MOTORSPORT: F1 engines ain't just engines now

Casual observers may not detect the great differences in the cars at this weekend's Australian Grand Prix, so here's a helping hand

The Formula One cars Australia will see in Melbourne this Friday, Saturday and Sunday are massively different to those of the past, although – as so often in this most expensive of sports – it may be only the most avid of fans who notice.

They’ll still have wheels uncovered, just one seat centrally located with the driver almost hidden, they’ll circulate faster than any other circuit racing cars on earth and still make a lot of noise – although not as much as in the past.

The bodywork will be weirder than ever, with much lower noses and smaller wings front and rear.

The big changes, though, are under the bodywork – and out of view to most onlookers.

These F1 cars are much more complicated than any before them and inevitably they will be unreliable – it may be a miracle if half finish the 58 laps on Sunday, even if the twilight race runs to the two-hour time limit.

They’re more powerful than those of recent years, with turbochargers for the first time in more than a quarter of a century – the turbos spinning at 125,000rpm, but the throttle lag of old largely consigned to history.

The cars also have hybrid technology, more torque, are 49 kg heavier at 691kg, will be harder for the drivers to handle with so many more parameters to control but will use a lot less fuel.

The big change is that engines aren’t just engines anymore. They’re now power units.

Gone after eight years are the 2.4-litre normally-aspirated V8 engines that revved to 18,000rpm and, in the first step in a “greening” of F1, had kinetic energy recovery systems (KERS) that gave drivers short power boosts.

The turbocharged replacement is only 1.6-litres, a V6 and limited to 15,000rpm. Instead of just KERS these engines have energy recovery systems (ERS) – which comprise KERS, harnessing kinetic energy from the rear axle during braking via an electric motor and storing it in a battery pack to be reapplied during acceleration, and a second electric motor that harnesses energy from the turbo that otherwise would be wasted as heat.

ERS will provide twice the power boost for the drivers for five times longer than before – 150kw for half a minute or more a lap.

But each car will be limited to 100kg of fuel – one-third less than previously used – for the 300km race.

Gearboxes are now eight-speed, one more than before, with ratios that must be fixed apart from one change allowed during the 19-GP season.

Exhausts now have a single, central outlet above the gearbox, ending the “exhaust-blown floors” through which hot exhaust gases were directed to generate downforce.

The lower beam at the rear over which those gases exited has been outlawed in any case and the remaining wings are smaller – narrower at the front to lessen the chance of puncturing the rear tyres of a car in front.

The noses of the cars are much lower – an attempt to prevent any being launched into the air if hit from behind, as Mark Webber famously was at Valencia in Spain a couple of years back, and to reduce the risk of T-boning.

The upshot of all the changes is that Red Bull Racing’s aerodynamic advantage of the past four seasons has been negated.

Twelve days of pre-season testing have indicated that four-time world champion driver Sebastian Vettel is unlikely to add a 10th straight GP victory to the nine he chalked up in the second half of last season.

Cars with Mercedes power – the factory team cars of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, the Williams’ and Force Indias that were so promising in testing, and the McLarens in their last season before switching to Honda next year – are expected to set the pace when practice begins on Friday.

Ferrari lagged the Mercedes-powered teams in testing, generally by at least a second a lap, but is likely to be up near them, especially with Kimi Raikkonen back in one of its cockpits and Fernando Alonso still in the other.

However, teams with Renault engines need to find at least four seconds a lap – and in the case of last year’s Melbourne victor, Lotus, more – in a hurry.

Not only is Vettel on the back foot already, but Red Bull’s pre-season form gives his new Australian teammate Daniel Ricciardo little chance of the genuine success Aussie fans craved but never saw from his predecessor Mark Webber.

Bernie Ecclestone remains F1’s commercial supremo, even though he’s embroiled in time-consuming and costly legal battles, but opposed the new engines rules throughout a gestation period of almost four years.

From the start he said it was the sport’s governing Federation de l’Automobile Internationale’s president Jean Todt wanting F1 to send a fuel-efficient and environmentally-friendly message, but that “it’s all a bit of window-dressing for the wrong reasons”.

Even when pre-season testing got underway six weeks ago he insisted “the whole thing is totally absurd”.

“People want noise – something special, that’s what F1 is all about – and now we have quiet engines.”

Ecclestone reckoned the hybrid technology belonged at Le Mans, the 24-hour French sports car classic.

Australian GP chairman Ron Walker, who counts Ecclestone as a great mate and parrots his views, said in late June 2011 that these engines “would be like a tin can rattling”.

Walker even threatened to lead GP circuits in refusing to run cars with the quieter power units, saying “the sound is part of the brand”.

That came to nothing but his reservations expressed so long ago perhaps explain, along with illness, why Walker has not been in his traditional promotional stride in the lead-up to Sunday’s race.

At a time when the governing Federation de l’Automobile Internationale (FIA) and many in F1 want to curb its exorbitant costs, Ron Dennis – back in control of the McLaren team – pointed out that the latest rules have produced “the most expensive engine in the history of motorsport”.

“The same people who took us down this path are now going down another path, saying we need to reduce costs,” Dennis said.

And, with the trademark arrogance for which he is renowned, even as McLaren starts a new season after a year without a podium and now without a naming rights sponsor, he added: “If you can’t afford to be in F1 don’t be in F1.”

Fresh evidence of what a weird and wonderful world GP racing is.

Whatever the biggest rule changes in the sport’s history have done they will bring unpredictability to Sunday’s Oz GP and the season.

That may revive the global TV audience that flagged as Vettel dominated last year.

While McLaren’s Dennis plays the big political games, the engineers who need to oversee his cars – under new racing director Eric Boullier, brought in to replace ousted team principal Martin Whitmarsh – take a more measured, pragmatic and practical approach.

They see the early GPs this year boiling down to three segments: “An opening charge to establish position; a consolidatory middle stint as engines, fuel levels and temperatures are managed; and a final burst as drivers with the machinery and confidence to push press on to the finish.”

MOTORSPORT: F1 engines ain't just engines now

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