First race over...is the new formula a success?

[digitalrurouni]

Perhaps I expected too much but I didn't think the new cars are that spectacular. They're different to look at which is nice. I'm liking the visual appeal but they really look like elephants skating on ice especially in low speed. The front wheels look too big and the rear view of the car is not aesthetically pleasing at all. I don't like the wheels with the slab like hubs devoid of any character. I think the cars could follow a bit better but other than that it didn't look like the tires could hold up at all. Still too much tire preservation going on. Early days but so far color me as not impressed. I'm sure Ross Brawn has a lot of data so he's touring it a success but it seems par for the course.

Thoughts?

[Big Tea]

Perhaps I expected too much but I didn't think the new cars are that spectacular. They're different to look at which is nice. I'm liking the visual appeal but they really look like elephants skating on ice especially in low speed. The front wheels look too big and the rear view of the car is not aesthetically pleasing at all. I don't like the wheels with the slab like hubs devoid of any character. I think the cars could follow a bit better but other than that it didn't look like the tires could hold up at all. Still too much tire preservation going on. Early days but so far color me as not impressed. I'm sure Ross Brawn has a lot of data so he's touring it a success but it seems par for the course.

Thoughts?

It looked like truck racing without the smoke. Without the read out I had no idea at all how fast they were and I cannot imagine watching from ground level at Maggots Beckets and being blown away this year.

[hollus]

What was the lap time improvement after 1 year last time we had completely new aero regs? I am just wondering what would Bahrain 2023 look like. That would be a more fair comparison.

[AeroDynamic]

too soon to say about following. I've no doubt the DF is better for drivers when following but is it better enough? waiting to see.
I like looking at the cars but watching them race in motion didn't look very.. animated or agile? again, I'll wait and see after more races but this is a concern. They do look slow.
jury is out on the new tyres for me, but Bahrain is very aggressive on tyres? guess we'll see on more circuits.

[LM10]

We're in the very early stages of a hugely different aero formula. The cars will improve in every quality quite rapidly and they will be and look much faster around slow corners as well.

[wogx]

What was the lap time improvement after 1 year last time we had completely new aero regs? I am just wondering what would Bahrain 2023 look like. That would be a more fair comparison.

Bahrain 2015 - penultimate race of old regs there

PP - Lewis Hamilton (1:32,570, Mercedes)
FL (in race) - Kimi Räikkönen (1:36,311, Ferrari)

Bahrain 2016 - last race of old regs, elimination qualifying

PP - Lewis Hamilton (1:29,493, Mercedes)
FL - Nico Rosberg (1:34,482, Mercedes)

PP delta : -3,077
FL delta : -1,829

Bahrain 2017 - first race of new regs

PP - Valtteri Bottas (1:28,769, Mercedes)
FL - Lewis Hamilton (1:32,798, Mercedes)

Bahrain 2018 - second race of new regs

PP - Sebastian Vettel (1:27,958, Ferrari)
FL - Valtteri Bottas (1:33,740, Mercedes)

PP delta : -0,811
FL delta : +0.942

[CMSMJ1]

The cars are just too heavy and large in my opinion.

Fast, technically great and so on... They looked ponderous and with the added weight they have given the tyres even more to try and cope with.

If the cars were able to refuelled then they can be lighter, smaller and run in a more agile way. That isn't going to be reintroduced though.

Too early to really sayv - but I enjoyed the race, didn't feel that it was as exciting to watch as the older and lighter cars of the previous generations.

[cooken]

Insufficient sample size to gauge success. It seems the cars can indeed follow better but if the net result is still processional races then it kind of amounts to nothing. I also think they might be disappointed with the performance gap top to bottom given the budget cap. Let's see if the inverted performance scaling works as intended. It will all take time to really judge though, like a full season or two. Patience is needed.

I will echo the size/mass concerns as well, but I think future goals are aimed at reducing these. The alternative would be making tracks bigger but that's not really practical.

[Just_a_fan]

I cannot imagine watching from ground level at Maggots Beckets and being blown away this year.

They'll still be ridiculously fast through there. From trackside, you won't be able to tell if they're 5mph slower than last year although, by Silverstone, they could be near as fast as they have been recently anyway.

I've seen several generations of modern F1 cars around Silverstone over the last 25+ years and they all look silly fast from track side when viewing through the fast corners. A second or two lap time difference is not noticeable in one or two corners when watching from track side - after all, last year the back markers would still look ridiculously fast viewed in isolation: it's only because we know they're 2 seconds a lap slower that we say "that car's slow".

