F1 News
2021 cars up to 3.5 seconds slower!
It has been revealed that F1 cars in 2021 could be up to 3.5 seconds slower than in 2019, once all the new rules are applied. The new regulations for the 2021 season are set to seriously shake up the pack and make F1 more exciting and unpredictable.
Aerodynamics have been significantly altered for 2021 which will hopefully lead to cars being able to follow their rivals much more easily.
However, this will have an impact on speed. During a press conference at the Circuit of the Americas, the FIA's head of single seater technical matters Nikolas Tombazis said: “We are expecting cars to be approximately between three and three-and-a-half seconds slower per lap.
“We don’t think that is the key parameter of the spectacle, we think the raceability is the main target."
However, F1's technical director Ross Brawn was quick to point out that those speeds are similar to those from 2016, adding: "Just to put that into perspective, that’s the performance of a 2016 car.
“These cars from 2016 to 2017 had a huge increase in downforce.
“It’s worth thinking back on that experience because it was done for reasons I don’t understand.
"The huge increase of downforce was [with the idea of] ‘Let’s make the cars go faster [and] that must make Formula 1 better.’ All we’ve done is we’ve actually made it worse because the cars can’t race each other."