Formula 1 racing has introduced the most radical changes ever for the new season ahead. But what are those changes exactly – and why have they been introduced?
Well the second part is easy to answer. F1 has finally decided to make its cars a lot greener. Whilst F1 technology generally leads where mainstream on-the-road manufacture follows, it has been rather slow to introduce green tech to the circuit. So it’s fixing this at one fell swoop it would seem.
Firstly, the previous 2.4-litre naturally-aspirated V8 engines are replaced by 1.6-litre V6 turbos. Also, cars will have a maximum of 100kg, around 130 litres, of fuel where there was no limit previously – and the cars must use that fuel up at a maximum rate of 100kg per hour.
The cars will achieve these improvements via hybrid technology; “ERS” – or energy recovery system which sees a second electric motor fitted to turbos.
The system uses kinetic energy generated by the rear axle during braking through an electric motor, whilst a second electric motor harnesses energy from the turbo – otherwise wasted as heat. Meanwhile, the fronts of the cars have been lowered which makes them look a bit strange and the front wings have been made narrower.
Also, there are exhaust changes which will put an end to exhaust-blown floors; the defining technology of recent years where exhaust gases helped boost down-force.
Such big changes will inevitably cause reliability problems and Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says failure rates during races could get as high as 50%.
All of this throws the F1 cards up in the air and with the new season just weeks away (the first race is at Melbourne on March 16th) anything seems possible.
Strangely, this isn’t reflected particularly in the F1 betting market. Four-time in a row winner Sebastian Vettel is still a short priced 2/1 favourite with Betfair to retain his title – so for those of us who like a small wager on Formula One to keep the season interesting, there are some interesting longshots around.
When you add into the mix the fact that CEO of Formula One Bernie Ecclestone wants to make the last three grands prix double-pointers, it makes things even more interesting.
So, for example, Vettel’s teammate Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull is a 33-1 shot with Betfair, but the 24 year-old Australian may not be content to play second fiddle to the German.
It’s a similar situation at McLaren with young Dane Kevin Magnusen and English veteran Jensen Button vying for the top spot and both available at somewhere around 15/1 with Betfair at the time of writing.
It certainly promises to be “different” this year.
