Have System 1’s new guidelines this 12 months broken its standing as the final word problem for a racing driver?
Hearken to the game’s high drivers, and it will be simple to get that impression.
“Not System 1,” says Max Verstappen of the necessity to handle vitality within the new vehicles. “Ridiculously complicated,” says Lewis Hamilton. “The chef might drive the automobile at that velocity,” says Fernando Alonso. “Not the purest type of driving,” says Lando Norris.
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When the game’s 4 energetic world champions make feedback like that, it will be silly to not pay attention.
However earlier than leaping to a conclusion that F1 has been ruined by what quantities to the largest rule change within the sport’s historical past, it is essential to determine a body of reference.
What, in essence, is the job of a racing driver? It’s to get a automobile round a race observe within the shortest doable time.
In its purest kind, this implies braking as late as doable for a nook, driving round it on the highest achievable velocity, exiting it as quick as one can and reaching the very best velocity on the straight earlier than doing the identical once more, lap after lap.
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However that is not what a racing driver does on a regular basis. It could actually’t be. The way in which they drive on a qualifying lap, for instance, isn’t the identical as over a 200-mile grand prix distance.
Tyres and gas have to be managed, there may be issues with the automobile to have in mind, and so forth. That is nonetheless getting the automobile across the observe as quick as doable, but it surely’s doing so inside the constraints offered on the time. Flat out in motorsport is simply typically.
So when Verstappen, Alonso and co discuss concerning the diploma of vitality administration required with this 12 months’s new hybrid engines, are they saying that they’re now not ever driving on the restrict of grip within the corners?
Finally week’s pre-season take a look at in Bahrain, I requested that query to the entire above drivers, in addition to Mercedes’ George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, and Haas’ Oliver Bearman. All of them stated they had been nonetheless on the restrict of the grip the overwhelming majority of the time, that ability nonetheless mattered, {that a} quicker driver would nonetheless beat a slower one.
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The brand new vehicles have much less downforce than final 12 months, in order that they have much less grip, however the drivers are nonetheless on the restrict of that grip within the corners.
Bearman stated: “Some corners on this observe, which had been final 12 months limitations or locations that you’ve got to pay attention to, usually are not actually corners any extra, they’re extra power-limited. Like Flip 12 and Flip Seven.
“So that you do change the best way that you simply method these corners. And the place final 12 months Flip 12 you had been 40km/h quicker this 12 months, it is not likely a nook any extra. And that may be a bit unusual.
“However for the remainder, you are still pushing to the restrict even when the restrict is a bit decrease in the intervening time. However it’s not feeling out of this world. As soon as we get used to the variations in some corners, you simply adapt your driving model. After which it appears like regular.”
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The steadiness of going flat-out and ‘harvesting’
Max Verstappen in his Crimson Bull throughout pre-season testing in Bahrain, the place the slower corners permit drivers to get well vitality extra simply than quicker circuits [Getty Images]
McLaren workforce principal Andrea Stella has an intimate data of what it takes to be a high driver, having labored as a race engineer with Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and Alonso. He’s additionally on this matter for the nice of the game.
He says: “What we have seen in Bahrain undoubtedly confirms that it is the final problem.
“In all probability it is because Bahrain is a harvest-rich circuit, so that you drive in a really regular manner. And if something with these laws the vehicles slide fairly much more and the position of the motive force if something is much more concerned in extracting probably the most out of the automobile.
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“Barcelona was a barely totally different scenario as a result of, being a comparatively harvest-poor circuit, there have been some particular manoeuvres that wanted to be made, like not being flat-out in high-speed (corners) with a view to steadiness the extent of harvesting and produce the quickest lap time. That meant that in Barcelona not essentially you could possibly be on the quickest velocity in high-speed corners.”
Stella’s remarks seek advice from the drivers’ have to carry out what McLaren’s Oscar Piastri has described as “counter-intuitive” driving strategies.
The mixture of a close to 50-50 cut up between the interior combustion engine (ICE) and electrical parts, 3 times the quantity {of electrical} energy in contrast with final 12 months’s engines and a battery about the identical dimension means the brand new engines are vitality starved.
With the battery emptying itself inside about 11 seconds of full energy, it’s emptying and being recharged continuously round a lap. The engineers need to work out how greatest to deploy no matter vitality they will get well by way of a lap for the optimum efficiency.
