![]() “We've learned from that,” says Symonds, who was technical director for Renault at the time. This allowed Brawn GP and Jenson Button to dominate the early part of the season and ultimately clinch the world championship. When the sport’s rules were overhauled in 2009 with the aim of significantly reducing downforce, three teams discovered and exploited a loophole. While they are supportive of the noble aim, once it gets down to the task of trying to make your car better than everyone else's, lap time is all that counts.”Īllison alludes to the possibility that teams will find a way around the new regulations and nullify the intended improvements. “The wit and skill of, in creating this quite restrictive layout, is now pitted against the wit and skill of the combined mass of aerodynamicists in the pit lane. “You're not worrying about the aerodynamic wake of the cars.” “I spent 40 years as a competitor and I know perfectly well that your ambition is to produce the fastest car you can, put it on pole position, lead every lap of the race and not bother about anything behind you,” says Symonds, a key figure in the Benetton/Renault team that won world titles with Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso. The project has been led by Pat Symonds, who after a long career working with a variety of teams became Formula 1's chief technical officer in 2017. The changes include a complete overhaul of the technical regulations which will visibly alter the way the cars look and, it is hoped, allow for much closer racing between them. This is one of several long-discussed issues that the sport hopes to tackle next year through a major shakeup of its rules. What sounds like a truism is in fact a very neat description of something that has dogged F1 for decades: the lack of overtaking. Take his observation that “catching is one thing, passing is quite another”. The biggest issue (for fans especially) is that despite F1 making a huge effort to listen to criticism from all corners of the sport, there doesn’t appear to be a cohesive movement towards addressing everyone’s concerns.īetter, closer racing should be the top priority moving forwards, however that particular goal has been overshadowed somewhat by the focus on improving outright speed above all else.The genius of the late Formula 1 commentator Murray Walker lay in his ability to distil a hugely complex sport into simple, memorable statements. It’s better that they’ve recognised the problems now rather than ploughed on regardless. No it doesn’t, but then these things take time. Until then, we’ll just have to be patient. We won’t know what the team’s suggestions are until they’ve completed their research, although the FIA aims to have the final regulations in place before the start of the coming season in March. It has been reported that officials now expect an improvement of three seconds per lap next year, rather than the five or six that had been hoped for originally. Having said that, plans to make tyres broader and spaced further apart remain in place at this stage, as do alterations to the shape of the front and rear wings. They have been asked to look into what effect dropping two key proposals will have on the overall package namely the planned redesign of the underfloor and the intention to widen the cars from 1400mm to 1800mm. The teams go back to the drawing board, essentially. So debating their future is, for the time being, entirely pointless. It adds weight to the claim that Pirelli aren’t up to the job, although few envy the task they have been set by the FIA.īuilding compounds which combine high performance with a range of different lifespans is desperately tricky, and it’s hard to come across as an expert when by design your product is required to be less good than is physically possible.Īnd in any case, they have a contract to supply tyres until 2019. ![]() The long-term worry is that they have essentially said they cannot meet their brief based on the planned tyre dimensions for 2017, which will be frustrating to those who think the sport would be better off with a provider like Michelin. ![]() ![]() It has something to do with Pirelli, but it’s not entirely their fault. ![]()
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