Drivers insist that huge variations in speeds whereas harvesting doesn’t pose a security subject.
At a time Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman are pouring chilly water on the idea that the brand new rules will produce a feast of overtaking, there’s one facet of the brand new guidelines that can enable drivers to nail a rival.
With a 50/50 cut up between ICE and electrical energy, drivers might want to harvest power as typically as doable, which, as beforehand predicted, will result in events when drivers really sluggish on straights, typically via downshifting moderately than merely lifting-off.
Whereas one driver slows, the driving force behind, assuming that he too is not harvesting power, will make his transfer and cross.
„George handed Colapinto while Colapinto was doing his lengthy runs,“ revealed Toto Wolff following the Barcelona shakedown. „I believe it was like 60km/h (37 mph) or 50km/h (31 mph) straight-line velocity distinction.
„We’re going to see rather more overtaking,“ he added. „We’ll see it in areas that we would not anticipate. So, other than the very fact of the quickest automobiles with the most effective drivers, it is also going to have this extra dimension of clever driving and techniques which are going to be straightforward to know, for my part, for Formulation 1.“
After all, this big differential in velocity raises security issues, and whereas one instantly thinks of Montreal, the place a driver on a scorching lap immediately finds himself behind a a lot slower automotive about to dive into the pitlane, as George Russell has beforehand identified, there are tracks like Jeddah, with its quite a few blind corners, and tracks like Monza and Baku.
„It may have so little downforce within the straights,“ mentioned the Mercedes driver in Canada in 2024. „It is virtually going to really feel such as you’re simply flying by the air.
„You possibly can think about in a race that it begins raining and also you’re on slick tyres, and also you’re doing 250 mph on a road circuit, that is going to be a little bit of a sketchy place to be, so these are questions that have to be answered,“ the Grand Prix Drivers Affiliation director warned.
„On the subject of security, sadly, historical past has advised us that incidents must occur earlier than modifications are made,“ he added. „All people must do a extremely thorough job forward of those rules, as a result of the automobiles are going to be so fast.
Whereas his fears regarding moist races stay, he’s now extra relaxed concerning the distinction in speeds in ‚regular‘ situations.
„There are going to be some examples of main closing speeds,“ he admitted following Barcelona, „I do not suppose that’ll be an issue in dry situations. It might be an issue in low-visibility races. Nonetheless, if there’s low visibility, that clearly means it is moist and if you happen to’re driving within the moist, since you’re going across the corners a lot slower and the braking distances are longer, you are re-harvesting rather more and also you’re spending a lot much less power.
„Over the course of a lap, you will have rather more to spend and there will be much less of those main de-rates. So, in moist situations, there must be loads of power to spend throughout the lap and also you should not have these main closing speeds.“
„I obtained near a few automobiles, and I made one overtake, which was a reasonably large velocity distinction,“ mentioned Oscar Piastri post-Barcelona, „however I believe that particular person was simply being good and letting me cross.
„I believe the velocity variations can be perhaps a little bit bit greater than what we had with DRS,“ he added, „however I do not suppose there’s going to be any harmful situations of automobiles doing wildly totally different speeds.
„With such an enormous distinction in energy, when you do not have the battery deploying at full energy, it is 350 kilowatts, it is a whole lot of horsepower distinction, so we type of want some indication,“ admitted the Australian. „So we have labored fairly intently with the FIA throughout all of the groups in attempting to make it as secure and as apparent as doable when issues are occurring that we’d not anticipate.“
