Brawn calls for aero clampdown

Ross Brawn is convinced further radical rule changes are necessary to increase overtaking and improve the spectacle in Formula 1.

It was hoped that the return of slick tyres, a big reduction in aerodynamic downforce, adjustable front wings and Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems for 2009 would generate much closer racing than in recent years.

But although cars are now able to follow each other a little more closely owing to a reduced aerodynamic wake, passing moves have not been noticeably more frequent.

Brawn believes the key reason for this is that the cars still generate much too high a proportion of their overall grip from aerodynamic surfaces, which are sensitive to turbulence, rather than mechanical grip from the tyres – and that no amount of tinkering will work until this nettle is grasped.

“I still think we’ve got the ratio of tyre grip and aerodynamic grip wrong,” he said at Suzuka last weekend.

“I think we’ve got far too much aerodynamic grip and not enough tyre grip.

“We really want a lot of tyre and mechanical grip and we want to diminish dramatically the aerodynamic grip, and then I think you’ll get cars that can race with each other more effectively.

“These cars are better than we had last year, for sure.

“But we’ve still got cars which rely heavily on aerodynamic performance, and because they do, it’s very difficult to create a package whereby one car can follow another.”

One factor that blunted the planned downforce reduction was the loophole in the regulations that spawned the controversial twin-diffuser designs pioneered by Brawn, Toyota and Williams and subsequently developed by the rest of the F1 grid.

But Brawn believes the damage was done earlier, when teams resisted more radical measures to slash downforce and the governing body acquiesced.

“I think there was a reasonable push to be very draconian with the aerodynamic regulations, and it was resisted too much,” he said.

Brawn’s comments echo the assessment of the FIA’s technical consultant Tony Purnell, who admitted earlier this year that the rule changes had not gone nearly far enough and described the F1 community as “deeply conservative”.

“If we’re going to give the fans what they want, we’ve got to take another step,” he said.

Brawn conceded, however, that identifying the problem and finding effective solutions were two different matters.

“There’s lots of theory, but putting it into practice is very difficult,” he said.