F1 2009 regulations PART 1: More overtaking?

The problems of overtaking under the current rules

At the moment overtaking is extremely difficult, at times near impossible. With so much importance placed on aero grip over the last few years all the teams have been concentrating mainly in this area to find performance. At the moment around 80% of car development is aero related. This has been to the detriment of overtaking with aero bits hanging everywhere including the likes of: Horns, bunny ears, triple wings, anvil/shark fins along with many other types of winglets and flip ups, which create a huge wake of turbulent behind the car and has a major effect on the aero of the car following on behind.

When following another car around 20-25% of downforce is lost and the car suffers from understeer. So the car is effectively losing a sizeable chunk of its performance. You could relate this to trying to push against a hard cushion, that’s how hard it can be to follow another car in F1. The problem is at its worst in the fast corners which is why overtaking has become so less frequent at tracks like Silverstone and Catalunya. On the other hand the downforce loss is halved (10-12.5%) in slow corners making overtaking a bit more feasible if there is a long straight following it. A sequence of a slow corner followed by a long straight following by another slow corner makes overtaking more realistic. This sequence is seen on tracks such as Bahrain and the Fuji speedway. Therefore you are always likely to see more wheel to wheel racing at these tracks.

Another interesting example is to compare the Adelaide hairpin at Magny-Cours and the hairpin on the Hockenheim circuit. The corner before the hairpin at Magny-Cours is Estoril, which is one of the fastest corners on the circuit. Therefore the drivers find it very hard to stick to the opponent in front in this corner. Due to this they can’t make the most of the overtaking opportunity that the Adelaide hairpin represents at the end of the following straight. At Hockenheim the corner before the long drag to the hairpin is a very slow one. This allows a driver to stick closer to the car in front and have a chance of passing him into the hairpin.

The “dirty or “turbulent” air or whatever you want to call it is also quite hot and can effect the cooling of the cars. Drivers also say that being in someone else’s dirty air for a long period of time can grain the tyres (bits of rubber coming off the tyres). This affects the team strategy. At times a driver may be told by an engineer to stay between 1 or 2 seconds behind the car in front to avoid graining and overheating and try to find a way past during the pit stop phase.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?