Wider, faster cars planned under new regulations
Wednesday 30 September 2015 13:16, UK
With F1 set for a rules shake-up in 2017, Sky Sports Digital spoke to Pat Symonds who is helping come up with the new regulations.
There has been a lot of speculation and rumour around what the rules will be 2017. How much progress has been made so far in coming to a set of rules?
"I think we are getting on pretty well. The teams are talking to each other via the technical regulation meetings, the Strategy Group is giving some direction in terms of what they want.
"It is quite a long process and it needs a lot of detail put into it, but I think the basic concepts are there and we are evaluating through computational fluid dynamics what the aerodynamic effects are and using our models to try and predict some lap times."
Some teams will split their design crews into two working so they are working on cars on alternate years so some will have already started on their first designs and drawings. When is the latest a team would need to know about the 2017 rules?
"The sooner the better, it really is quite late. When you go back when we had the last big bodywork rules shake-up for 2009, something I was quite involved in as part of the overtaking working group, we spent a long time on the rules themselves and then there was quite a long gestation period while the rules were published and people picked them apart before we got to the final iteration.
"I must say for 2017 time is running short now, there is a lot of detail to do and we really need to be closing down on it in the next couple of months."
Is there a danger that by the time everyone has their say that the rules won't actually deliver on the original mandate?
"I don't think so because there is quite a mood for change. The brief from the Strategy Group was that it was to be evolutionary change rather than revolutionary change because in the early days we were looking at some quite futuristic ideas. Nevertheless they want something that does look a bit more modern.
"I was certainly worried at the beginning of the discussions that there was a move to go very retro, everyone said 'oh didn't the cars look great in the whatever, 90s etc' and they did for their day, but that is not the way it should look now.
"So I am really hoping as we evolve these rules, and I'm pretty confident, that we will get to a point where we have quite a good looking car. Yes some of the elements of the old cars are there with the wider tyres and things like that, but really looking a bit different without being these very futuristic dream cars. They are going to be what I think a modern Formula 1 car should look like."
What sort of ideas have been put forward? Flat floors? Lower rear wings?
"I guess the first thing that will strike people is that the cars are going to be wider. The tyres are also going to be wider. The wing configurations are going to be different. If you look at it in plan form, the car from on top, it is going to have a little bit more of a delta shape to it.
"The rear wing will be a bit wider, a bit lower, a bit further back. The front wing will be maybe slightly more simple than some of the really complex wings we are seeing now, although that is still open to debate.
"I think the cars will look sufficiently different and yet you will be able to see the genes that have really formed the future cars."
If you had the final say, what kind of changes would you be making?
"I'm really pleased to say I'd be recommending pretty much what we are going to do. I'm quite happy with the way the rules are evolving. There is still a way to go and until our next meeting we will be evolving and developing an awful lot.
"Let's hope as we get to maturity there is not too much argument about the direction and the detail as I think we are on a reasonable path at the moment."
