So How Come There is Overtaking in F1 Now?

2011 has seen an exciting start to the season with plenty of drama, plenty of pitstops and plenty of overtaking. This is something that has been missing from Formula 1 recently, so how come we get so much passing this year?

The FIA have been trying to get more overtaking in Formula 1 for several years now, grooved tyres, movable front wings and forcing the teams to use different tyre compounds have all been used in the past with little success. But this year everything seems to have come together perfectly to create the right conditions for lots of excitement. Strangely the few rule changes this season show that they have less to do with this increase than the FIA and its "overtaking working group" would have hoped. Lets look at the main areas.

Photo courtesy of Team Lotus

Tyres 

Or possibly tires if you're from the USA! The single biggest change this year is the tyre supplier. Pirelli have taken over from Michelin for 2011 to outfit Formula 1 with its endless need for sticky rubber. Pirelli tells us that they were asked to provide a tyre which would provide racing like that seen in Canada 2010 and they have provided even better. There was a fair bit of concern over the life of the tyres in pre-season testing which has (thankfully) not carried over into the season itself. This is mostly down to the temperature ranges during winter testing compared to the summer racing season. But now the warmer months are starting the rubber is working just as designed.

Pirelli have created their tyres with two layers of different rubber compounds. The outer layer is the serious sticky stuff which provides lots of grip but wears out quickly. The inner layer is much more durable but doesn't provide nearly as much cornering force. This is what the teams are talking about when they say the tyres are going into "Phase 2". The stickiness has gone and its time to get into the pits and get a new set. This change in compound leads to large changes in performance happening very quickly at different times for different drivers.

Teams are also required to used two different compounds during the course of one race. Thanks to the knockout qualifying system, this means that a variety of tyres are used at the start. The lap time change between hard and soft can be as much as one second per lap. But when the softer tyre runs out of grip, the harder version still has some left, which again leads to large corner speed differences.

DRS (Drag Reduction System) and Aerodynamics

Over the last few years the bodywork of Formula 1 cars has changed quite a bit. First the winglets all over the sidepods of the cars have been removed. Then the rear wings were narrowed and the front wings widened. This was part of the Overtaking Working Group's suggestions to improve overtaking, but by itself it didn't do the job. The narrow rear wing was introduced (and the winglets removed) to reduce the turbulent wake behind the car. Air that's swirling around is at lower pressure than nice still air and so any following car would not have as much grip as the lead car. The air is still moving quite a lot even with a smaller rear wing though, so larger front wings are required to help create sort the air out for the chasing car.

To improve the situation even more the Drag Reduction System (full description) was introduced. This means that just when a driver needs less drag he can get it. The wing flattens out and the top speed of the car increases. Again a large performance difference is created, this time on the straights.

KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System)

The Kinetic energy recovery system has not really factored into much talk of overtaking. It would seem that because all cars have it, its not really a difference in performance. Besides which Red Bull seem to be doing quite well even though they can only get it to work half the time! KERS works by capturing braking energy that would otherwise be lost as heat, storing it, and using it to boost engine power at other points in the lap. The big trick is that it only stores enough power for around 6.5 seconds per lap. This means that a defending driver can use all his boost well before the end of the lap. A chasing driver can still have some left before the lap is over and that, once more, leads to a big difference in speed. This time on acceleration.

Overtaking and Strategy

Large performance differences mean overtaking and Formula 1 this year has seen plenty. The DRS and tyre situation has created the differences but, most importantly, created a change in the performance of the cars during the race. This means that you can't qualify on pole and have the fastest car for the entire race. Each of the cars will have some period being faster than someone else. Maybe not everyone, but someone! The big trick is to take advantage of that change.

Mark Webber showed how important that can be in China. He spent the first stint of his race stuck at the back of the grid going nowhere before a change to the softer tyre put his car back on the performance level of the front runners. The Australian took advantage of that jump in speed to quickly climb the leaderboard. Some well timed pitstops and good overtaking were all he needed to take a place on the podium.

Overtaking is not taking place in just one spot either. There were fears that DRS would mean passing at the end of the main straight and nowhere else. Some good (or possibly lucky?) positioning of the activation zone has stopped it being too much of a sure thing. With luck (always a vital ingredient), the changes can come together and provide a passing opportunity pretty much anywhere on the track. 

