4 minute read
Mike Blanchet
All that glitters
Initial thoughts on the emerging 2022 Formula 1 contenders
Surely this is the most nerve racking, yet exciting time for F1 design teams in years? The long-awaited new breed of Formula 1 cars being revealed as I write do, actually, present quite major differences in appearance, even if camouflaged to some extent by the launch liveries and acknowledging the desire for retention of secrecy concerning some features.
The ridiculous and hugely costly to develop bargeboard arrays have been banned, and the 2022 cars look sleeker and less bizarre as a result, if not quite as stunning as the futuristic images doing the media rounds a couple of years back. Ironically, however, the most radical and important design features – bearing in mind that these are responsible for at least 50 per cent of the overall car downforce – are the ground effect venturis, which of course cannot be seen. Certainly, the subtle shaping of these to achieve the optimum downforce at different speeds, without the centre of pressure migrating unfavourably under braking and acceleration, has no doubt received a great deal of CFD and wind tunnel attention. As with engines, though, peak figures do not always translate into the best on-track performance. Motorsport Images
Bolt-on goodies
Timeframes, and the budget cap, mean developments must be limited to bolt-on / off appendages, examples being wing assemblies and parts controlling airflow to the underbody venturis, possibly even the venturis themselves. There will be a myriad smaller revisions and I expect many to be around the rear of the cars as engineers get to grips with the testing feedback.
Achieving the best interaction of all elements in that area that can contribute to downforce is vital. There are distinct probabilities of components appearing that are missing on the launch cars. Williams’ FW44, for example, looks distinctly unfinished around the Coke bottle and rear tyre area. The Ferrari F75 front wing assembly appears deliberately anodyne. Red Bull has been playing games and I simply can’t believe the Haas renderings revealed so far.
As usual, most attention focuses on the aerodynamic stuff, but mechanical design is extremely important, too. I confess I’m puzzled by what seems to be a common theme: that the spring / damping will need to be a lot stiffer than before, because ride heights will be lower to maximise the ground effect. Well, except for the Red Bull philosophy of ungainly high rear ride height, though that’s likely to be gone in the new generation car.
I cannot see how cars can be run much closer to the ground than before, judging from the sparks that regularly streamed from front skid blocks. Yes, the greater sidewall rigidity of the latest low-profile tyres will enable chassis to be set a little lower statically, but the final dynamic clearance will surely be similar, especially as there is supposed to be a reduction in overall downforce under the latest regulations.
In fact, the pitch sensitivity that is endemic to a flat-bottom surface should be reduced considerably by the adoption of the ground effect underbody tunnels, their behaviour in this respect being inherently more benign.
Enough compliance for drivers to be able to use kerbs without completely upsetting the car will still exist. So will managing temperature and degradation of the 2022 Pirelli tyres without the benefit of some of the past clever gizmos. Suspension generally should assume prominence in the scale of performance factors, so I really don’t ‘get’ these go-kart allusions. As for predictions that these cars will be harder to drive. Well, once a mechanical and aero balance is achieved, any car should be decently driveable, especially with the PU power and torque delivery characteristics staying largely unchanged. But bring it on and we’ll see. Let courage and talent shine through!
With barely a shakedown having taken place as my deadline closes, the only real on-track driver feedback so far echoes what was already evident from the simulator work: visibility is poor, due to the larger front tyres and air deflectors. I’ve written before how bad the drivers’ view is already through the ‘letterbox’ bounded by high monocoque sides, low seating position and the Halo strut. To add another restriction isn’t good, and to my mind it’s dangerous.
Given the 2022 tyre is only 60mm greater in OD than before, I suspect the main problem lies with the deflector. Maybe this will have to go then, or be revised? Shucks, valuable sponsor space gone along with it…
The big question, however, still remains. Will the racing be improved? Probably, but ‘difficult to follow closely’ will likely remain an easy driver excuse for not trying harder.
Cool runnings
Unsurprisingly, sidepods and engine covers appear to vary the most in designers’ initial interpretations of the 2022 regulations, mainly driven by varying PU cooling requirements and their solutions. As always, these external aerodynamic surfaces are a compromise between keeping temperatures of the hybrid package within tolerances, minimising drag, achieving the desired weight distribution fore and aft and keeping the car’s c of g as low as possible.
Packaging is, of course, a fundamental issue within the overall layout, and minimising weight is always a given. This is not to say that one concept is going to prove superior to all the others – there can of course be more than one way to achieve a similar level of performance – but certain design features from the most competitive cars will doubtless become more generally adopted as the season progresses.
Without question, a great deal of effort will be expended by teams using sophisticated photo
techniques to spy on their rivals, just as Racing Point did to mimic the 2020 Mercedes W10. Nonetheless, one cannot envisage significant changes being made involving the monocoque structure and fundamentals such as the chosen wheelbase, unless a team’s situation is desperate.
