2023-01-29 The Race: 2023 F1 Car Trends

How will the (incremental) rule changes affect car development
Cost cap means that teams haven't had the ability to make big midseason changes
Broader trends
- Lots of visual differentiation in side-pods last season
- Expect to see some convergence, but both Ferrari and Red Bull had viable designs, even though they weren't very similar to each other
- Even Mercedes' design, which started off the season rather poorly improved considerably by the end of the season, so it's plausible that Mercedes will stick with their "zero-sidepod" design rather than rebuild their car to be more like Ferrari or Red Bull
- The only real design disaster was Aston Martin; unlikely that they'll keep their design going forward
- We pay attention to the side-pods because they're more visible, but with this generation of car, the floor does far more work
Teams will have committed to the concept they're pursuing for this year as of August last year
The problem with Mercedes is that they got greedy and pursued peak downforce at the expense of having a "usable" car
Teams will need to make a car that's good for 20-21 out of 23 races
- Some races, like Monaco or Monza are just too much of an outlier to reasonably accomodate
Downforce needs to be accessible to the driver — if it disappears too quickly, or comes on too abruptly, the driver won't have confidence going into the corner
Challenge will be to ensure that car maintains a consistent level of downforce even as its ride height changes while going through the corner
Minimum floor height raised by 15mm
- In the old days (i.e. in the first generation of ground effect cars in the '80s) cars had sliding skirts that would seal the edges of the floor mechanically
- Now, teams will have to design their cars to use airflow to seal the edges of the floor
- Need to design the floor to separate the airflow going down the center of the underbody from the airflow at the edges of the underbody
Purpose of the increase in floor height is to reduce porpoising by reducing the temptation to run the car super-low with a super-stiff suspension
Who will be best equipped to deal with the new regulations?
- Top 3 teams are best equipped to deal with any regulatory changes
- Need to make sure that the center of pressure generated by the front and rear wings and the center of pressure generated by the floor are roughly the same
- Braking loads are different with hybrid engines — relatively weak rear brakes plus engine braking means that the rear suspension flexes differently than the front suspension
Many midfield teams were limited by the balance of their car as it traveled through the corner
The goal for most of these teams will be to move that center of pressure backwards so that it provides more stability for the driver on corner entry
- Driver needs to feel the grip on the rear tires on corner entry so they know how much traction they have before the car spins
- Tuning out oversteer on corner entry via suspension or wing changes can lead to understeer through the corner
- The really great drivers (notably Max Verstappen) can tolerate a huge amount of rear-end instability on corner entry, and thus don't need as many adjustments to the car to prevent understeer mid-corner
One important element in this season, and in future seasons, will be the turning vanes at the front end of the floor
- Fine-tune the vortices that seal the edges of the floor
- Turning vanes are this generation's counterparts to the barge boards of the previous generation
Suspension geometry
- Front suspension will be important
- New regulations prevent large changes in ride height due to steering lock
- The trailing edges of the front suspension members will be important to get right, in order to ensure smooth airflow going into the leading edge of the floor
- Using suspension to limit forward weight transfer under braking will make it easier to get the aerodynamics right
In this generation, the mechanical aspects of the car have taken on renewed importance
- Cars are heavy
- Aerodynamic effects don't dominate until they reach 180km/h
- Prior to that point, it's the suspension doing most of the work of holding the tires against the pavement
Weight
- Overweight cars shouldn't be as much of problem as last year
- Cars can be a little bit more flexible in weight distribution
- Cars tend to add weight during the season, as parts are strengthened to deal with unanticipated loads or wear and tear
- Tradeoff between weight and reliability becomes more important as the cost cap limits the number of spare parts a team can manufacture
- Teams will need to analyze the weight distribution of their cars both with and without fuel — cars can have up to 150kg of fuel on board, which affects the weight distribution quite a lot
- Saving weight is a matter of looking at fine details
Teams will probably be more competitive in the midfield
Overall competitive order will probably remain the same
Would be nice to see the top midfield teams, such as McLaren and Alpine get within 1s of the top three (Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes)