CLOSER RACING
For a long time, both fans and drivers have wanted cars that can race more easily. How many times have we seen a driver quickly hunt down a rival only to be slowed down by the dirty air thrown off the car in front?
Following cars often need a pace advantage of 1.5 seconds a lap to be able to challenge to overtake and as the field is so competitive, the common outcome is a procession until tyre life becomes the limiting factor.
If a following car can get close enough, the rear-wing opening Drag Reduction System helps overtaking, but in reality DRS is a sticking plaster over a much bigger problem. While it will continue into 2022, detailed research shows how much the aero issue needed fixing.
“The current generation of cars have a wake that is very damaging for the following car,” says Tombazis. “So we have been studying ways in which the wake of the front car can be pushed upwards so when the rear car is following it has a cleaner flow. That involves readdressing all the structures of the aerodynamic flow around the car.”
When the current F1 car is running seven car lengths behind another it loses 21% of its overall downforce. At three car lengths that increases to a 32% deficit and at one car length nearly half of its performance is lost by the turbulent air.
By contrast, simulation for the new 2022 chassis predicts a loss of only 2% performance at seven car lengths, increasing only to 6% at three car lengths and just 14% at one car length. This change is primarily through harnessing ground effect more powerfully. Underneath the new car, the diffuser will run from the front of the sidepods to the back with twin venturi tunnels on each side. It will mean the wake of dirty air a car produces will be lifted higher into the air so the car following will be less influenced and can sit closer behind.
Inevitably designers will want to claw as much performance back as they develop their machines, but that isn’t too much of a concern to F1’s tech chief Pat Symonds.
“Even if they develop the downforce and erode a little [of our efforts] we’ll still going to have a car which is much more raceable than the current car,” he says.
Plus the introduction of an 18-inch wheel and lower profile tyre has a twofold effect. The first is to make the cars look more modern (current Formula 2 cars have already made the transition) and secondly, a stiffer sidewall will further simplify the aerodynamic wake coming off the wheels, which should make airflow around the car more manageable.