The excitement looks set to continue for the rest of the season. The track in Turkey provides several passing places, as we have seen in previous years, so this year should be a classic race.

Red Bull Gives You (Flexible?) Wings!

So Red Bull are at it again. Friday Free Practice is already starting to get tedious (Luckily the races so far are not!) Vettel fastest, chased hard by the plucky Brits, while Webber fumbles around doing whatever it is he gets up to until he realises there is a race on.

MacLaren don't seem to be any closer to Red Bull than they did last time out despite a few car tweaks. But the pressure of qualifying always seems to close the gap a bit so we should be in for a close one again. Whatever Red Bull are doing with that (allegedly) flexible front wing/nose is working a treat and still no-one else seems to be able to figure it out.

Further back Alonso again showed that he thinks other people are only put into the world to annoy him. Karthikayan was carved up for daring to occupy a space obviously reserved for Fernando. The needlessly aggressive move didn't seem to improve his lap times much. He ended up 14th, just over 2 seconds off the pace. Ferrari are playing down their chances, as if they needed to, and reminding everyone that they haven't really got anything new yet to make them go faster

Other than that the story remains fairly muddy, much like the skies above the circuit. Mercedes are faster than Renault for a change, but I don't expect that will last into Saturday and Sunday. Paul Di Resta didn't manage a lot of running due to fuel pressure problems. Bit of a shame really, I think he needs more time in the car to be able to show any potential.

The DRS (Drag Reduction Sytem) activation line this time is quite a way down the straight, which should make for an interesting race. The straight is an enormous one, and the cars will still have 0.56 miles to use the system. The thinking is that using the rear wing flap for the whole straight will make overtaking far too easy, so hopefully this should be about right for getting the cars alongside each other.

Prediction time! And its easy to take the same route as last time, so I will (sort of):

Vettel to win, Hamilton second, Webber to get it together and make third.

What do you think?

Mclaren Catching Red Bull?

Image courtesy of Team Lotus

So the Malaysian Grand prix is over and the status quo is maintained, just! An interesting and unusually exciting weekend created some twists, but no major surprises at the pointy end of the field. Vettel wins followed fairly closely by a Mclaren, but not the one everyone was expecting. And Renault continue their new-found form by taking the last podium position.

Qualifying

Qualifying started slowly for Mark Webber, he didn't seem to be anywhere in Q1 at all but he still made it through. All the other usual suspects made their expected performances but it was plain to see that Ferrari were not where they hoped to be. They seem to be putting this down to some kind of aerodynamic mystery. Wind tunnel looks great, real life not so much. With no real clue about the problem, the plan seemed to be a case of cross fingers and trust Alonso to get them some sort of result.

Michael Schumacher put in another of his middle-of-the-pack performances. This, the team claimed later, was due to his DRS flap not working, but lets face it. He just doesn't seem to be as fast as he used to be. Time to hang up the gloves forever? Its getting a little depressing now, and that's just for me, never mind Michael!

At the end of Q3 Both Button and Hamilton put in fantastic laps, leaving Vettel and Webber with a big job to do. Vettel squeaked it at the last but it was clear that Mclaren are a heck of a lot closer than anyone (including me) thought they would be. The relief on the Red Bull pit wall said a lot!

Race

Renault made a blinding start to the main event by simply going around everyone else. They were helped a little by Webber having no Kers, but still a great move. Surprisingly no one managed to get hit on the first few corners, which is always nice, and then the race proper got underway.

The DRS system didn't seem to be making the impact expected in the first half of the race. Instead of lots of overtaking there seemed to be more people slithering into the first corner barely under control. Still good fun to watch though. There was some good dicing by a number of people, Webber trying to recover his position without the aid of Kers and Kobayashi just being Kobayashi for a start.

Fernando made the best of a bad situation and provided everyone some entertainment. The radio message to the pits, "I am pushing, don't worry!" made me (almost literally) laugh. Cool under pressure or what. Towards the end, as he tried to get past a very defensive Hamilton, Alonso made a slip-up and hit the back of the Mclaren. Luckily (for Hamilton at least) he only destroyed his own front wing and had to make a pit stop to replace it. The interview after the race where Alonso suggested that they "hit each other" was a classic moment. The man really does seem to have no idea that anyone else in the world has a right to be on the track. Or perhaps its just Lewis? In an extra twist, the stewards have decided that Fernando should have missed and have given him a penalty of 20 secs. They also decided that Lewis moved twice (must have missed that?) and given him a 20 second penalty as well which drops him to 8th!

