Track Torque: Ready, set, go for new Formula 1 season
A long and glorious year of racing is about to start.
This year’s Formula 1 season will be a completely new one in terms of regulations.
The engines, which will remain 1.6-l V6 configuration, will be much greener in that they will use 50% sustainable fuel and 50% electricity.
There will be a 300% increase in battery derived electrical power.
The energy recovered during braking has doubled and there is a manual override mode which will give a burst of extra power for overtaking.
Obviously, teams and their technicians have been busy designing and building their new cars for the last year or so.
Racing will have greater meaning to the mechanical development of cars and should be more exciting and competitive.
Cars will be smaller and lighter and tyre width will be slightly reduced.
It is expected that downforce will be reduced but there will also be a lot less aerodynamic drag.
The era of active aerodynamics is coming in and cars will have two modes – one for maximum speed and the other for maximum downforce and grip.
Everybody will have the same type of three element active rear wing and the front wing will be cleaner and narrower. Ground effects will be less.
Mercedes have arrived with a secret weapon in the form of a variable compression ratio engine.
It is thought that they have a connecting rod which grows in length as the engine reaches maximum operating temperatures.
As the stipulated compression ratio of 16 to 1 is measured cold, this item cannot be controlled and hence could give them an advantage, with compressions reaching as high as 18 to 1.
Over the last month there has been testing of the new cars in Barcelona and Bahrain.
The teams of Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull, in that order, have performed best with a lot of mileage accumulated to test reliability and performance.
Although Charles Leclerc ended up the fastest driver, Mercedes indicated they may be dominant, closely followed by McLaren and then Red Bull.
Lewis Hamilton, in the second prancing horse, showed more consistently good performances than his efforts last year.
Otherwise, I think we can expect greater competition between current world champion Lando Norris and his Australian teammate Oscar Piastri.
It will be interesting to see whether or not they can maintain the leading roles that they showed up till last year.
Red Bull have a brand new Red Bull Racing Ford power unit and may take a little time to rise back to the top of the scene.
The first race takes place in Melbourne, Australia on March 8 and, despite my above comment, I do think that results are going to be very unpredictable until later in the season when a pattern should start to emerge.
The new Aston Martin team has had a dreadful debut with a complete lack of reliability and, so far, is the greatest disappointment of the field.
I do hope that their fortunes change for the better soon as so much had been expected from the brilliant designer Adrian Newey and the new Honda power plant.
The new Audi team has showed a lot of promise as well as interesting technology. They will also need time to promote their car to the top half of the field.
There will now be 11 teams each with two cars, following the addition of Cadillac and Audi (formerly Sauber).
TEAMS
McLaren: Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Mercedes: George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.
Red Bull: Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar.
Ferrari: Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.
Williams: Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz.
Racing Bulls: Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad.
Aston Martin: Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.
Haas: Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman.
Audi: Nico Hulkenberg and Gariel Bortoleto.
Alpine: Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto.
Cadillac: Valterri Bottas and Sergio Perez.
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