Horner appears to have bought Alpine, and sacked the entire senior management and technical team!
That’ll be fun as they’re switching to Mercedes engines and gearboxes this year.
Toto might give him a four cylinder diesel…
Anybody posting about Michael Schumacher’s death (as posted on Social Media), do some research, give your head a wobble, then expect a ban.
This season will develop in a most interesting way IMO.
Firstly the probably biggest rule change for the chassis since skirts got banned from 1983 and also a significant engine rule change.
The aero changes are probably far more suited to the current way of working than ground effect was. In a competiion with almost no track testing having rules which were extremely sensitive to aero-elasticity led to most teams being shocked by, and some never mastering, porpoising because it is not predicted by either CFD or wind tunnel testing.
Also having aero super sensitive to areas where mesh size is crucial and limiting CFD running meant the theoretical analyses were pretty untrustworthy from day 1 but most, probably all younger than Adrian Newey, would not have expected what they got.
These rules are pretty insensitive to height effects on floor flow and aero-elasticity so there is a better chance the engineers get what they expect IMO, and that simulation can be closer to reality in the aero map.
The engine rule leading to more use of electricity will be fascinating too. An electric motor is in all objective ways superior to a piston engine so it will be interesting how they deploy the combination. Lots for both engineers and drivers to optimise.
Lovely but maybe a fair bit slower lap times but faster and less stable on the straight bits.
I very much hope it is good.
Been watching Ted Kravitz’ talking heads roundups of the Barcelona testing, and the driver reactions vary between enthused and downright bubbling - within the constraints of what PR will allow them to say - leaving the impression that from their POV these cars are more entertaining to drive, which from this side of the screen should help with the entertainment factor.
Impressed that RBR seem to have hit the ground running with their ‘Ford’ branded powerplant, too. Dropping the MGU-H I suppose simplifies things somewhat, with presumed gains in reliability?
I think dropping the MGU-H simplifies but mainly changes things. Instead of the MGU-H charging the battery on the straight once boost is at the planned level the engine itself will have to do it via its generator.
There is absolutely no chance to recuperate enough energy and charge only during braking at 5g for a few seconds.
Ironically despite having dropped MGU-H because it was too complex to ever go on a road car Porsche now have 2 models using one.
It will be very interesting to see how the PUs compare when racing. Keeping the battery in its temperature window whilst using maximum electrical power will probably the most difficult to keep on top of.
One big mistake most enthusiasts and many competitors make is to assume having the fastest car over one lap is more important than it is.
That is partly because having the fastest car is difficult and many people have never worked in a team with one, and partly the way qualifying is broadcast and drivers (David Coultard) bang on about how much fun the qualifying lap is.
In reality having the fastest car is simply the top of the cliff at the beginning of a long climb to the peak of the world championship, and there are plenty more peaks to conquer yet that many people have never seen or been aware of.
A lot of this involves reliability and strategic operation you only really learn about after your car is quick enough to win.
The new rules will make this a much bigger deal IMO. Doing one quick lap won’t need anywhere near as much difficult engineering as doing a successful race because of battery deployment. It will be interesting to see who can manage that best!
A good breakdown of the effect of the new technical rules is given in the document that can be viewed through this link:
Further to Frank’s comments, I am expecting to see a lot of variation in performance from race circuit to race circuit as well qualifying to race.
Maybe by the end of the year teams will have optimised their cars and and their strategic operation enough to make for a bit more predictable racing.
Excellent link!
