As a Tifosi who approached F1 events from the Schumacher era, the view of F1 after the beginning of the hybrid era has fallen off a cliff, and this view seems to be very unconvincing from my mouth, after all, "nest ethane" has been a routine operation in recent years. But after experiencing four consecutive red bull rover titles, F1 in the hybrid era ushered in a more exaggerated seven-in-a-row championship, and those who did not know thought they were watching the Bundesliga. Races without suspense are secondary, cars that lack aesthetics, lack the joy of overtaking, and lack tactical variability. If the car is the jewel in the industrial crown, then F1 must be the most brilliant one, but in recent years, the all-round and extremely conservative F1 is no longer worthy of this praise.
And last season's dramatic finale seems to have paved the way for the excitement of the 2022 season. Although the new season F1 rules overhaul is well known, on the basis of locking the power unit, coupled with the side effects of F1 magic rules in these years, old car fans may have no bottom in their hearts. The situation of the winter test gives a little clue, but the old formula of the Ferrari King of Winter Test is still not enough to reassure me. So this manuscript waited until the end of the two stations in West Asia, because I could finally shout "Wofa helium coal." What's more, the feeling of watching F1 once seems to have returned with the familiar song of Mameli. Let's take a look at how the best F1 races of the hybrid era were created from a technical point of view today.
The face value is back, running in front is beautiful, running in the back is more comfortable
After experiencing the front nose wing design such as "vacuum cleaner", "pig nose", "platypus", etc., the racing car in F1 in recent years can be described as not the ugliest, only the uglier. You may ask, F1 as the top technical event, racing fast, why should it look good? You can ask those cars running on the road, who will buy them when they are ugly. F1 is the same, this pig I can't afford to eat, still don't let me look comfortable?
Specifically, the new regulations greatly simplify the front wing and end panels of the car, eliminating the side forward/side breaker plates, the floor of the ground effect partial return, and the continuous curve of the overall tail wing. The core point is to make overtaking easier to increase direct viewing on the track. This has to mention F1's famous saying "catching up is not equal to surpassing". Because of the aerodynamic design, the closer the rear car is to the front car, the greater the downforce of the rear car is affected. As a super-high-speed ground-to-ground racing car, the reduction of downforce directly leads to difficulties in following the car.
And with the major teams rolling in the aerodynamics, until the implementation of the new regulations, in F1, the loss of downforce can reach about 46% when the rear car follows the car at a distance of 10m. Even at distances of 20 m, the downforce loss reaches about 35 percent. So even with the help of DRS, it is extremely difficult to have a close overtaking shot in the F1 arena before the new rules. It can be said that the purpose of the past racing car design was to exhaust the clean air in front of the car and make the rear car as unsightly as possible.
In terms of specific technology, the simplified front wing and end plate mainly help the rear car, which actually has a side effect on aerodynamics and reduces the sensitivity of the front wing to air. At the same time, it also has the effect of channeling more air to the bottom of the car body, and better control of turbulence. At the same time, as a "patch", the new car has added a diversion wing on the front wheel to make up for the diversion work of the simplified front wing and reduce the impact of turbulence at the wheels on the rear wing. In summary, the new front wing weakens aerodynamics and reduces sensitivity to turbulence in front of it. However, with the addition of the front wheel fins, the aerodynamic stability of the rear car in the following state is stabilized.
As for the drastic slashing of the wind breaker, the almost standardized tail wing, and the higher and narrower diffuser intentions are more direct. It is to make the turbulence generated by the front car more friendly to the rear car and "help" the rear car to better surpass itself. Of course, there are also small patches here, such as the addition of a beam wing at the exit of the base plate. This can be seen as a double-layered rear wing, the main role of which is to create a low pressure zone at the outlet of the base plate to compensate for the reduced downforce of the new standard tail.
Whether it is the test effect or the actual combat situation, this series of technical changes are quite successful. The turbulence of the front car is relatively more concentrated and higher in height, taking the form of a mushroom that spreads towards the upper part of the rear car, leaving a good clean air for the underside of the rear car. If you look at it from the data, the car under the new regulations follows the car at a distance of 20m, and the downforce is only lost by 4%. Even if the following distance reaches 10m, the downforce loss is 18%. So much so that Leclerc and Verstappen dared to run behind each other and then take full advantage of the DRS to overtake, providing a highly watchable performance space for tactical changes on the track.
What else is there to turn over the bottom of the box, the technological restart of 40 years ago?
