The shape of things to come

There’s been plenty of talk about what the 2021 Formula 1 aero regulations are meant to achieve, but the really important question is whether they will work. Racecar fired up the CFD to put them to the test

- SIMON McBEATH

It is widely known that Formula 1 had assembled a group to conduct its own aerodynamics R&D during 2018-19, seeking a solution to the thorny problem of enabling the cars to race closely and to overtake more easily. In late 2019 that work was presented in outline, along with the FIA’s regulations for 2021, which encompass major aerodynamic changes to create a package that is intended to allow reasonably high downforce with a more benign wake.

The nature and intent of the changes were detailed in January’s issue (V30 N1), but in essence the new regulations outlaw the complex multiplicity of devices ahead of and behind the front wheels that, in the creation of downforce and the control of wheel wakes, were deemed simultaneously to be causing excessive disruption to the airflow encountered by following cars. This characteristic made it very difficult to follow another car closely, especially through high speed ‘aero’ corners, because of the substantial downforce losses incurred by the following car.

So next year we will have a return, after almost 40 years, to ground effect underbodies (though not quite as we saw back in the late 1970s and early ’80s), simpler front wings and front wing end plates, wheel covers and a modified rear wing, all of which is designed to contribute to a narrower wake that, furthermore, is directed upwards behind the racecar to leave an improved environment in which a following car can operate. With numbers and visualisations from its own aerodynamics research to back up these claims, there seems to be good reasons for hope for F1.