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It has been over a month that the 2010 Formula One Season has come to an end and it is time we look on into the changes for the 2011 season.
On a whole we saw an exciting season with Red Bulls dominating throughout the season. There were threats from the McLaren in the middle of the season and the Ferrari to the end of the season but in the end the Red Bull team prevailed. We also saw another German Bloodline addition to the Formula One Drivers Championship with Sebastian Vettel becoming the youngest ever Formula One Champion.
Let us look at changes proposed for the upcoming season part by part.
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Firstly the aerodynamic changes for the 2011 season
Firstly let us look at some extracts from the FIA press release on December 12th 2010 regarding the Sporting Regulations of the 2011 Formula One season and then infer the changes from it.
Driver Adjustable Bodywork
With regard to the adjustable bodywork of the cars next season the FIA has specified that only some specified rearmost and uppermost closed sections may be varied whilst the car is in motion. The amount of variation allowed is also specified in their regulations.
It is also specified that the adjustable bodywork may be activated by the driver at any time during the free practice and qualifying sessions. But during the race it can only be activated for the sole purpose of enhancing his opportunity to overtake. It can be activated only when a driver has completed two laps after the start of the race or after a safety car period.
The driver can only activate it when he has been notified via the control electronics that it is enabled and which is enabled only when the driver is less than one second behind another driver at some pre – determined positions around the circuit. As soon as the driver breaks for the first time after activating the system it will be deactivated.
Aerodynamic Influence
In additional to the driver adjustable bodywork regulations on the aerodynamic influences have also been specified. Any specific part of the car influencing the aerodynamic properties should be secured tightly to the entirely sprung part of the car and must not move with respect to the spring part and they should be attached directly.
The teams are also prohibited from using any device or procedure that alters the aerodynamic characteristics of a car by using the driver movements.
Inferences
The above regulations suggest that from the next season drivers can adjust the rear wing from the cockpit by changing the angle of incidence by some specified angle range. As it is mentioned that only the rear and top parts can be moved it suggests that the movable front wing used in 2010 season will not be allowed in this season. McLaren and Red Bull had profited very much from the movable front wing last season while the Ferrari did not gain much of an advantage compared to these two. The rear wing was much debated last year regarding its existence and the drivers not being able to control it properly. Amidst all the speculation it stays and just hope that security issues are taken into account while deciding the pre-defined points on the track.
The F duct which was also there in this year’s edition will also not feature in the next year’s edition and was voted out by the teams. The F Duct was not very much expensive but is said that more ideas and thought still has to be applied over this addition. This was mainly used at straights by the cars to attain high speeds by preventing the drag force due to down force. McLaren was very much keen on it being implemented for the next season also but other teams turned down the plea.
The next modification which we will see is the KERS or the Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems will feature in the 2011 season. KERS was introduced in the 2009 season and not all teams could take advantage of it. Teams such as Ferrari, McLaren, BMW and Williams did use it to some effect in the 2009 season. The system was dropped from the 2010 season the weight issues being the main spoilsport as this system did add on additional weight. However the 2009 season was dominated by Brawn GP which ran without the KERS system. KERS regenerates energy by taking the waste energy and converting it into useful energy for the car mainly in the form of additional power. But there were also restrictions on it and as we do in video games (refer NFS) where the nitro boost cannot be used on a regular basis here also only at certain times the drivers were allowed to use it.
But with regard to the KERS system in 2009 the cars were allowed to refuel and thus the fuel tanks were comparatively smaller. But this season no refueling is allowed meaning larger fuel tanks. Hence it will be a challenge to fit in the KERS system and this may lead to increase in size of the cars. The increased size will also mean increase in weight. Maybe to accommodate this change the FIA has increased the minimum car weight from 620kg to 640kg.
In the next article we will see about the changes to the tyres, gearboxes, penalties and qualification.
(Based on press releases made by FIA’s official site)
