THIS F1 LIFE
Pat Symonds on winter testing
Winter testing is a perverse activity. Engineering prowess and driver skill, the very attributes that are so lauded during the rest of the season, are carefully disguised through surreptitious throttle lifts at critical times or abnormal fuel loads and engine settings. Design features of the cars are literally kept under wraps, since rules that prohibit screens and covers are not applicable during testing.
So why do teams put so much effort into disguising true performance? And equally, why do they then spend countless hours trying to determine their rivals’ true pace? I don’t believe that any team who find themselves lower down the pecking order ups their game as a result of this analysis. They can’t. They are already working to the best of their abilities. Equally, those who feel they have an advantage don’t rest on their laurels; instead they continue the relentless development programmes that add performance week by week.
The reason for all this subterfuge and analysis is, in fact, the very essence of Formula 1. It is the highly competitive nature of all those involved that drives the desire to constantly evaluate relative performance between teams and machines. What a huge shame it is, though, that those meagre eight days of testing are not opened up and made more public, particularly in a season such as 2017 when most fans are looking toward the major changes in the rules to provide a shake up to the established hierarchy.
The effort teams have had to make to comply with the new regulations is immense. The unintended consequences go way beyond the debate about the effect of increased downforce on overtaking. It may appear simple to increase the width of bodywork by 200mm, but this change alone has meant the boxes that the bodywork is shipped in are larger and consequently significantly more costly to air freight. Increased tyre widths have not only required an outlay of hundreds of thousands of pounds on wider tyre blankets, but also the purchase of more powerful generators and, at many circuits, an uprating of the electrical supply to the pits.
I mention these two examples since, with the takeover of F1 by Liberty Media, it is likely that we are about to enter a period of change that will probably lead, year on year, to substantial transformation by 2021 as the current bilateral agreements between FOM and the teams expire. Liberty are a breath of fresh air to our sport and will, I believe, assist the FIA in bringing about considered change to both the sporting and technical regulations that will greatly enhance the popularity of our sport. That said, the challenge is immense, but with Ross Brawn guiding the changes in these areas there is a very real prospect of more competitive racing and a more sustainable business model for the teams.
Over the years, the rules governing F1 have become more numerous and more complex but many are still indeterminate. In the era of Max Mosley, I often suspected this was deliberate, since it allowed obtuse semantics to be used to steer the sport in the direction he wished. It is of course simple to both write and police a rule such as the one that determines the maximum width of the bodywork. It is far more complex to determine whether a suspension system contravenes the catch-all Article 3.15, which requires, among other things, that any specific part of the car that influences aerodynamic performance must be rigidly secured to the sprung part of the car.
These days, all parts of the suspension system affect aero performance. Long gone are the days when spring rates were chosen as part of the ride and handling equation. Today, the spring rate and non-linearity is chosen purely to obtain the required attitude of the aerodynamic platform in any given corner. This has led to some complex systems over the years. Many fans of the technical side of F1 will be aware of the
“VETTEL’S VICTORY WAS EXACTLY WHAT WE NEEDED TO PERSUADE US THAT THE DETERMINISTIC NATURE OF F1 HAD CHANGED FOR THE BETTER
ban on front-to-rear interconnected suspension in 2014, but how many are aware of the effects of such technology and indeed, considering the wider fan base, how many actually care?
Over the winter, the FIA determined that some extremely complex systems were open to question regarding compliance with Article 3.15, and this has led to numerous clarifications being fired off from the teams to the FIA both to seek reassurance that their own systems are legal while trying to flush out the complexities of their rivals’ designs. Such are the difficulties that Ross and his team at Liberty will face as they attempt to strike a balance between providing on-track entertainment while maintaining the mystique of F1 technology.
Arriving in Australia, many of us wondered if these rule clarifications were going to further mystify the conclusions drawn from testing, and, indeed, on Friday it seemed that Mercedes had been hiding potential performance because they dominated the sessions. Interestingly, they stated that they had found the good car setup that had eluded them in Barcelona, while Ferrari complained of just the opposite, having lost the balance and the performance of the car. Generally, it’s difficult to recover from deficits exposed on a Friday, but recover Ferrari did, and qualifying, although ultimately a Hamilton benefit, was every bit as close as we had been hoping for and bodes well for the coming year.
The race only reinforced our hopes. Vettel’s victory, albeit helped by Hamilton’s tyre problems coupled with the charge from Bottas, was exactly what we needed to persuade us that the deterministic nature of F1 had changed for the better. The only worry was the overtaking problem. This was best illustrated by Hülkenberg, on ultrasoft tyres, chasing down Ocon at an average of 1.51 seconds a lap. On catching him, however, he was unable to pass in spite of his Drs-assisted 12mph speed advantage.
To be fair, Ocon responded like a veteran, pushing his car to the limit and matching Hülkenberg’s earlier lap times. This is Melbourne, though, a track notorious for the difficulty of overtaking. Let’s see what other circuits bring.