[Just_a_fan]

The cars are just too heavy and large in my opinion.

Fast, technically great and so on... They looked ponderous and with the added weight they have given the tyres even more to try and cope with.

One issue appears to be that the tyres, particularly the fronts, don't like to be hustled. Brundle made some comments that the drivers were having to do more of the braking in a straight line with much less trail braking than previously. That's going to make the cars look very different in to the corners before we've even considered other aspects that have changed on the cars e.g. mass.

[DChemTech]

On the limited information we have so far:

+ closer racing seems to work
+ seemingly no single dominant team
+ many pitstops is nice.

- the gap between the top and the flop overall is still quite large. At some point it seemed that all but the top 6 could get lapped.
- there are no real surprises in pecking order. The big teams still lead, I was hoping for some unexpected teams/drivers to really be in the mix (and for some of the big teams to really be on the back foot).
- the size and weight do make cars look to sluggish.

[JordanMugen]

Yes, on balance I would say it is a success and the cars can race more closely without being affected by turbulence. Sure they are a bit clumsy, but it is what it is and there are reasons for that (discussed below).

You have to put the 18" tyres (+17kg, +1kg BBS vs OZ) aside from the other changes, as they (and that part of the extra weight) aren't part of the aerodynamic package to improve following.

- the size and weight do make cars look to sluggish.

The cars are just too heavy and large in my opinion.

The rest of the extra weight is mostly safety improvements (+20kg) and increase of cockpit size to help taller drivers, so that is non-negotiable. [I would welcome a return to V8 or V10 naturally aspirated engines to save over 70 kg (noting that power unit weight is also +1kg for 2022 to 151kg + 20kg battery) but I don't think that is going to happen!]

Without knowing the exact numbers, they have probably gone from a chassis (tub) weighing ~60kg 17-18 years ago, to ~99kg quoted by Caterham 7-8 years ago, to now weighing 120kg + 17kg halo (137kg) so that's a significant increase in safety and explains a lot of the weight increase (and from the car being underweight and running ballast, to now being overweight and not running ballast apart from the driver minimum weight ballast, driver weight itself also +5kg).

Complaining about wheelbase is futile as teams didn't agree to less than 3600mm (FIA wanted 3400mm of course), while 2000mm track width is if anything still too narrow and it should be the proper 2150mm [2150mm example 1 , 2150mm example 2]. Slightly longer control arms would make almost no difference to the weight of the car.

If we consider just the aerodynamic side of the changes, the cars can certainly race more closely, much like F2 cars, so I would say job done. The midpack was 3 to 4 cars wide on the opening lap!

18" tyres is really a different topic and not part of the aerodynamic objectives IMO. Part of the stiffness is trying to control the ride height with less tools (a good thing IMO) and part of it is the 18" tyres. It is what is. F2 cars are also quite stiff and lift wheels around Casino hairpin.

If the cars were able to refuelled then they can be lighter, smaller and run in a more agile way. That isn't going to be reintroduced though.

If there is refuelling it should be gravity-fed like other racing series and not with the, IMO, overly dangerous pressurised system introduced by Gordon Murray. But I quite like that there is no refuelling.

[Hoffman900]

Penske Racing started the pressurized deal by building a tower in the pits (got up to 20’ tall by 1969, 23 gallons in 5.5”! Got it down to 4.5” with a different legal set up), well before Gordon Murray, FYI. Penske Racing also used dry ice to cool the fuel as well to squeeze 23 gallons into a 22 gallon tank.

You can read about it here: https://vintageracecar.com/cool-fuel-pe ... efuelling/

Just another instance of Gordon getting credit for something Americans did first (the fan car (Jim Hall / skunk works GM Racing) and arguably the MP4/4 (Steve Nichols)).

As for the regs, I’m still undecided. I think the cars look ponderous and not fun and the fact they seem brake limited currently isn’t good either (Formula cars shouldn’t be cooking their brakes). Most of the drivers said overtaking was more different tire ages than the concept, so I’m open to being wrong, but not really sure yet.

[Zynerji]

If they went back to 1600mm wide cars, and kept the hydraulic suspension, this could have been unbelievable.

I'm happy for better racing though. Seeing them shuffle was way better than the normal procession.

[Andres125sx]

Well, Verstappen passed Lecrerc despite being slower, then Lecrerc passed Max, then repeat again. Past season this was unconceveible even if he was a bit faster, this season this happened twice despite being a bit slower...

What else did you expect?