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De wagens voor 2009 zijn totaal andere machines dan de Formule 1 wagens uit recente jaren. De nieuwe vorm is serieus beïnvloed door de nog nooit geziene wijziging van de reglementen. Voor het eerst in de Formule 1 werd de ervaring van piloten, designers en zelfs windtunnels ingezet om de effecten van de nieuwe reglementeringen te bepalen vooraleer ze werden ingevoerd. Het zijn de eerste waarin zoveel input van de teams zit en er staan dus hoge verwachtingen.
Grondige herziening voor aerodynamische regels Inhaalmaneuvres zijn al lang een heikel punt binnen de F1 en de laatste jaren is het er niet op verbeterd. De mogelijke oplossing hiervan werd besproken op de OWG, de overtaking working group. De OWG is gevormd door Charlie Whiting nadat beslist werd dat het bespreken ervan in de algemene technische werkgroep te moeilijk was omdat er teveel mensen bij betrokken waren. In de OWG werd er een afgevaardigde voor elk van de drie topteams uitgenodigd, voor McLaren Paddy Lowe, Pat Symonds vertegenwoordigde Renault en Rory Byrne werd door Ferrari gestuurd. Alledrie gerespecteerde en ervaren ontwerpers in de F1 die met gezond verstand over de zaken wilden beslissen. Het team ging snel aan het werk en maakte gebruik van McLaren's simulator en Pedro de la Rosa om verschillende configuraties uit te testen om te kijken hoe inhalen makkelijker kon worden. Ze zagen snel dat wanneer de aerodynamica gehalveerd werd, dan de inhaalkans groter werd en uiteindelijk werd het voordeel op het rechte stuk van het Circuit van Catalunya in Barcelona teruggebracht van 2s naar 1s per ronde. Dit heeft tot gevolg dat een piloot die een seconde per ronde sneller is een goede kans maakt om zijn voorligger in te halen. By using wind tunnel research it was also quickly found that earlier regulation measures taken to reduce downforce also dramatically worsened overtaking possibilities. In fact, one OWG member stated: “If we had wanted to make overtaking chances worse, that was what we would have come up with.”, confirming what many fans were convinced of without the use of a wind tunnel. At the same time, the central down wash wing designed by Nick Wirth also proved ineffective in the wind tunnel, contradicting computer simulations of the split rear wing design.
The result is a lower and wider front wing, a higher and smaller rear wing and a ban on aerodynamic appendages on the car's body. Out of the many aerodynamic configurations that were tried, the resulting rules proved to be a good compromise between improving overtaking opportunities while still making it not too easy.
Finally, the team also agreed that the simplest way to address the lack of tyre grip would be the reintroduction or slick tyres after requiring for 11 years that cars would have 4 lengthwise grooves along the tyre's thread.
Taking on the engine to reduce costsApart from the OWG, Max Mosley, President of the FIA has fuelled for even more changes in light of cost reduction. Strengthened by the recent economic crisis and the unsustainable running costs of Formula One. While many plans had already been made to make cuts, the matters were urged by the withdrawal of Honda from Formula One, exactly because of those financial setbacks – added by the fact that Honda was spending a whole lot more during 2008 as it tried to move up the pecking order again.
One of the earliest problems identified as a stopper for the future of Formula One was the availability of high performance engines for privately owned teams. It was well understood that the cost for buying an F1 engine from one of the manufacturers was too expensive (estimated at 15m Euro a year). Unsurprisingly, it was Williams, backed by its heritage in the sport, that lobbied to have something done about it. It was agreed by the teams that any engine manufacturer will make it possible to sell F1 engines at the cost of 5m Euro a year, including all running costs. Such price was however only possible by further limitations on maximum rpm - reduced from 19000 to 18000 - to increase the engine's lifespan.
Williams F1 CEO Adam Parr was quoted as saying “Williams' view is that we have to cut costs as a sport. That view is shared by almost everybody else. The single biggest cost for an independent team of manufacturer is the engine, so we have to do something about it. When we froze the engine for five years it was a massive mistake, a massive mistake. We froze a very expensive engine, and the thinking at the time was that it was not a performance differentiator and therefore you could freeze it. Subsequently it turned out that maybe it was a performance differentiator, or it has become a performance differentiator, and therefore you cannot have a frozen engine.”
The agreement by FOTA to supply engines at the 5m Euro cost was the result of Max Mosley, who on his behalf has been pushing hard to introduce some form of a standard engine. It is likely that such a formula – including a single manufacturer but still allowing the teams to build their own engines according to the spec – will eventually make its entrance into Formula One as of 2010. The plan is to continue with that formula until the introduction of a completely new, small capacity and more fuel efficient engine in 2013.
Cost cuts aside of the trackApart from the technical changes, the least visible for the fans will be the measures taken to reduce operating costs of a Formula One team. Most involved parties have come to realise that spending more than a million Euro per day, year after year to run 2 cars was a little out of proportion.
As such, the World motor sport council met with FOTA on 12 December at Monaco and agreed upon the following measures:
- Testing has been severely reduced from 30,000 to 15,000 km/year. All this testing will have to happen between 1 January and 7 days before the first Grand Prix of the season, as in-season and post-season testing are now banned completely. It is already widely known that this measure will reduce the workforce for most teams. Williams for instance is said to be investigating who it deems most necessary in its team as it aims to cut away the testing crew as a whole, since the race team can now do the early season testing.
- Wind tunnel testing was limited to 40 hours/week. This used to be an unlimited parameter and resulting in several teams running its wind tunnel 24 hours, 7 days a week in 3 shifts of 8 working hours. Some teams did however protest against this idea as they had just invested in a secondary wind tunnel. Max Mosley meanwhile stated that these costs are in the past, cannot be undone and cannot be a reason to keep spending at the same rate.
- No wind tunnel exceeding 60% scale and 50 m/s or 180 km/h to be used after 1 January 2009.
- Factory closures for six weeks per year, to accord with local laws.
- Manpower to be reduced by means of a number of measures, including sharing information on tyres and fuel to eliminate the need for “spotters”.
The WMSC has estimated that all these measures should reduce the manufactuer teams' budgets by 30% and even more so for the independent ones.
In the next part of this series, we will look thoroughly in the new aerodynamic regulations that spell a major change in Formula One. |
World Series by Renault 
