Rapid development pace expected in 2014

2014 F1 season

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McLaren’s sporting director Sam Michael expects a hard-fought development race in 2014 following the changes to the technical regulations.

As well as switching to new 1.6-litre turbocharged engines with more powerful energy recovery systems, the aerodynamic rules include several changes, some of which are knock-on effects from the new engines.

“The narrower front wing, no rear lower wing, completely different cooling characteristics for the turbo, lower chassis – there’s a number of pretty first-order fundamentals that are changing on the chassis,” said Michael during a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in.

“Everyone’s busy going round the loop to try and understand how the flow mechanisms are working with the new rules to extract as much performance before the first race.

“The slope you get on when you have such a big rule change is very steep compared to normal. So I think during the course of next season as well the development race to try and claw back as much downforce as you can will be a significant part of the 2014 season.

“And probably one other point is the exhaust-blowing’s gone because of the position of the tailpipe. So there’s a lot to do there.”

Michael expects to see more reliability problems next year as the teams develop the new technologies: “You’re not going to have the same reliability as what you have on the current cars,” he said.

“Do I think it’ll mix things up? Probably. I’m sure there’ll be different results that wouldn’t have occurred or stood like they do now.

“It’s another thing that’s just part of the rule changes. It’s something you have to cope with. As well as performance you have to get reliability as quickly as possible.”

2013 F1 season


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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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15 comments on “Rapid development pace expected in 2014”

  1. I was disappointed by one of Brundle’s tweets… please no loophole in the regulations again, the broken noses were enough as it was.

    Martin Brundle ‏@MBrundleF1 29 Sep
    Did I mention 2 teams told me next year’s F1 cars will look particularly ugly at the front? Something to do with new nose height regs :((

    Matt Somerfield ‏@SomersF1 29 Sep
    @peterhayesf1 @MBrundleF1 185mm from the reference plane ;) expect plenty of anteater/walrus style noses

    1. PLEASE no repeat of the Williams FW26!!!

    2. Well i mean OK guys, if a car is ugly it’s too bad, but livery can fix that too… at the end of the day this is not a car beauty pageant, what’s fascinating in F1 is the extents R&D would go to to ensure a gain in aero or packaging or… I am sure that had the FW26 annihilated the field, the walrus would’ve looked a little lovelier :D

      1. Can’t be worse than the 2009 McLaren, that car made me physically sick.

    3. I didn’t mind the 07-08 anteater-style noses. For me, nothing can be as bad as the stepped nose.

      1. I loved the Walrus nose on the Williams
        I also loved the Adrian Newey trade mark nostrils on the Leyton House car and RB6
        I think that the step noses are great
        oh and the gull wing noses on the ’08 BMW Sauber’s were to die for!
        The nose on the Ferrari Lauda drove, 312 or something, was another winner winner chicken dinner.
        Don’t even get me started on the Arrows A2 nose! Gorgeous thing it was.

    4. @roald Well they cant be much worse than the 2009 cars, they’ve gotten progressively prettier since then I think so we can hope for the same from next season.

  2. wut? my comment was deleted??? wow, this is something new. ..

  3. The reliability issues could make for some very exciting/frustrating races next season.

  4. W (@yesyesyesandyesagain)
    1st October 2013, 15:03

    A fast development pace means the teams with the money to bring new parts every race will have a big advantage. You’d have thought that the relatively static technical standards of the past few years would have allowed the mid-field teams to compete for more wins. Williams’ win last year was the high-mark for mid-field teams under the current regulations and going into next year the gap between the haves and have-nots will likely widen again.

    1. Yeah, but I wonder if maybe lots of changes where people will have to make some “best educated guesses” might open up opportunities for mid-field teams. Look at Brawn with the double diffuser…that was not some overly expensive solution.
      I’m kind of hoping the wild changes in the regs will open up someone’s imagination and allow for that big surprise. :-)

  5. Lets see how they all do then next year!

  6. Rapid development pace? In F1? Surely not! :p

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