2010 marks the second consecutive season where major rule changes have affected car design in the F1 championship, you can only have pity for the designers of the four new teams entering this year, and all the engineers who have the job of setting up cars that will behave very differently on the first and last lap.
Continuity is always a prerequisite for a successful campaign, so although there are brave words coming out of the various headquarters of the teams, a number of them will be hoping that they will not add a layer of management that slows down development of the new cars. This was part of the death knell of teams like Toyota, Honda (pre-Brawn) and to a lesser extent BMW, not being able to react quickly to bring cars up to speed.
The package of technical changes for the new season is not as significant as last year; Grand Prix racing will have a new and exciting look in 2010 thanks to the ban on refuelling during races. This divides petrol-heads into two camps, refuelling was once famously described as “as ridiculous as seeing which football team can eat their half-time oranges quickest.” Refuelling came in 1994 which brought greater strategic planning into qualifying, fuel load, tyre performance, race set-up and balance while the cars were involved in their short sprints.
There will be an element of this as cars have to use both tyre compounds, but the days of seeing a car trailing a fuel hose and ball of flame up the pit lane have gone. The rules on tyre changes could suit certain drivers such as Button – who is famously easy on them – because drivers could be getting on the “right” set after only a few laps and will need to nurse them for a long stretch with a full tank of fuel on-board. Oddly, from the initial figures supplied from the engine manufacturers, the fuel tanks vary by as much as 25 kg. This may change by the start of the season, but with space limited inside an F1 car someone could be very cross by the end of the Canadian Grand Prix when they park up with five laps to go.
Some of the other new changes include:
• Changes to how drivers are given time penalties after a race
• A reduction in the amount of one-day aerodynamic tests a team may conduct from eight to six
• Teams may now substitute aerodynamic test days for 24 hours of full-scale wind tunnel testing
• Teams which choose to bring in a driver with no prior F1 experience will be permitted an extra days’ testing on a non-calendar track
• A new clause stipulates that pit space will be allocated “on a strictly equal basis” – this space will be under pressure with the addition of new teams in 2010
• Drivers who perform multiple engine changes in a weekend will now get extra penalties.
• Although tyre warmers remain legal a new clause says the heating element may only act on the surface of the tyre
• Teams are no longer allowed to use powered devices to lift the cars in the pit lane
• Pit space – which will be at a premium next year – will now be allocated evenly between the teams.
• There are new restrictions on how teams can test tyres
• Drivers who use two additional engines during a weekend will be moved back ten places on the grid at that race and the next one
• Drivers who get away slowly on the formation lap and cannot start from their designated starting position must start the race from the pit lane.
• During safety car periods drivers must lap slower than a designated lap time displayed in their cars
Bring on Bahrain on March 14.
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