Teams have backtracked on plans to make cars five seconds faster. TG investigates

I’ve been completely tuned out of F1 since November. What’s going on?

Remember last year, when F1 bosses agreed to reduce lap times by at least five seconds by 2017? Well, it doesn’t look like that will happen after all.

At least, not to the same degree. Pirelli made a presentation to teams before Christmas expressing concerns over the proposed regulations, which were set to bring in a huge increase in downforce as well as more mechanical grip from wider tyres.

The problem was that they would have to increase the minimum inflation pressures to 27psi in order to cope with the increase in loads through the corners. That would have made the rubber slower, not faster, thus undermining the whole point of changing the rules in the first place.

Oh. So Pirelli have ruined things once again?

Not exactly. Mercedes warned teams that this would be the case in November, although they were (not entirely unfairly) dismissed as simply trying to protect their competitive advantage.

However Pirelli had similar worries, hence their pleas for a rethink.

That wasn’t the only issue though. Many engineers believed that increasing aerodynamic downforce would make it even more difficult for cars to follow each other than it already is, in turn making racing worse.

And overtaking is rare enough already.

Fair enough. So this has nothing to with Pirelli?

It has something to do with Pirelli, but it’s not entirely their fault.

The long-term worry is that they have essentially said they cannot meet their brief based on the planned tyre dimensions for 2017, which will be frustrating to those who think the sport would be better off with a provider like Michelin.

It adds weight to the claim that Pirelli aren’t up to the job, although few envy the task they have been set by the FIA.

Building compounds which combine high performance with a range of different lifespans is desperately tricky, and it’s hard to come across as an expert when by design your product is required to be less good than is physically possible.

And in any case, they have a contract to supply tyres until 2019. So debating their future is, for the time being, entirely pointless.

Righteo. What happens now?

The teams go back to the drawing board, essentially. They have been asked to look into what effect dropping two key proposals will have on the overall package; namely the planned redesign of the underfloor and the intention to widen the cars from 1400mm to 1800mm.

Having said that, plans to make tyres broader and spaced further apart remain in place at this stage, as do alterations to the shape of the front and rear wings.

It has been reported that officials now expect an improvement of three seconds per lap next year, rather than the five or six that had been hoped for originally.

We won’t know what the team’s suggestions are until they’ve completed their research, although the FIA aims to have the final regulations in place before the start of the coming season in March. Until then, we’ll just have to be patient.

That doesn’t sound very encouraging.

No it doesn’t, but then these things take time. It’s better that they’ve recognised the problems now rather than ploughed on regardless.

The biggest issue (for fans especially) is that despite F1 making a huge effort to listen to criticism from all corners of the sport, there doesn’t appear to be a cohesive movement towards addressing everyone’s concerns.

Better, closer racing should be the top priority moving forwards, however that particular goal has been overshadowed somewhat by the focus on improving outright speed above all else.

There’s no doubt that putting a bit more distance between F1 and GP2 is a good thing, but will anyone notice the jump in performance if the same cars are dominating at the front?

Arguably, they won’t.

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