Formula 1 unveiled its plans to improve the quality of racing with a new car design to be introduced in 2021.
Three different concepts have been revealed. The visual aspect is just one part, however. Another important aspect of the regulation changes is to make for better and more exciting racing. F1’s Managing Director of Motorsports Ross Brawn outlined the objectives ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix.
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“When we started looking at the 2021 car, the primary objective was to enable the cars to race well together,” Brawn said.
“What we established early on in our research is the cars we have now are very bad in following each other.”
The aim is to reduce how closely a car ahead affects its aerodynamic efficiency. Estimating that the current regulations mean a 50 per cent reduction in downforce in this situation, Brawn says the new regulation has improved this by 30 per cent so that a car only loses 20 per cent downforce.
The aesthetics of the new cars was also an aim, Brawn added. “We want cars that look better than what you see in a video game, cars that kids want to have up on their walls. At each stage, as we have been evolving the car, we’ve had someone we are working with create a graphic representation artist to give us a feel of what the car could look like,” he said.
F1 worked with the FIA throughout this extensive process and the teams were also consulted. Another 12 months of research and development will occur before a firm concept is put into place by the end of 2019. Brawn says that he hopes these designs will encourage new teams and manufacturers to join the sport in the coming years.
“We want to create an environment where there is a queue of people wanting to join F1. The encouraging thing when Force India ran into trouble was that it had a number of suitors that wanted to buy it. If you remember Manor a few years previously couldn’t sell the team. I think the confidence in F1 has since increased. We definitely want to have a queue of people that want to come into F1,” Brawn said.