The new formula 1: slimmer. Heavy. More quickly?
Max stapping has been “slightly scared” the first time when he took in his new Red Bull named RB18 place. As Krass as for almost 25 years, Formula 1 has changed its regulations for this season. More different winners want to see the US marketers of Liberty Media, and of course more overtaking maneuvers. The teams may only spend limited money, there is now a new race management including video-shiri in Paris, almost like football – but above all is technically a lot in the season 2022, which begins on 20 March in Bahrain. For example, the tires with which not only world champions stood in the beginning so his problems.
Instead of the slightly fallen balloon tires on 13-inch rims, 18-inches are now driven. And the larger pneus of Pirelli take the drivers a bit more of the already very confined field of view, especially when they are grabbed. For this, the new wheels should be easier to drive. “One has lower flanks and less movement, which should be clearly simplifying tire management and be a further advantage for the smaller teams,” says the former Formula 1 driver and today’s Sky expert Ralf Schumacher in the interview in the new Bull named special heritage motorsport.
Schumacher: Trucks instead of cars
But the larger tires are also heavier, a total of eleven kilograms. This helps to bring the cars even more to the scales, instead of 752 now at least 795 kilos. Schumacher does not like the trend. He used to be in Boliden with around 600 kilos, today the safety weighs much heavier. “The cars have become real trucks,” he explains, “that’s too much weight. That will remember the drivers especially in the curves.”
In the first tests in Barcelona, most of all, his Red Bull stapped particularly soft around the curves. The otherwise often Wild Dutchermänder seemed relaxed as rare, now he signed a new record contract by 2028, which will bring him between 30 and 50 million euros per year.
The aerodynamics of the generation 2022 is completely changed. The cars may suck again on the asphalt and use the Ground Effect. The legendary Lotus founder Colin Chapman once had the technology once with his Wing Cars so successfully erased that Mario Andretti fell in 1978 as on rails around the curves and the World Cup, before the wing cars were banned five years later. Now they are back.
The new Boliden is worn. Picture-alliance / ASA
The contact pressure Get today’s cars over the underbody, while the air is passed through so-called Venturi tunnels and thus ensures ground liability. The Italian physicist Giovanni Battista Venturi discovered the principle already at the end of the 18th century. In order to be able to really use the Ground Effect, the cars Bretthart are sprung. Too long spring trails would constantly change the distance to the ground and leave the airflow tear off. “The drivers will remember their time in the kart,” says Andrew Green, Chief Technician at Aston Martin.
Keyword “Porpoising”
Stairing, Hamilton and Co. will not only need good intervertebral discs, but also a stable stomach. Because with the tests in Barcelona many cars almost hoped about the straight line. “Porpoising” is called the new phenomenon that many teams want to stop as soon as possible, probably with new ideas at the rear underbody. In any case, the engineers will copy all sorts of competition in the coming weeks, too many detail questions are still open.
The unity porridge with the designs nevertheless belongs to the past, many cars are clearly assigned their team without a painting. Mercedes sends that with distance slimest car into the field, Ferrari relies on ultrabreite side boxes and Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin acts particularly powerful. “Man, the car has become big,” says Formula 1 expert Marc Surer, who pursued the tests in Barcelona. “But it seems to have a good balance.”
Red Bull and Mercedes have been reacting as the measure of all things, but with McLaren and Ferrari, they seem to have found good solutions in the new regulations, they are a lot to confidence. Also, what the engine management is concerned. The Power Unit was not changed, but this season instead of 5.75 percent is now 10 percent bio-ethanol. The increased proportion of E10 fuel is likely to cost about 20 hp at performance, but the engine rubbers will have also balanced that soon.
Like a controller: View of a Formula 1 steering wheel. imago images / motorsport images
Still, the new power ratios in Formula 1 are hardly foreseeable. “It will take at least three races until we know where we stand,” says Lewis Hamilton, who wants to win his eighth World Cup title. The fact is that the engineers are no longer so unhappened as in the past, as for single small parts simply the wind tunnel was deforized. Mercedes alone should have spent over $ 400 million for his team three years ago. This season, the budget is capped to $ 140 million. But the Cost Cap is only worth half, because the driver salaries are equally united as the three most expensive employees and expenditure for marketing.
Remains with a “Formula 2”?
“In the past, the top teams had available 200 to 300 million more than the smaller racing stalls, today it may be ten to 20 million,” says South Tyrolean Günther Steiner, team boss at Haas F1 and thus boss of Mick Schumacher. But even with the new rules seems difficult to imagine that suddenly Schumacher will fight in the apparently pronounced Haas around victories. The big teams have long since got the smartest heads in their garages. So it will probably also give a formula 1 and a formula 2. Martin Gruener
S voltages, interviews and facts for the new season of Formula 1 Read within new special issue Motorsport of the Bull named, available from March 11th in the trade and App Store. Everything worth knowing about the top duel between stages and Hamilton or the chances of Vettel and Schumacher, for the anniversary 100 years race in Monza or the most legendary curves of racing history. You can also get detailed stories and analyzes for the other racing series such as DTM, Formula E, MotoGP or the classic in Le Mans.