F1's mid-season rule changes - what's been agreed and will it help?
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What mid-season rule changes have been agreed in F1?
The Athletic.
The race is on, and F1 has agreed modifications to the engine rules in an attempt to fix their big problems with the current power units, aimed at improving qualifying and safety in particular. But has it gone far enough? And how big an impact will it have on the on-track action from Miami onwards? I'm Ed Shaw, and joining me to give the verdict on the changes is John Noble. Well, we've been waiting for this day for a while in this big extended gap in the schedule, John. They've had the meeting. They've agreed their proposals. So we know what's going to be in place for Miami. I think it's fair to say quite a long way short of a revolution, if anyone was expecting that. But logical, sensible changes, I guess, within what was possible.
Yeah, I think the fact that it's not superbly exciting, it all seems quite boring and sensible, probably means it's the right outcome for now because there is nothing outrageous here.
How will the engine rule modifications impact F1 qualifying?
Everything has been introduced for a reason. The recharge limit reductions, the change in boost, what's being done for race starts, what's being done for wet weather. Everything's got a good reason. which means it's a good first step. Whether it addresses all the problems we've got with these 26 regulations, I'm sceptical. There may need to be more refinement as we go along. We may find, as we've found with many elements of this regulation, unintended consequences, teams getting around things, or unexpected antics still get deployed to get around energy-starved cars. There may be lots of things to discover. But as a first step... to feel that we're getting back towards a more normal qualifying, to avoid the risks of a repeat of the Oli Behrmann-Franco Colapinto crash.
I think it's a good first step.
The bottom line is it was always going to be mitigation rather than complete solution for the simple reason that you're still stuck with the hardware. It's still a four megajoule battery you still need to deploy and harvest. So You cannot change the parameters and the way things operate to make it what might have previously been called normal. So there will be points where you're not deploying. You are going to still have to adapt what you're doing to harvest. But it's all about trying to just make things a little bit more normal, particularly in qualifying. So we'll start there because they've changed the energy management parameters. So reduction in maximum permitted recharge on harvest. a qualifying lap from eight megajoules down to seven megajoules, they say, encouraging more consistent flat out driving.
And there's the super clipping change. So previously you're super clipping, which is when you're full throttle, but you're fully harvesting. Previously that limit was 250 kilowatts. Now it's 350 kilowatts. So that's now quicker than it was. And the FIA suggested trying to reduce the super clip duration to approximately two to four seconds per lap, the FIA suggested. So this is a step in the right direction. I wouldn't call it a stride in the right direction, again, because of the limitations, but this should mean a slightly more normal performance profile over a qualifying lap.
Yes, it's two changes aimed at reducing what the FI has long called abnormal qualifying behaviours. If you had an unlimited recharge cap for qualifying, then at some tracks you would find drivers doing really weird stuff like lifting off halfway down straights or behaving strangely on preparation laps or doing lots of weird stuff because the gains you can get from effective harvesting... would be much better than driving flat out.
What logical changes have been made to improve safety in F1?
So what you want to do, and it seems almost counterintuitive, to make qualifying more flat out, you give the drivers less energy, because now that energy recovery can be reached just by typical braking, so you can recover. And by increasing the super clipping, now it's as effective as lift and coast, but potentially even better now, because when you're super clipping flat, throttles full to the floor, which means you're at the end of a straight, which means your active aero is open.
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