F1 rule changes: What do they mean for the future of the sport?

The headline change is the return of refuelling for 2017, along with cars that will be between five and six seconds a lap faster.

THE raft of potential changes to the Formula 1 rules announced on Friday amounts to a recognition that something needed to be done to answer the ever-louder questions about the health of the sport.

There have been grumblings about whether F1 was providing enough of a spectacle for some time, but they have grown in momentum in recent weeks.

And on Monday BBC co-commentator David Coulthard finally revealed to the public what many in F1 already knew – the drivers don’t like the current cars because they think they are too slow and too limited by artificial restraints.

A large part of the reason for that is down to the tyres, which was not addressed by the decisions made by the strategy group on Thursday.

But much has been addressed – and the answers F1’s bosses have come up with would create a very different-looking sport in two years’ time if they are confirmed.

The headline change is the return of refuelling for 2017, along with cars that will be between five and six seconds a lap faster.

The step-change in speed will be welcomed by drivers and fans alike – the current cars are at some tracks as much as 10 seconds a lap slower in race trim than they were in 2004.
With changes to aerodynamics to increase downforce and make the cars look “more aggressive” – wider cars, with bigger front and rear wings and wider rear tyres – and by reducing weight.

Engines will also rev higher and be louder – addressing the complaints of some fans and F1 commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone about the new turbo hybrid engines.

This will be done by reducing the number of gears from eight to six, which will force teams to rev higher than the 11,000rpm or so they use now – out of a limit of 15,000rpm.

Engineers have been tasked with finding solutions to make the engines louder, perhaps by adding another exhaust pipe.

That satisfies Ecclestone’s demand for more noise, while retaining the hybrids, which was important to the engine manufacturers – and increasing the fuel-flow limit would have meant an expensive redesign to enable engines to cope with what would have been vastly increased power outputs in qualifying.
The fuel-flow limit – which has driven the engineers to develop F1 engines with thermal efficiency in excess of 40% – is also central to the development route of these engines – raise it, and they become far less relevant to current road car research.

On that front, these new engines have been a conspicuous success.

Only last weekend at the Spanish Grand Prix, Mercedes engine boss Andy Cowell was talking about how the device that recovers energy from the turbocharger – which has been criticised as unnecessary and expensive – will soon be adopted in road cars on a widespread basis.

Having 1,000bhp engines was discussed over the winter, but the idea of making changes to facilitate this has been quietly dropped.

Although, as the best engines are about 900bhp already, it may well happen through normal development anyway.
All of the technical changes to cars and engines had been widely discussed for months, but the reintroduction of refuelling came out of the blue.

Reaction from fans on social media was immediate and split down the middle – some cheering it, some saying it would lead to a lack of overtaking on the track.

But it’s not hard to see where the bosses might be coming from.

For one, without having to carry the maximum fuel load at any time, cars will be faster in the races from the off, taking the sting out of criticisms that they are too slow.

Likewise, less load on the tyres means the drivers might be able to push the tyres harder – a criticism of the current situation with Pirelli, when drivers are often well within themselves for the majority of the race distance because pushing hard overheats the tyres and reduces their life.

Pirelli would have to change the tyre design for it to make any significant difference on that front, though – because the current tyres generally cannot be pushed flat out for any more than a handful of laps, no matter what the fuel load.

It also gives F1’s bosses more flexibility when it comes to choosing which company will supply tyres after Pirelli’s contract ends in 2016. –BBCSport