The world of Formula One is fast paced and ever changing. During a single lap the team’s collect thousands of data points from the car via the telemetry systems they use. This is relayed across the world to computers back at HQ and a team of analysts who make instant decisions regarding strategy and car setup.
Yet despite the immediacy of racing Formula One cars the sport also has a long term programme which looks to the future development of the car and power unit design together with sporting regulations to improve the racing. And it is here where the greatest inertia in the sport is often most noticeable.
FIA behind the curve
Having failed to agree on new power units for the 2021 season, the F1 commission comprising of the teams, the FIA and FOM agreed to initiate big aerodynamic changes for 2022. These we’re radical and possibly the biggest in the sport’s 74 year history.
The aerodynamic effect of downforce was reduced by 50% from the surfaces on top of the car and ground effect – utilising airflow under the car – was reintroduced to compensate. Even now in its third year the solutions to theses new rules decided upon by the teams in their car design are in their infancy.
Red Bull with their guru designer Adrian Newey have clearly stolen a march on the rest of the field as they have broken the eight year dominance staked by Mercedes. It is likely the Milton Keynes squad will remain top of the pile this year and into next give the advantage they have over the rest of the F1 competitors.
The next opportunity to shake up the order will be in 2026 when revised power units are introduced along with more significant aerodynamic changes to the cars again.
Sketchy aero rules loom large
Over the last decade and a half the FIA has beefed up its technical department and now better understands the implication of design regulation changes and how the F1 teams will interpret them. Gone are the days when rules were brought in and the the sport’s governing body would rely on teams to inform them by way of protest that others were straying beyond the boundaries.
Yet it is an enormously difficult task even with the co-operation of the teams to anticipate the exact result of big rule changes. Even a team like Mercedes failed miserably to anticipate side effects of the 2022 ground effect rules and their car bounced miserably for the almost half a season.
Next up we have the big regulation changes coming in 2026. The power units will run 100% bio fuels and increase the electrical output by almost double to deliver around 50% of the F1 car’s power. Included in these changes will be a brand new approach to aerodynamics which will allow a number of moveable aerodynamic pieces of bodywork designed to make following another car and overtaking even easier.
Whilst the power unit specifications for 2026 are pretty much nailed down, there is little yet agreed on how the dynamic aero parts will work. One concept considered was to handicap the car ahead of another by introducing a handicap which would negatively affect its aero performance – a kind of reverse DRS – although the FIA have recently confirmed this is no longer under consideration.
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Power units or battery generators?
Red Bull who for the first time will be building their own power units expressed concern mid 2023 that their simulations suggested the increase reliance on electrical power would see the drivers having to change down gears to charge the battery on the straights at power hungry circuits.
In effect the internal combustion engine would be merely serving as a generator for the battery to deliver the required electrical propulsion propulsion making the cars somewhat of a “Frankensteins monster” as Christian Horner described the proposals.
Expert motor engineer and Mercedes’ team principal Toto Wolff slapped down the suggestions claiming it was merely whining from the world champions because their power unit programme was behind schedule. Yet Red Bull were the first team to fire up a prototype 2026 specification power unit last summer whilst Ferrari have only delivered theirs for bench testing in the past few weeks.
Now Adrian Newey’s right hand man claims the FIA are merely placing sticking patches on the ill conceived incoming 2026 regulations and issues a dire warning of the consequences. Milton Keynes technical director Pierre Wache believes the laudable goals of making the new F1 cars more nimble via active aerodynamics in their current concept will make the cars even more difficult to drive than the current ground effect cars have proven to be.
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Ill conceived FIA plans critiqued
Christian Horner confirmed recently that Wache has the entire day to day responsibility for the Red Bull F1 design and build programme with Adrian Newey merely ‘dipping in and out’ when available or required for a second opinion. It is Wache who has been responsible for much of the RB19 success and his expertise is ignored at peril.
The new cars will have aerodynamic components which adjust to the prevailing conditions – temperature, wind, tyre wear etc. Wache claims the rules are ill conceived and the FIA are scrambling to fix problems which is creating an incoherent Formula.
“The speed is going down and the feeling is not so nice,” he tells Motorsport.com.
“The FIA works with the teams on how this energy will be deployed to make it less annoying for the driver and to have a better speed profile throughout the lap.”
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Lack of the ‘big picture’
Wache now details the results of Red Bull intensive modelling and despite the FIA wishing to make the cars more nimble in the corners, the new rules are having the opposite effect.
“…Work on the car characteristics to have less drag and less downforce. By having less downforce, you recover more energy because you spend more time in the corners and in the braking zones, and then you spend less time on straights.
“You cannot put patch on patch on patch to achieve something,” he continued.
Wache comments on the evolution of the concept being defined by the FIA and states working bottom up to fix each individual issue simply does not work.
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Patchup style solutions “never work”
“You have to look at the problem with a bigger view and say, ‘How do I sort this out and how do I solve my problem? What car characteristic do I need to achieve something?’
“If you need a patch to solve some things, you can still do that afterwards. But you don’t start with a patch first. Otherwise, it never works.”
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Hybrid technology out of date
The world has turned since the FIA decided the future of auto manufacturing would include hybrid power units over pure electric and the bastardised formula hybrid creates is now a concern for global car makers.
Hybrid’s have the weight of the battery plus the cumbersome hybrid technologies together with the old fashioned heat combustion engine which provides huge additional bulk to carry around.
The focus on sustainable fuels is laudable and most likely the global solution to converting around 2 billion road cars with internal combustion engines. A recent comment from an FIA spokesperson suggested the next breed of power units due in over a decade may return to the old fashioned ICE but use bio fuels for the power.
So it seems while the fast paced world of F1 is never ending, long term planning for the future of the car design is patchy at best.
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With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
