Formula 1 cars are the fastest in the world and speed is a major part of the entire show, but speed without overtaking makes it a procession and not a race, and that is something that has been hampering F1’s spectacle for sometime.
Promoting overtaking has been the major agenda this year, as Liberty Media want the sport to become a global phenomena. And only exciting racing can attract new fans.
Thus, the new aerodynamic rules were introduced, so as to help cars follow each other and make more frequent overtaking manoeuvres on each other.
However, that has come at a cost, as cars have now become slower, as confirmed by Racing Point technical director Andy Green.
While Helmut Marko had earlier claimed that simpler front wings and aerodynamic tweaks won’t slow down the cars, Andy Green has revealed the exact opposite.
Green has confirmed that the cars also have poor balance now.
“It’s been a big hit,” he said as quoted by Motorsport.com.
“And when we first put it in the tunnel a few months ago, we’re talking a few seconds of lap time, and a poorly balanced car as well.
“It was the worst possible outcome. Hopefully, it has some positives with respect to closer racing.
“We, like everyone else, have been trying to crawl our way out of the hole that we jumped into with these new regulations.
“It’s significant and it’s right up there with, not-quite a complete change of car, but it’s pretty close.” he added.
F1 cars have struggled to follow other cars, because of the ‘dirty air’ issue and Green feels that these new tweaks wouldn’t provide a good enough solution.
“[We will] struggle to see a big difference following another car,” he added.
“I hope I’m wrong, I hope all this work will result in some positives in following another car.
“But for the analysis we’ve seen, it looks relatively small.” he concluded.
