2020 F1 Preview
The final season of the fastest racing missiles the world has ever witnessed is about to fire away. From next year onwards, new regulations will slow F1 cars down. Strap yourselves in for an exhilarating 2020 ride!
It was only testing, for sure. And we also know, from David Coulthard, that the babble only stops when the flag drops. Racing cars have to be driven in anger, afore we judge.
In this year’s battle for F1 honours, that particular moment will arrive in Melbourne, Australia, on March 15. That’s some way off from where we were when the piece you’re reading was written. In fact, we had to pen it directly after the first pre-season test in Barcelona.
Here we go then, without the benefit of the second test, which has since been run…
MERC IS STRONG
Mercedes looked strong. Seeing that F1 regulations will undergo a revolution for the 2021 season, the Big Wigs kept them pretty stable for 2020, which naturally played into the reigning champions’ hands.
The long-wheelbase/low-rake W11 thus sports a familiar look. Merc also seemed to have stuck to last year’s aero regime with a fully loaded front wing arrangement at the outboard ends (just inside the endplates).
Contrast this to Ferrari’s front wing with elements swooping upwards close to the nose cone and then dropping away as they reach out to the endplates, and it is clear that Merc and Ferrari have developed different aero philosophies. Merc emphasizes front wing load; Ferrari concentrates on air wash-out around the front wheels to benefit straight-line speed, even though it contributed to a lack of front-end bite which hampered Vettel, in particular, until a cure was found in Singapore 2019.
The big visual difference between Merc’s W11 and last year’s W10, however, is sidepods mounted a lot further back, creating more distance for air travelling from the front wing to re-attach to the car’s bodywork on its rearward journey, thus generating more airspeed on exit and therefore stronger underbody suction for higher cornering speeds.
Merc’s tech chief, James Allison, is also excited about the new rear suspension layout.
WILL DAS BE ALLOWED?
What grabbed the attention, though, was a new system called DAS (Dual-Axis Steering). Down the straights, Merc drivers would pull the steering wheel towards their chests to straighten out the front wheels’ toe-out (effectively putting more rubber on the road to curb inside-edge scrub wear, improve tyre warm-up, increase straight-line stability and gain speed), whilst the steering wheel would, at the appropriate moment, be pushed back to effect toe-out again (for better cornering).
This all hangs together with camber and castor angles, obviously, but seeing that the FIA has deemed DAS to be legal, Merc seems to have stolen a march on the rest, as McLaren did with their F-duct in 2010.
The benefit will clearly not be as big as Brawn’s double diffuser in 2009, or Renault’s mass dampers in 2006, or McLaren’s brake steer in 1997, not to mention Gordon Murray’s fan car or numerous inventions by Colin Chapman, back in the day.
All of these clever solutions – including Tyrrell’s 1976 six-wheeler – were banned at some point, with Renault’s mass dampers (and Williams and McLaren’s 2003 Michelin tyres) taking their respective hits slap bang in the middle of a season when it became clear that it would threaten Michael Schumacher’s F1 domination.
Will DAS also be banned? Definitely from 2021 onwards – and there is a chance that it might not pass scrutineering this year, depending on whether the stewards interpret the system as part of steering, or as part of the suspension.
After months and months of giving the thumbs up to mass dampers in 2006, the FIA suddenly
classified it as a movable aero device, even though the dampers were obviously nestled underneath solid bodywork.
So, one never knows.
FERRARI AND RED BULL
Ferrari and Red Bull will no doubt take an extreme interest in DAS.
In contrast to the last couple of Red Bulls, Adrian Newey’s latest RB16 looked sharp out of the box. Both Verstappen and Albon reported it to be easier to drive than the 2019 mount.
Verstappen, in fact, might just be Hamilton’s toughest obstacle in the Brit’s pursuit of equalling Schumacher’s seven world titles. Along with Ferrari’s 22 year-young Charles Leclerc, the Dutchman (born two weeks earlier than Leclerc in 1997) undoubtedly represents the future of the game.
The Verstappen-Leclerc battle, therefore, promises as much as a Verstappen-Hamilton duel.
Yet, in Leclerc’s red corner there was just a hint of worry about Maranello’s SF1000, so named as the Scuderia will complete their 1000th F1 race in 2020. The car certainly looks the business, being long and sleek and sinuous, with a highly raked stance, a la Red Bull. According to team principal Mattia Binotto, “the entire car has been packaged to create a slim and narrow body shape, with a lot of work done on the power unit, not only packaging but also performance-wise to cope with this year’s prescribed 50% reduction in oil consumption”.
This very reduction could strike at the heart of Ferrari’s breath-taking straight-line speed superiority over the last two years. Not for nothing did the FIA find Leclerc’s car to be in contravention of oil capacity regulations at last year’s final GP.
And yes, Vettel did blow up a new V6 in the first pre-season test.
CONCLUSION
The rest will be a battle for midfield honours between a revamped Renault, a resurgent McLaren and possibly even the erstwhile Force India (since last year known as Racing Point, but on its way to race as Aston Martin in 2021), all followed by Alfa Romeo, Haas and AlphaTauri (or Toro Rosso in a previous life), with Williams hoping to elevate itself from the bottom of the pack.
Yet, the fundamental issues will be whether Honda can now truly run, in terms of power and reliability, with the big boys, so that Verstappen can mix it with the Mercs; and whether the SF1000 will do Italy proud?
Strap yourselves in, then. On March 15, we’re about to find the beginnings of an answer.