Bob Barnard Track Engineering

The first day of the 2014 F1 season is in the books. A new era and a complex car for the teams and us to understand. What did we learn from the first two sessions?

Red Bull has made a huge step since testing and is not far off the pace set by Mercedes. Williams is continuing its testing good form, Ferrari is doing OK, and Lotus is nowhere. I for one had considered we could see very few cars finish, and a possibility of none doing so. That appears not to be so, at the moment, but we did see that very small problems can cause major problems. Hamilton had a sensor problem on his very first lap and lost the whole 90 minutes. He overcame that quickly in the second session to top the time sheet, so obviously already has a good handle on how to drive these machines. Raikkonen stopped at the end of pit lane without a first gear engaging. He was back out, but there are obviously very small margins involved here.

The "brake by wire" is surprising most teams. This is actually a misnomer as they are still hydraulic, but there is an ECU sensing the rear braking from the energy recovery and balancing that with the pressure from the driver. Grosjean was caught badly and hit the wall, while the Toro Rosso boys had numerous offs due to this.

The speed of the cars is down on last year, but this is early days with the new car and the margin is only about four seconds, some of which is down to not having the super softs here this year. Pirelli are playing it a bit safer. Tires still need looking after, and this combined with the fuel flow and amount will require a lot of management by the teams and drivers.

It was obvious that the drivers have had to adjust their race lines with wider entries and exits, a more sweeping line to maintain momentum through the corner, and then handle the oversteer the increased torque induces. This led to a few problems with wheels on the grass on entry, and some wild rides on exits. Lots of astroturf and gravel flying. Raikkonen even brushed the wall on entry at one point he was so wide.

There were several comments that they were too quiet for F1 cars. Now as many of you know I am a bit of an old purist and not always in favor of all things "green", but here I do agree with a lower niose level. It is still a good sound by all reports, but it is hard to judge from TV. The in-car sounds like a sewing machine. It is said that you no longer need ear plugs, which is no bad thing. What is the difference if without them you are hearing 100 decibels, and when the cars used to make say 120, which was reduced to 100 by the ear plugs? Just numbers for example. You get the point. One the biggest obstacles to motor sport in developed countries is the noise level, not the fuel used. Just ask Croft and Malllory Park in England. So, lowering the noise level of race cars without diminishing the show is important.

I mentioned the problems of Lotus, but at least they got on track. Caterham did not get either car out, so it begs the question, not how many will finish but whether some will not start. The 107% rule will have to be interpreted leniently.  

Just received the April Edition of Motor Sport, which is one of their best. I highly recommend you find one to read their comments on the current state of F1 and what they think needs to be done to fix it. Mark Hughes and Nigel Roebuck being right on the mark as always. To quote Martin Whitmarsh in his comments on current track design, " When you get a circuit map like Abu Dhabi, you don't need simulation, you don't need anything-you just wonder. What the hell were you thinking!" Thanks Mr Tilke for that and all the rest.