply
cannot grip the road as effectively and it falls behind.
You’ve probably noticed in races that a chasing car can catch up to about 1.5, 2 seconds
behind the leading car then it just sort of stops there.
It’s frustrating to watch.
That’s why some drivers say you need a 2 second advantage over the person ahead – you
need a massive car advantage to overcome this dirty air problem.
So, understanding this, the new rules demand a simpler front wing.
Bear in mind the rules are very vague at the moment, but the idea is going to be to clean
up all these complex elements and stop the cars throwing these incredibly energetic air
flows around the outside of the car.
The front wings will still play a big part in guiding the first rush of air but in a
simpler, less destructive way.
Making the front wing wider is a neat little touch in that it means the air-guiding elements
have to do less work to get the air here out and around the tyre.
If the wing already extends to the width of the tyre (or beyond) the wing has to do less
work to get a vortex around the tyre.
In essence, the winglets won’t need to create such an energetic vortex.
The front wings are the big change for next year, but what about the other two rules?
Well the brake ducts have been sprouting winglets in over the years and the reason for this
ties into the complex front wings.
Like the bargeboards and turning vanes down the side of the car, the winglets on the brake
ducts are all part of an effort to guide and turn the airflow and vortices from the front
wing.
Removing them leaves the air ducts to do simply what they’re supposed to do – funnel fast-moving
air through the brakes to carry away the heat.
The rear wings are going to be made wider and deeper.
This is in an effort to increase the power of DRS.
How does that work then?
Well, the rear wing is a huge downforce generating device.
But with downforce comes drag – that big ol’ rear wing plane sitting in the way of
the fast-flowing air generates a huge amount of drag that holds the car back, reducing
its top speed.
DRS essentially flips the rear wing up and out of the airflow, reducing the drag effect
massively.
That’s why it’s called the Drag Reduction System.
Making the rear wing wider and deeper means the rear wing will be much more powerful at
generating downforce and generate much more drag.
Think of it as having a big parachute on the back of the car and by making it wider and
deeper we’ve just given the car a bigger parachute!
So, what happens when DRS is activated?
That parachute effect goes away.
So the relative different between a leading car with its Rear Wing closed and the chasing
car with DRS active and the Rear Wing open is an even bigger effect.
It’s gone from having massive drag to having very, very small drag.
So, hopefully the chasing car will be able to catch the leading car and go for a pass.
The chasing car loses speed through the corners so by the time it gets to a long straight
it’s way too far behind to catch up and try an overtake.
The DRS is simply an effort to nullify the dirty air problem.
Will these new rules work?
Possibly.
I think it’s definitely worth a try.
Some of the teams are complaining that the research that led to these interim solutions
was too fresh and not thorough enough and that pushing through half-thought through
ideas was what led to this mess in the first place.
I, for one, am glad they’re trying something.
Sitting on their hands for another two years seems complacent – and that complacency
in the face of frustrated fans is no better exemplified by this Christian Horner quote:
“better to leave things alone as they are for now.
F1 is good enough for the next few years.”
“Good enough.”
I don’t think anyone in F1 should ever be satisfied with “good enough.”
You don’t charge fans £200 a ticket to watch something that’s “good enough”.
You don’t put an entire sport behind a pay wall if it’s only “good enough.”
I wasn’t happy with his word choice.
Can you tell?
But what do you think?
Should they have pushed through these interim solutions and see how they go, or grit their
teeth through the next few years until the big rule changes come in?
How do you feel about the balance between F1 being left to come up with the fastest
most innovative racing cars in the world at the (potential) expense of good racing?
If it came to it, would you rather curtail the innovation or the ability to race close
and overtake?
Let me know in the comments!
And if you’re the kind of person who uses keys to unlock things and fancy some fun F1
accessories to keep those keys together then why not get yourself some F1 All Star Key
Rings from Hayley Mulch.
They’re double-sided, good quality and cute as all hell.
The Etsy shop link is in the description!