Formula 1 preseason testing will begin next week with what’s billed as a low-key three-day shakedown in Barcelona for the new generation of grand prix cars. The teams will finally gain first real-world impressions of their clean-sheet creations ahead of three more test days in Bahrain next month.
But the true picture of the new competitive order – and whether the pivotal brief has been met to make these cars easier to race – will only emerge at the season opener at the same Middle Eastern venue on 20 March.
F1 has metamorphosed regularly through the World Championship’s 72-year history, but insiders reckon this regeneration is the biggest in nearly 40 years.
In late 1982, motorsport’s governing body, the FIA, pulled the rug on the F1 teams by banning ground-effect aerodynamics and ushering in a new generation of flat-bottomed F1 cars. The move was rushed through on the premise of safety, although the toxic political climate between the FIA and the British teams that had formed the Bernie Ecclestone-led Formula One Constructors’ Association (FOCA) was a dark undercurrent.
The teams were hurriedly forced to design and build cars to a whole new rulebook in a matter of weeks, most choosing to create heavily revised B-specs of their 1982 machines, shorn of their full-length sidepods.
Typically of the time, Brabham’s Gordon Murray pushed harder, designing from scratch the stunning delta-shaped BT52 – still one of the most beautiful F1 cars. His redeye approach paid off when Nelson Piquet delivered the team a hard-won world title, propelled by BMW’s potent turbocharged four-cylinder.
The teams had much more warning this time, especially as the new era was delayed a year by the pandemic, and, with fitting serendipity, ground effects are back. Motorsport is just about going around in circles? Who said that?
For years, designers, engineers and drivers have talked about the ‘dirty air’ created by surface aerodynamics thwarting F1 cars from following each other closely and making overtaking at times nearly impossible. That’s why the artificial drag reduction system (DRS) was introduced: to ‘help the show’.
Wings and the rear-wing DRS flap are still part of the new F1, but most of the downforce is now created under rather than over the cars, so following and racing closer should be easier. In theory. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating.
Join the debate
Add your comment
Sandbagging, the teams aren't going to show all their new Cars potential, they may look over the other Cars to see how they have developed their Cars, call it automotive Chess if you like, in about a Months time we'll see who has the best package, best Car, Drivers etc, I like to see more than two teams in the mix.