Mark Webber, dragging himself back towards the front, made an impressive move on Massa. The DRS seemed to just about make up for the lack Kers and got him alongside the Brazilian. Then it was down to sheer bravery to get him around the outside of turn 1, good job!

Petrov made sure of getting his name remembered. After running wide he found an extra bit of tarmac and nailed it to get back on track, without worrying too much about the small strip of grass in the way. It launched him fully in the air and he landed with a lap full of steering gear. Classic manoeuvre and very lucky to be more or less under control as he rolled to a halt. I've had a similar thing happen with my wheel on the PC and that was a bit of a shock at the time. I can only imagine how much worse it is at 150mph! Turned out to be a bit of a shame in the end as he would have been on for a good result. If Vitaly keeps on like this he may well replace Kobayashi as my number one F1 nutcase.

I think the news worked out well for DRS in the end. There was overtaking but it clearly wasn't as easy as some had feared. In terms of the season the news is, interesting. Red Bull did have mechanical problems, but not enough to cost them the race. Mclaren did have speed, but not quite enough to win it. And Ferrari do have problems, but not quite enough to put them out of the points. Lotus Renault (the other Lotus?) are the biggest surprise so far this year, their pace is very good indeed. They must be missing Kubica like crazy right now. Watching Ferrari fight their way back to their rightful place should be good. Lets just hope they get an idea of what the problem is soon.

Bring on China, this should be good!

Full Result

So How the Heck Does DRS Work?

DRS or the Drag Reduction System is a new feature of F1 this year and I think its going to be one of the more important features of the championship. So I thought I would spend a little while explaining how it actually works because as usual, what started out as a simple idea has been made a little more complicated than it should be.

First off the easy bit, what is DRS. From a mechanical point of view all it consists of is a moveable element in the rear wing. The driver pushes a button, one of the rear wing sections moves to be flatter to the air. Drag is reduced and the car goes faster, simple! This is obviously only useful on straights because it also reduces grip. The car apparently loses around 5% drag so we can assume its at least that much  in grip too. On corners this can be regarded as a 'Bad Thing'. Now a higher top speed means that compared to another car without the DRS system activated you stand a far better chance of being able to get in front before the next corner. Now comes the tricky bit!

During the race you don't want everybody to be able to use the Drag Reduction System at the same time. If they did there would be no relative difference in the cars and the standard no-overtaking races would continue. A scheme was hatched! "What," thought some bright spark somewhere in the Formula 1 control centre, "if only a driver who was close enough to have a chance at overtaking anyway could use his DRS?" That is the simplest explanation, so here comes the tricky bit, how to do that fairly.

Two lines are marked on the track before the start/finish straight. The first of these is used to check the gap between any pair of cars. If two cars are within one second of each other (i.e. pretty close!) then the second of them gets a nice light appear on his wheel saying "DRS active". This is good news because it means that after the second line the following driver can hit his DRS button and go faster. The lead driver however, gets nothing and so has to prepare to defend, hard. Once the DRS button is pressed the flap will stay flipped until the driver hits the brake again (i.e. the first time he needs some grip again!).

Slightly confusing the issue again is the fact that the second line (the "press your button" line), seems to be before the last corner. But because they need grip to get round it, the driver doesn't dare push the button until he has made it to the straight. Allegedly if there are more than two cars in a group, all less than a second behind the next car, all the following drivers will be able to push the button. Which should lead to some major entertainment at the end of the following straight!

Now the bad news. This is only a 5% reduction in drag. Its not much and its only drag. In theory that's good for 12 km/h difference in speed by the end of the straight. Which means less than that most of the way down. In Australia that didn't seem to be enough to get properly alongside another driver. With longer straights hopefully it will be.

Of course we don't want any changes and confusion during practice and qualifying, (heaven forbid) so the system is active for everyone all the time. This does allow people (*cough* Sutil) to get it horribly wrong when they move their movable rear wing a little too soon, which is always fun! But it also allows the teams to get the gearing right for the higher speed down the main straight.

There is a chance that it will make overtakes seem a bit cheap, but I'm open to seeing if it makes the race more unpredictable. Fingers crossed it spices the show up rather than dumbing it down. Roll on Malaysia!