Back in November I wrote about qualifying on low fuel and how I would miss the loss of the fuel-predicted grid. At the time I had mixed views; I hadn’t been privy to watching F1 when qualifying on low fuel was the norm but, as many fans seemed genuinely excited by the prospect I thought (and hoped) my pessimism would be unfounded.

Qualifying itself was fine, it wasn’t fabulous. I’d watched and had been happy that Formula One was back but it wasn’t as exciting as it could have been. I would have loved to have had the qualifying weights published so I could have had a stab at predicting each teams’ fuel consumption but it was not to be, even though the FIA had temptingly left a space for the pdf file of fuel weights on their site. But why was qualifying not as good as I’d hoped? I’d put that down to the drivers’ uncertainty over their cars handling on low fuel given the loss of extensive winter testing. The quirkiness of the new extended Bahrain circuit couldn’t have helped much either. Still, we had the race to look forward to and the race-refuelling ban would spice up the action as teams gambled on a safety car deployment and misjudged the amount of fuel to carry or they found that the cars handling characteristics changed so much as the race progressed that pitting for tyres would be essential… or so I hoped.

The race itself turned into another of those processional events where there was a distinct lack of overtaking. If it hadn’t been for Sebastian Vettel’s dodgy spark plug dropping him down the order we would have had the situation where the three front runners ended the race in that position, albeit with Alonso and Massa having swapped position. But a race review isn’t my plan for my post, I want to look at some of the reasons for the lack of overtaking; even the drivers feel that the race wasn’t as challenging as it could have been.

Are the new regulations to blame?

The ban on in race refuelling was put in place because the overtaking working group (OWG) felt that much of the overtaking for position was gained during pitstops and less so on the track. So this year the ban, coupled with an increased differential between the points for gaining a place were meant to act as encouragement to overtake on track. But these ideas don’t take into account the physics of overtaking; it’s all very well saying you have to overtake on track and the extra points are the “carrot” to make it work but the fundamental problem of being physically able to overtake in the wake of the preceding car have not been addressed.

“I caught up with Michael and then sat behind him for the rest of the race, I couldn’t get any closer.
You lose downforce, you lose front and rear grip. You don’t have traction, so you can’t exit a corner quickly. Michael was very weak on braking. I’d be eight car lengths behind and catch up on him but there was no way I could go past. It’s not like the old days. You could follow cars then, you could slide up the inside, you could race. It’s very different now.”
Jenson Button

Finding a cure that will assist overtaking will not be easy, changes to the technical regulations over the last few seasons haven’t done much to fix the problem yet we still had exciting racing, albeit with most of the overtaking courtesy of pitstop refuelling. If we now remove that element of strategy are we left with boring processional races this season? It’s something that the teams are concerned with too.

Whilst Bernie follows the money trail, teams know that without the support of the fans they will find it harder to attract sponsors and hence the money that provides for their technological input and allows them to be competitive racers.

“The most important people are the customers – they are the people who pay to come to races, or watch it on television. We are beholden on them to put on a good show and we should see what we should do.”
Nick Fry, Mercedes GP

So what can be done about it, at least in the short term?

 
Martin Whitmarsh, in his role as Chairman of the Formula One Teams Association is also of the belief that something must be done and done quickly, to resolve the situation and make the racing both exciting and challenging.

“Formula 1 has to be entertaining, people have to be switched on to what is going to happen in the race, if it’s processional they are not going to be. Today was not the best show, we know that and we have all got to work together to improve it.
I personally believe that more challenging tyres will help the spectacle of the show. We do need to look at mandating stops, we do need to look at the tyres and make them more fragile, and we do need to work on making the cars capable of racing close together and easier to overtake.”
Martin Whitmarsh, FOTA Chairman

Whilst I think a second stop and more friable tyre compounds (as long as safety wasn’t compromised) would help, I’d much prefer to have refuelling return. For me, it added another strategic layer to the racing and if we are to get back to more exciting racing, at least in the short term it’s something that should be considered.

2010 sees new regulations, both sporting and technical, resulting in bigger, heavier cars and a lot more points at stake. So with just four weeks until the first race of the season, here’s a quick run down of the main changes and the likely effect on the season.

