F1 details "massive difference" in performance for all-new 2022 car

Formula 1

F1 details "massive difference" in performance for all-new 2022 car

Aerodynamic efficiency will be much improved this year

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Saturday 22 January 2022 18:30

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F1 managing director, motorsport Ross Brawn has claimed the new cars for 2022 will lose only 15 per cent of their total aerodynamic performance when following a competitor.

The new regulations for the upcoming season aim to solve the dull and monotonous races fans have become accustomed to in recent times with the outgoing specifications preventing drivers from following each other through technical sections of track.

With aerodynamic bargeboards and other winglets being removed and a large focus on creating downforce through the use of ground-effect technology, the hope is that cars will be able to follow more closely and battle more frequently.

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Detailing the changes when speaking to the New York Times, Brawn explained: "The main reasons we've been able to achieve this improved racebility is the way that flow forms around the car.

"We're taking the flow under the car, and very much through the centre of the car, whereas the current cars are they're pushing the flow out sideways. In pushing the flow out sideways, it stays low and really impacts the car behind.

"We're channelling the flow through the centre of the car through two tunnels, either side of the inside two wheels, and then taking the flow very high over the back of the car. It's a completely different flow regime, the way that the air passes over and under the car."

Explaining how different flow regimes affect cars on track, Brawn continued: "We discovered in doing this process, doing this analysis, that even the cars being side by side lost quite a lot of performance.

"When you enter a corner and you're side by side with another car, you're actually losing quite a lot of performance because the current cars push the airflow out wide.

"Once there's a car alongside, that's disturbed, it doesn't function properly. Even side by side, they were losing a lot of performance.

"To give you an idea of some numbers, the current car, when it's two car lengths behind loses half its performance, half its aerodynamic downforce. The new car retains about 85 per cent, so it loses 10 per cent or 15 per cent of its performance, so it's a massive difference."