MOTOR

116 march 2015 motormag.com.au

byJAMES WHITBOURN

THE COMPLICATED EXPLAINED

GEEK

SPEAK

More power, more weight and emergency

rhinoplasty for this year’s crop of F1 cars

New Formula

T

echnical change for Formula

1 2015 won’t match 2014’s

seismic shift from high-

revving naturally aspirated V8s

to hybrid-assisted turbo V6s. Despite

a series of changes proposed by the F1

Strategy Group aimed at increasing the

spectacle of the sport, there will only be

one major tech difference.

Season 2015 will usher in new noses

designed to improve aesthetics, after the

rule book was reworked to provide a set

of specifications for which the optimal

aerodynamic solution isn’t inescapably

dog-ugly. Lotus F1, with its twin-tusk

nose, was the biggest visual offender

in 2014, with Scuderia Ferrari’s sea

creature snout a close second.

Last season’s rules came about in a

move to improve safety by lowering the

height of noses, and specified that the

nose had to be between 135 and 300mm

above the reference plane, with a cross-

sectional area of 9000mm-squared.

The reference plane, in case you were

wondering, is the underside of the

chassis (minus the skid block/plank).

The new 2015 regulations revise the

maximum height above the reference

plane down to 220mm, and specify a

tip width of 140mm. Noses must taper

to a 20,000mm-squared cross-section

150mm behind the tip, with a maximum

width of 330mm at this point. Nose tips

must begin around halfway along the

front wing. Symmetry is also specified.

F1 2015’s other tech changes are

subtler. Cockpit safety will be increased

by extending the anti-intrusion panels

up to the rim of the survival cell and

alongside the driver’s head. And overall

minimum car-plus-driver weight is up

from 691 to 702kg. The same gear ratios

have to be used for every race, too.

Renault and Ferrari have been granted

a late concession in their attempts to

catch Mercedes with the FIA ruling that

teams may now develop their engines

• the regulations allow for 48 per cent
  of the power unit to be changed this
  year – throughout the season, rather than
  having all developments done by the
  original February 28 homologation date.
  It appears someone in the FIA forgot
  to put the date in writing, giving Ferrari
  and Red Bull wriggle room. The move
  could backfire, however, with Mercedes
  said to have plenty of extra horsepower
  waiting to be unleashed. Among the
  spectacle-increasing suggestions
  not making the grid for 2015 are a
  redesigning of rear wings to create
  vapour trails, reduced brake cooling to
  bring back glowing brake discs, 18-inch
  wheels, and the reversion to spark-
  showering titanium skid blocks.
  Active suspension, which was
  outlawed for 1994, was earmarked for
  return, but that won’t be the case given
  2015’s third and final change – a formal
  ban on front and rear interconnected
  (FRIC) suspension systems – which
  amounts to a further tightening of
  suspension design regulations. M

EVOLUTION THEORY

FORMULA 1’s design revolution

happened in its early decades – rear-

mid engine cars ending the decade-

long dominance of front-engined

machines in the late ’50s; the late ’70s

“ground effect” era and the (fi rst)

turbo era in the ’80s. By comparison,

aero design since has been more

evolutionary. The rise of the nose

began with 1991’s Benetton B191 and

1992’s shark-snouted B192. The nose

had its ups and downs (depending on

constructor) through the ’90s and ’00s.

But in 2012 the stepped nose marked

the end of elegant design. Let’s hope

2015’s low noses are an aesthetic high.

Exhaust volume and

character won’t change

for 2015. There’s no quick fi x

because a 1.6-litre V6 isn’t a

brilliant generator of noise

(even at 15,000rpm) and

the turbocharger is a

highly effective

muffl er.

5 The Noise

Vapour trails won’t return

in 2015. Drag-reducing

advances in wing design

saw the vapour trail vanish

as velocities rose. Re-

engineering wing-tip trails

would come at the

expense of speed.

1 Winging it