Qualifying Format
Qualifying will again be split into three session, although with a larger grid of 26 cars expect, the bottom eight drivers will drop out at the end of each of the first two sessions. However, it is in Q3 that the biggest changes will be seen as the teams will no longer have to use race fuel for qualifying and so cars will be fuelled to the bare minimum. Don’t expect a return to a pure contest of which is the fastest car though – drivers will have to start the race on the same tyres that they set their qualifying time. The intention is that some drivers will opt for the harder of the two compounds allocated for the weekend, sacrificing pace and qualifying position in the hope of taking advantage of the optimum race tyre. Whether it works out like that remains to be seen.

A new points system
2010 sees a new points system with a mammoth 25 points now awarded to the winner. There is then a larger gap to second, with the intention of creating more incentive to push for victory, and points will be awarded down to 10th place reflecting the larger field: 18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1. It means that one of Michael Schumacher’s records, 148 points over the 2004 season, is certain to be lost – unless he can extend it himself. However, the is one question lingering over the decision to change the points system: Does it make any sense if only 11 teams make the grid?


Additional engine penalties
Once again, teams will be limited to eight engines per driver over the season, however, this year that means 19 races not 17, meaning that engine life and effective usage will be even more critical. A loop-hole that I spotted in last year’s regulations meant that teams could minimise the effect of taking an additional engine by also taking a tenth, eleventh, twelfth, etc. engine at the same weekend and only paying the penalty for that one race weekend. That’s now been closed as using a second additional engine during a race weekend will now incur a 10-place grid penalty that is carried over to the following event.

Safety Car protocol
The safety car procedure has been simplified, presumably to reflect the larger field, as backmarkers will no longer be able to unlap themselves behind the Safety Car (the old article 40.11 of the Sporting Code). This should mean that racing will be able to resume more quickly although the front runners will have to deal with a mix of lapped drivers at the restart.

In-race refueling banned
No more refuelling during the race will have both sporting and technical consequences for 2010. Firstly, races will become more dependent on tyre strategy, however, cars will be significantly heavier and slower at the start of races, which could have consequences on tyre wear as well as other areas such as brake life. It also means races are likely to be noticeably longer due to the heavy fuel stage reducing early lap times. For example, last year’s Singapore Grand Prix just crept in under the two hour mark, not helped by the deployment of the safety car – it seems likely that the race may not go the full distance of 61 laps. Of course, the in-race refuelling ban will become most obvious at pitstops which will be significantly quicker when unlimited by fuelling flow rate, with stops potentially of less than four seconds. It also means the 2010 cars feature significantly larger fuel-tanks and the result is that all the cars are slightly longer as designers accommodate the change. By necessity, teams will also have to adapt how they run behind the safety car – conserving fuel is precisely what they don’t want to do.

Teams agree to not use KERS
One thing that designers won’t need to accommodate in 2010 is KERS, the teams having agreed not to use the energy recovery system. Therefore, don’t expect the Ferraris and McLarens to be screaming past half a dozen cars at the start every weekend.

Minimum weight increased from 605kg to 620kg
With larger fuel tanks and KERS expected, it was decided to raise the minimum weight by 15 kg. This means that ballast positioning will be much easier for teams, especially now that they will no longer be using KERS.

Less sets of tyres
There is a reduction in the number of sets of tyres available to drivers over the weekend with 11 sets of dry tyres instead of the previous 14. A simple piece of maths possibly reveals why: 14 sets of tyre for 20 drivers is 280 sets, while 11 sets for 26 is 286 sets – a minimal change from Bridgestone’s point of view. The 11 sets will consist of six prime and five option compounds and there will continue to be four sets of intermediate and three sets of extreme wet tyres. However, it will mean that on Fridays, drivers will have to manage with just three sets of tyres instead of four, two of which will be the prime compound the other the option tyre.

Narrower front tyres
Dry, slick tyres for 2010 will be narrower – the same width as the existing wet tyre in fact. The reason for this is that the change from grooved to slick tyres last year resulted in a greater proportional increase in contact area at the front, effecting the overall car balance of the car. The change should make the teams’ jobs easier in terms of setting up the car.

Aerodynamic wheel fairings banned
The wheel covers introduced by Ferrari, ostensibly as a brake cooling device but also considered to have aerodynamic benefits, have been banned in order to save costs. Teams will look to recover their benefits elsewhere and it has been noticeable that larger brake ducts have been on show on this year’s new cars.

Wheel rim-heaters banned
The FIA wanted to outlaw tyre blankets before eventually relenting and instead limiting tyre blankets to only heating the surface of the tyre, banning the inner heated core used to heat the wheel rim. It will partly achieve what the FIA originally sought – making tyre heat up more critical and putting drivers on new tyres at more of a disadvantage.