CHAPTER 1: WHAT FREEZE?
If you thought this would be a stopgap season before the new formula arrives in 2022, think again. There’s going to be a frantic scramble to claw back performance lost to new aerodynamic restrictions – and it’s all within the rules…
What are the 2021 aero rules and what can a team change with tokens? Plus: budget caps, windtunnel limits and tyres
As the COVID-19 pandemic sank its teeth into the calendar and finances last year, F1’s stakeholders quickly agreed a package of survival measures. As a number of teams reported financial stress, F1 and the FIA deferred by 12 months the introduction of the all-new formula originally planned for 2021 – and announced curbs on development which would keep performance and expenditure in line.
But this doesn’t amount to an all-out freeze – because that would be unfair, essentially ‘baking in’ the existing pecking order and not giving the midfielders and tail-enders the opportunity to catch up. Preserving the competitive element while shielding the less wealthy teams from further difficulty has been a difficult balancing act – and one complicated by the tyre situation.
Pirelli has had to make its tyres more hardwearing to cope with increasing car performance, but the results haven’t always satisfied the competitors. After testing the proposed 2020 compounds late in 2019 and receiving poor driver feedback, the teams unanimously rejected them. Carrying the 2019-spec tyres on into last season seemed like a good idea at the time, since it would enable Pirelli to focus fully on the shift to 18-inch wheels called for in the forthcoming technical reboot – but the chaotic scenes in the final laps of the British GP demonstrated the cars were on the edge of what the tyres could handle.
The solution has been to implement four key aerodynamic rule changes to reduce downforce – and the demands on the tyres – by 10%. While a long list of structural and mechanical areas of the cars have been ‘frozen’, subject to a token-based exemption system, aerodynamic development will be allowed, subject to carefully defined limits. By the end of 2021, car performance is expected to return to where it was at the end of 2020 but
hopefully with a tighter competitive spread.
“Aerodynamics are still not heavily controlled by tokens,” says Alphatauri technical director Jody Egginton. “I don’t think the tokens are a differentiator on aerodynamic concept, and it’s aero that’s still king. Everyone will use their tokens for something, but I don’t think that’s the key differentiator to decide the order.”
The aerodynamic rule changes may seem subtle but they could have far-reaching effects. The most visible difference will be the side and rear of the floor, which must now be flat – none of those vortex-generating slots are allowed – and taper by 100mm from a point 1800mm behind the front axle line. Between the rear wheels, the diffuser ‘fences’ must be 50mm shorter, and the width of the winglets on the rear brake ducts has been capped at 40mm. It may be too much to expect these changes to shake up the field hugely, but they’ve got a number of teams worried.
“It’ll definitely affect some people more than others,” says Mercedes chief designer John Owen. “But as to who those people will be, I think it’s a bit of a lottery. Taking a hacksaw to a car is generally quite an unscientific approach and it’s not going to be even across the teams. We know that we’ve seen a big reduction in performance…”
A new handicap system based on the
2020 constructors’ championship will allow backmarker teams to deploy more aerodynamic research resources than the frontrunners. For several years now, F1’s Sporting Regulations have included provisions which cap how many ‘runs’ can be performed in the windtunnel, and how long the tunnel can be on for – and the facility occupied. Computational Fluid Dynamics research is also restricted by time and computing power. This cap has been reduced but, under the new system, teams which are lagging will be permitted to use more resources than the leaders. While the differences are slight this year – just 2.5% per position (see table) – there’s room to change as F1’s rulemakers assess its impact.