The diffuser, which manages airflow under the car and contributes mightily to downforce, is larger too, as are the barge boards that manage airflow around the sides of the car. The front wing is 6 inches wider, the rear wing is about 6 inches lower, and more swept back. The car is wider and longer, following rules that gave engineers another 8 inches to play with. Mercedes is among the five teams that have revealed their new cars, and to the untrained eye, its W08 EQ Power+ doesn’t look so different from the outgoing W07 Hybrid. “You’ve got this bigger, more powerful beast around you,” says three-time champion Lewis Hamilton, who drives for Mercedes. With opening day just a month off, teams are revealing their new cars and gathering in Barcelona for pre-season testing. Not everyone agrees the new rules will do that, but we’ll know soon enough. Formula 1 is on a perpetual quest to increase overtaking, and therefore excitement. The goal is to make races, which in recent years have largely been processionals behind reigning champs Mercedes, more exciting. “It’s a very substantial change to the regulations,” says Frank Dernie, a veteran Formula 1 engineer.
#F1 2017 CARS UPGRADE#
Throw in wider tires for better grip, and teams expect to cut lap times by up to five seconds and increase cornering speeds by up to 25 mph-fast enough that the FIA asked every track to upgrade its safety standards. The new cars will be wider and more aggressive in appearance, with wider front and rear wings to increase downforce. And so the rule makers at the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile rewrote the sports technical standards for the 2017 season. Speed brings spectacle, and Formula 1 definitely wants more spectacle. The more downforce you have, the more speed you carry through turns.
The sports engineers never stop tweaking the car’s wings and slots and vanes, aiming to increase downforce while minimizing drag. If you want to make a Formula 1 car that can already top 200 mph go even faster, you don’t worry about pushing it forward as much as you worry about pushing it down.
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