F1 Talk: Cost cap, More races and a Format changes in 2021; Too Good to be True?

On Thursday, Formula One’s financial, technical and sporting regulations for the much-talked about 2021 season was unanimously approved by the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council.

After months of debate between the teams, Liberty Media and everyone involved in the sport, a set of regulations have been agreed on.

The cars are expected to be 3-3.5 seconds slower (similar to the 2016 cars) but will be able to follow more closely, creating better racing on the track.

Currently, the cars lose approximately half of their downforce when following another car. In 2021, they should lose 5-10%. Should this come true, this is a huge positive.

A cost cap has been set at $175 million (£135 million). This is a pivotal moment as a cost cap has never been used in the sport to stop teams spending so much.

The effects of this will be seen as the 2021 season progresses and whether a team can develop as much as they can now. It puts a lot more emphasis on having a good car straight away because you can’t afford to throw hundreds of millions (if you are Ferrari, Mercedes or Red Bull) to catch up.

Brand-new tyres with 18-inch rims, the simplification of front wings and the bargeboards will make the cars less aerodynamically sensitive.

There will be no changes to the power unit, despite talk going on for a few years now about how the current 1.6 litre V6-turbo-hybrid engine is too expensive, too complicated and not even road relevant anymore due to Formula E stunning the motorsport world with all-electric racing.

F1 is still at a halfway house with the engines. 2021 was the perfect opportunity to go all-in on a normally aspirated V8 or V10 engine, instead nothing has changed in this department.

However, the power units generally converge after 5-6 years so hopefully by 2021, Renault, Honda, Ferrari and Mercedes will not have big discrepancies between their engines which puts more emphasis on the engineers and the team to get the aerodynamics on point.

The pre-race press conference will take place on Friday morning, ahead of Free Practice 1 and 2 which will now take place later in the day. Free practice 3, qualifying and the race remain unchanged.

Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull are opposed to the new rules and crucially, Ferrari have the right to veto the 2021 regulations should they deem it not in the best interest of the championship. There could yet be more debate behind closed doors.

Opinion – Not enough changes; unconvincing rules

Perosnally, I find the announcement rather underwhelming. There is nothing that shocks me, and perhaps that’s because we knew what to expect due to the talks and discussion going on for such a long time.

I am particularly disappointed at the lack of change in the Grand Prix weekend format. I am not taling about qualifying races but a more varied format rather than having the same format for 22 events a year.

Have double-headers a few times a year, a longer race or an alternative qualifying format which is used occasionally. Don’t be so repetitive.

Liberty Media also want up to 25 Grand Prix which is the wrong way to go about things. Quality over quantity. There’s also less chance of a championship going down to the final race of the year which has happened just once in the last five years (presuming 2019 will not go down to Abu Dhabi).

It makes each event feel stale, especially if nothing is done to vary the format through a season.

Although the aerodynamic changes look promising, something that hurts the racing at the moment more than anything is the tyres. They are so sensitive and have a very narrow operating window so if you push hard your tyres will overheat, grain up and you will not be able to get them back to the optimal window again, meaning the battle is over.

The tyres are so important to get right for 2021, or else the new aerodynamic regulations will not work out as well as intended and neither will the racing.

Finally, if the racing is going to be so much better, then why keep DRS? If Ross Brawn and his team say that the cars will be able to follow each other very closely and lose just 10% of their downforce, surely it’s time to get rid of the artificial gimmick that is DRS.

DRS is fine at the moment because it helps the racing but I would much rather see more natural racing which we had before 2011. Is that a clue that the rules are being overhyped? I believe so.

I guess so far, it is all talk and we will see what actually happens in 2021 and the seasons following that. There is no magic bullet and I cannot help but feel that Ross Brawn and Liberty Media have missed the boat in some areas and should have changed/done more.

It’s not often F1 gets these opportunities and in my opinion, it’s an opportunity that has gone missing. Liberty could have really stamped down their authority and radicalised the sport. To me, it’s more of an evolution.

The racing should improve (hopefully substantially) but I still think we will have three teams with a gap to the midfield. With such big aerodynamic changes, there is the chance that a team can dominate and carry that momentum for 2-3 years (just like Mercedes in 2014-2016).

Personally, the changes are not bold enough and whilst all the talk is positve right now, it will be an underwhelming, anti-climatic feeling after the first few races of the 2021 season.

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