In the round-up: Alpine executive director Marcin Budkowski says that teams initially lost a second per lap due to F1’s new rear floor regulations.
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What they say
Budkowski says teams are already converging on the same solutions for the loss of downforce due to the rear floor changes:
As every team, we lost a chunk compared to last year, due to the the changes at the back of the car. Everybody’s been quite busy recovering it. I’m not going to tell you where we ended up exactly but everybody looks at recovering all of it. We lost over a second a lap to start with and then obviously we’re recovering and recovering.
It’s a challenging area, because when you touch an area like the rear corner, you get into correlation issues usually between the CFD, the tunnel and the track. I don’t think it was intentional, actually, from the FIA to pose that extra challenge. But I think it was it was maybe a slightly unintended effect of these rules, it proved trickier than we expected initially, it’s not just the piece of floor missing, it’s actually quite a bit of a headache as well on top of it.
It makes it interesting, you can see there’s different solutions on different cars. It’s usually the case when you have a new regulation that I’m sure is going to converge, it’s already converged during the test. So we’ve been doing some testing there, as a lot of other teams. We’ve had good results, good direction, good understanding – obviously, correlation is challenging there, but no surprise that not only we’ve gained some understanding, but we’ve improved performance of the car.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
Links
More motor racing links of interest:
Fernando Alonso: Two-time world champion is back racing in Formula 1 (BBC)
Asked if he thinks he’s as good as Hamilton, Vettel, Raikkonen and Verstappen: “No, I’m better.”
Nissan becomes the latest manufacturer to commit to Gen3 era of Formula E (Formula E)
“Nissan today announced its long-term commitment to the Formula E world championship through to the end of season 12 (2025-2026) of the all-electric racing series. Nissan joined the series in season five as the only Japanese manufacturer. The Gen3 era of the championship begins in season nine (2022-23) and will feature even more powerful, faster cars.”
Bahrain Grand Prix Preview (Williams)
“The pre-season run-up has obviously been a little different to normal with the shorter schedule test taking place in Bahrain and only having one day in the car, so I’m looking forward to getting back out on the track. It’s been a huge amount of hard work from everyone at the factory and here at the circuit to get everything ready to go, so I’m incredibly excited and motivated to start the new season and see what kind of progress we can make this year.”
Brundle and Hill expect Verstappen to challenge Hamilton for F1 title (The Guardian)
“The sight of Lewis standing beside a stricken car in a gravel trap, you have to do a double take, when did we last see that happen? Or Lewis spinning on cold tyres coming into the pit straight? “
Michael Schumacher’s legacy pressure will be no issue for son Mick (The Express)
“He has got talent, because he won Formula 2, because otherwise he wouldn’t be with us. Michael was a seven-time world champion with two different teams, two with one, five with the other, so he was an exceptional talent, you get one of these guys every 20 or 30 years, with exceptional talent.”
FIA Girls On Track – Rising Stars gathers even greater momentum (FIA)
“The Commission is proud to announce that Ferrari is extending its agreement with the FIA, to potentially have four female drivers become members of the Ferrari Driver Academy (FDA). In addition, Deborah Mayer’s unique Iron Dames women in motor sport project has become a main partner of the programme, adding yet further value.”
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Today in Bahrain I’m wearing a T-shirt bearing a pic of Mike Beuttler walking back to the pits at Monza in ’73, after his March 731’s gearbox failed. Beuttler is one of only 3 #LGBTQ+ drivers to have started an #F1 GP. He died of #HIV/#AIDS in ’88, aged 48. #RIP #WeRaceAsOne pic.twitter.com/Ey0JIB1iee
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