It’d be easy to dismiss the claims that Formula 1’s 2021 regulations will transform the sport, given how little they’ve previously affected the overall spectacle. We’re still graced with a sport featuring a trio of top teams, a chasing pack and consistent backmarkers held back by comparably minuscule budgets. But there’s real hope for 2021 because the team behind the incoming new batch of rules includes F1 managing director Ross Brawn and technical director Pat Symonds – both former title winners – and, finally, it includes the introduction of a proper cost cap. FIA president Jean Todt calls it a "gamechanger".
F1’s Single Seater Technical Matters team has been working specifically to craft new F1 regulations in order to address the sport’s present racing problems. That includes the inability for a car to follow another closely and the negative effects that has on the racing spectacle. It’s been a virtually unfixable issue since the dawn of high downforce cars, but F1’s boffins believe the 2021 regs have finally cracked the problem by throwing the culprit - dirty air - skywards, rather than directly into the path of the chasing car (as shown below).
The numbers are very promising, as we’re told to expect a 5-10 per cent reduction in downforce for the second car rather than the 50 per cent plus suffered by today’s machines. At this stage, it seems the ever-controversial Drag Reduction System will remain, but Brawn has repeatedly stated his intentions to fix F1’s aero challenges to the extent that it can one day be dropped for a purer spectacle. That should please lots of people – ditto the new shape of cars that the regs are predicted to create. The demonstration one is quite the looker.
While this new aesthetic is intended to enable closer racing, a $175 million (£135m) cost cap – written into a new F1 Financial Regulations document – is expected to really mix things up. Mercedes has spent comfortably more than twice that on its last two championship campaigns, so the top teams might feel a big pinch compared to the grid’s smaller entrants. Haas, for example, spent $130m last year, so it’s probably fair to assume the budget cap won’t be causing its finance team any headaches. The cap does exclude money spent on engines, as well as salaries and marketing expenses, so the big teams might still be able to lure in the best drivers and motors. But as far as chassis and aerodynamics go, it’s a step in the right direction.
Along with those rather drastic measures, the sport’s continued efforts to bring fans closer to the action has also encouraged the potentially tacky inclusion of LED illuminated wheel covers. They’ll illustrate race information – possibly the car’s track position – much like the illuminated bits seen on World Endurance Championship racers. Handy, but also another example of how those visually purer days of V8, V10 and V12 racers are long gone. F1 is set as much for an image overhaul as it is a regulatory reshape. But that’s in 2021; for now, Lew’s on for his sixth World Drivers' Championship title…
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