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This has led to unnatural strategies, corresponding to not accelerating at full velocity out of a nook earlier than beginning a qualifying lap till a way down the straight, selecting to not deploy vitality for optimum velocity in some high-speed corners, even not deploying on the straight on the finish of a qualifying lap as a result of the vitality was higher used exiting a nook elsewhere on the lap.
Different energy-recovery duties embrace:
Raise and coast, a characteristic for a few years, the place drivers raise off for a short while earlier than making use of the brakes for a nook
Utilizing a decrease gear than could be optimum for efficiency in corners so the turbo could be saved spooling quick to recharge the battery
‘Tremendous clip’, the place the electrical motor is run in opposition to the engine at full velocity on the straights to restoration vitality
However how a lot of a distinction is that this actually making?
BBC Sport has seen a telemetry information overlay of a fast lap from Bahrain with final 12 months’s vehicles in contrast with one from this 12 months.
There are variations. The sluggish corners are actually taken barely quicker, the fast ones barely slower. Acceleration is initially a lot quicker, however so is the speed at which it tails off afterward the straights. The lap time is a few seconds slower total – as is all the time supposed within the case of an F1 guidelines reset. However basically, the traces look very comparable.
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And on observe? Effectively, they nonetheless appear to be F1 vehicles, is the underside line. It takes a really nicely educated eye to note the variations.
Why overtaking is predicted to be tough
Melbourne’s Albert Park, which phases the season-opening Australian Grand Prix from 6-8 March, is an energy-starved circuit due to its lengthy straights and fewer braking zones [EPA]
However, there may be an ongoing debate in F1 as as to whether the brand new vehicles have moved the game too distant from the purity of the driving problem, and a few suppose adjustments might be made to cut back the degrees of vitality administration.
In the meanwhile, the speed of vitality restoration with the ‘tremendous clip’ – frankly, jargon that might be higher avoided public consumption due to the potential for confusion – could be performed at a most of 250kw.
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However the engines are able to recovering vitality at 350kw, and achieve this when a driver has lifted off the throttle. So why not allow them to try this when flat out?
One other proposal is to cut back the output of {the electrical} a part of the engine, presently restricted to 350kw (470bhp), to about 300kw (402bhp) and even 250kw (335bhp). The thought being to chop total energy however permit it to be utilized for longer, to make driving really feel extra pure.
Going even additional, some would want to improve the quantity of gas the engine is allowed to make use of, and rebalance the ratio between the ICE and electrical, maybe to 65:35 or 70:30.
The opposing view is that these final two would require wholesale adjustments to the engine design and different points of the automobile corresponding to gear ratios. Opponents additionally argue it will not have the impact required.
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A associated drawback is the brand new ‘overtake’ button. This replaces the drag discount system (DRS) overtaking help, which now not exists as a result of each entrance and rear wings open on the straights, a part of a sequence of tweaks made as a consequence of the brand new engine method.
‘Overtake’ mode offers the drivers with electrical vitality for longer. It doesn’t create extra energy or, as DRS used to, extra velocity. Because of this, overtaking is predicted to be tough.
Herein lies one other argument for decreasing {the electrical} output to 300kw – then, the remaining 50kw might be used for overtake mode.
An added complication is that the circuits all require totally different ranges of vitality administration.
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In Bahrain, the above strategies had been not likely wanted as a result of there are quite a lot of braking phases into sluggish corners to get well vitality in the usual manner.
However Albert Park, which hosts the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on 8 March, is an energy-starved circuit, and raise and coast and tremendous clip are anticipated to be wanted extensively, even in qualifying.
Melbourne joins Saudi Arabia, Austria, Silverstone, Monza, Azerbaijan and Las Vegas among the many worst circuits for vitality – tracks with lengthy straights however not a lot facility to get well in braking zones.
The groups are in ongoing discussions about whether or not to take motion, and in that case, what kind it ought to take, with governing physique the FIA and F1.
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Stella says: “Undoubtedly there might nonetheless be circumstances through which the motive force must method driving in what isn’t a standard manner – (the place) we simply drive as flat as doable, brake as late as doable, go as quick as doable in each nook.
“On the subject of enhancing the steadiness between the laws of their present format, and another driving challenges, there may be time to repair this.
“For example, there’s a manner of fixing the best way through which we deploy {the electrical} engine such that this requirement to do these particular manoeuvres is decreased.
“So there are issues that may be performed sooner or later, however I feel we should always monitor somewhat bit extra in another circuits (earlier than deciding what to do).”
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