However, from the previous interpretation, the F1 car under the new regulations actually shows a weakened state of downforce. This is certainly not conducive to viewing for forza motorsports. So F1 is also thinking, how can we not let these teams engage in "self-inflicted" internal rolls, but also maintain the downward pressure of the new car? Fortunately, F1 has a long history, and the brain hole of the predecessors is not smaller than the current one, so a technology that has been sealed for nearly 40 years has been re-invited out of the warehouse, which is the "plug-in" that was banned by the FIA in 1983 - the ground effect.
The most widely used ground effect is in the field of aviation and automobiles, but the practical paths of the two are completely opposite, the aircraft wants the lift of the air, and the car needs the downforce of the air. Taking civilian vehicles as an example, the chassis of many vehicles is quite flat in the original factory state. This is to speed up the flow rate of the air under the chassis and reduce the air lift under the vehicle, resulting in better downforce.
For an F1-class car, the excavation of ground effects in the 70s was terrifying. The large base plate convex surface is used to create a large area of low pressure between the chassis and the ground of the vehicle, so that the car is firmly attached to the ground. At the same time, the height of the chassis is getting lower and lower, which further accelerates the flow rate of the air under the car, and continues to widen the air pressure difference between the roof and the bottom of the car. As for why such a good technology was banned that year, the reason is also that the internal rolls of each house have led to the overuse of the ground effect, causing damage to safety, and even caused some track accidents.
If it is so dangerous, why is it back? Mainly under the new regulations, the ground effect base plate is strictly controlled in terms of size, proportion, etc., especially the natural card slot of today's racing car in the side skirt part, which obviously does not appear in the scene of 40 years ago. Even if the teams want to exploit the loophole, at least in the development of the ground effect, the older generation of designers have long faded out, and they have to work hard. For example, the "dolphin jump" phenomenon in the test is most likely affected by the ultimate tail speed after the return of the ground effect. Of the three teams, Mei Ben seems to be most troubled by this problem. However, it is not yet possible to say that Lali and Red Bull are because of the design of the side boxes, which have benefited from this problem.
Finally changed from bread wheel hub to 18 inches
The long history of F1 racing also has its black history, the most prominent of which is the use of 13-inch wheels. This wheel standard, which deviates from the practical significance and advanced nature, has finally been abandoned in the new season. The 18-inch wheels not only provide better-performing brake calipers, but also lead advanced technology on F1 to the civilian sector. Although the wheel hub has become larger, the tire width has not changed, and the flat ratio is relatively smaller, which should theoretically bring a better sense of the road. It's just that the F1 car itself has little comfort to speak of, and now the sense of road is stronger, the driver's perception is better, and the comfort may be worse. From this year's broadcast footage, the first-person perspective shakes, even if it is across the screen, it will be a little uncomfortable.
Perhaps taking into account the aerodynamic pressure of the large hub, the new regulations once again added hub covers to it. This time, the hub cap will rotate with the wheel, and the format is uniform, which is cheap. This sounds a bit like the practice of cheap models of civilian cars. However, the primary goal of the hub cap is to reduce the impact of external airflow. This point is more deeply felt in many new energy civilian vehicles, such as many wheel shapes of pure electric vehicle models no longer have too many hollow designs, and even almost fill the outside of the wheel hub.
Tires are still the exclusive supply of Pirelli, and many fans put the pot of F1 viewing on Pirelli's head. Indeed, before the vehicle was overhauled, tire preservation became the driver's first survival rule on the track. Pirelli has also thought of "folk remedies", such as tire cliff attenuation. As a result, safety accidents occurred frequently, and they were once criticized by the drivers. In the new season, Pirelli is still focused on reducing overheating, temperature sensitivity and decay speed, so that drivers do not need to worry about tire protection. Although the current formula is still far from the expectations of Pirelli and FIA, the drivers who don't have to worry too much about the tires have already dedicated too many wonderful duels. At the same time, stable tire performance did not allow the team to reduce the number of pit stops, but rather stabilized the tire performance, so that the team can also free their hands and feet to develop tactics.
Write at the end:
Judging from the performance after the new regulations, F1 has never lacked new technologies, but needs a correct guidance direction. In addition to the use of the above technologies, the addition of Chinese drivers has enhanced the ornamentation. Safety improvements, including new technologies, and the movement of E10 fuel, have at least brought more references to civilian vehicle technology, and even new guidelines, which is the biggest charm of F1 sports for a long time.