MOTORSPORT: Like it or not, F1 revolution is here

Mercedes, powering four teams, is seen to have developed the best powertrain, Renault, the world champion engine of the past four seasons and also powering four teams, the worst, with Ferrari, supplying its factory team and two others, somewhere in between.

It is a radical new era of F1, with hybrid technology supplementing V6 engines.

Bernie Ecclestone, still the sport’s strongman despite his myriad legal problems, calls the changes – imposed by the rule-making Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) – a farce and absurd.

Ron Walker, the Australian Grand Prix chairman for the event’s almost two decades in Melbourne, has said the engines will be “like rattling a tin can”.

Luca di Montezemolo, president of Ferrari, always the centerpiece of F1, has said that these powertrains, the fuel conservation that will be necessary with them, as well as the preservation of tyres that has become another key feature of the sport, makes GP racing like “taxi-cab driving”.

“I prefer the sort of F1 where you need to always push the limit,” di Montezemolo said.

Two of these gentlemen are in the twilight of their lives, the latter nearing it. The reality is that a new era dawns and it is enormously exciting, most of all because of the sheer unpredictability – of how the grid will look after Saturday’s qualifying, how many cars will finish on Sunday and in what order, and how the season will pan out.

There is a great irony that it is Jean Todt, the Frenchman who ran the Ferrari team for Montezemolo in its most glorious era with Michael Schumacher in the cockpit but is now the FIA president, who has driven the changes, although the seeds were sown under his predecessor Max Mosley.

Todt has said the new regulations “take into consideration the evolution of technology”.

“What is the pinnacle of motorsport? It is Formula One. So Formula One has to take into consideration the evolution of the industry, otherwise it may not remain the pinnacle of motorsport,” Todt said.

A principled position that, rather than the commercial pragmatism of the other trio. Todt’s direction may not prove ultimately to be a winner with the fans, and his all-electric Formula E open-wheeler world championship starting in September even less so, but he  won the fight to put it in place.

Already it seems almost certain that these new rules will negate Sebastian Vettel winning what would be a record 10th straight GP.

They also diminish the chances of a big finish by Australian youngster Daniel Ricciardo in his debut as Vettel’s teammate in the so-long-dominant Red Bull Racing team.

Red Bull is one of the four teams with the Renault powertrain and at the end of 12 days of pre-season testing its RB10 car was more than four seconds off the pace of the best Mercedes-powered cars.

The Mercedes factory team, Williams – which has switched to Merc this year – and Force India rotated at the top of the timesheets at the last test in Bahrain. The fourth Mercedes team is McLaren, which is trying to regroup after a year without a podium but a record of fighting its way out of adversity.

Ferrari may just be the sleeper in the pack, especially with a fabulous driver line-up now – Fernando Alonso, perhaps still the best of the modern crop, and Kimi Raikkonen, the Finnish “Iceman” back with the Prancing Horse after being paid out a few years ago to make way for Alonso.

Spaniard Alonso talked at a Ferrari function midweek of “trying to do the maximum” on Sunday. That is the hallmark of his and Raikkonen’s driving. You’re never left to think they could have done better in a race.

Ferrari’s Achilles heel, according to paddock whisper, could be its fuel usage.

The cars now are restricted to 100kg for a 300km race, as well as a flow rate, which could make the final laps of this year’s races especially strategic.

While Renault suddenly is the underdog and has been working around the clock since the end of the last pre-season test in search of sudden improvement, it spared its director of track operations, Remi Taffin, for an hour late Thursday to brief a small group of Australian media on F1’s technical changes and the French company’s offering under them.

While not confident, especially about this first race, the undertone was that Renault is considerably more hopeful than would have been thought reasonable and realistic. Taffin took reassurance that on longer runs the Renault powertrain was a lot closer to the Mercedes cars than the simple sheet of fastest laps suggested.

He emphasised that Renault’s F1 engine philosophy was not simply about horsepower but rather driveability and reliability.

Asked to explain what he meant by driveability, Taffin said it was how responsive and consistent the power unit was to the driver’s call through the throttle – and, as an extension of that, how much confidence a driver could have that it would perform as he wanted.

It was an enlightening session, with Taffin revealing that Renault does not anticipate its engines being taken to anywhere near the 15,000rpm limit but rather “only” 12,000-12,500rpm.

A problem for all teams, but especially those with Renault power, has been cooling and finding the right interaction between the internal combustion engine and the other two units recovering energy from the exhaust and braking.

The traditional engine can generate up to 600 horsepower and the others combined another 160hp, which can be drawn on for more than half a minute a lap.

Renault’s hope appears to be based on an inkling that, if the cars using its powertrains – especially those of Red Bull and Lotus obviously - can survive until the final quarter of the race, fuel will be the crucial factor at the finish. It may be wishful thinking. Perhaps exceptionally wishful thinking.

The BBC’s chief F1 writer Andrew Benson, whose coverage of the lead-in to this season on bbc.com has been exemplary, questioned yesterday whether any Renault-powered car will make it to the end of the race.

“One senior figure with in-depth knowledge of Renault’s situation predicted this weekend would be ‘ugly’ for the French manufacturer,” Benson wrote.

“The Mercedes engine is producing much more power for a given amount of fuel. It has been lasting much longer, too.

“Red Bull’s car may well still be the class of the field in terms of aerodynamic downforce, but under this new set of rules engine performance is expected to be the dominant factor in performance, initially at least.

“Red Bull are facing a season in the midfield.”

All of which adds to the glorious uncertainty of this new era, especially in its early days. Even if Mercedes or Ferrari come out of the blocks best this weekend, Taffin exuded a confidence that after three or four races Renault would find its feet again.

And that, combined with Adrian Newey’s genius at Red Bull and perennial underdog Lotus (which won in Melbourne last year and has developed a radical nose with two prongs of different length), it could yet retain its title as the top power supplier.   

The other uncertainty in the immediate future is new drivers.

Ricciardo has 50 GPs under his belt with the now-defunct HRT and Red Bull-owned Toro Rosso but steps up to the energy drink company’s flagship team. The best that can be expected of him is that he comes close to the brilliant Vettel.

The true rookies who could make an impact are Dane Kevin Magnussen at McLaren and Russian Daniil Kvyat with Toro Rosso. Fresh young blood may be better suited to the new technology than some of the older generation like Jenson Button, although he is a man never to be under-estimated and a three-time winner in Melbourne.

Niki Lauda, the triple world champion who is the nominal head of the Mercedes factory team, has predicted that the top three in Melbourne will be Merc drivers.

If the legendary Austrian is right the order most likely will be Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Felipe Massa, the Brazilian who has surfaced at Williams after eight years at Ferrari.

It attracted plenty of fan attention at the Albert Park circuit, with Australia’s 1980 world champion Alan Jones, Scotland’s 13-time GP winner David Coulthard and Australia’s five-time motorcycle world champion and now national karting chief Mick Doohan on hand.

However, what was anticipated to be a major announcement fell way short on detail. The engine supplier and how the championship, which will push Formula Ford into the shadows, will be run is either not yet decided or not revealed.

CAMS president Andrew Papadopoulos is hopeful of F4 running at next year’s GP and V8 Supercar events.

The Mygale car will be demonstrated on track at Albert Park on Sunday.

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