James Allison, Mercedes Formula 1 technical director, asserted that new aerodynamic regulations will restrict down-force performance. He believes the team would only be able to manage to 2019 levels this season.
The changes were enacted to control the wear of Pirelli tyres. The teams struggled with their tyres through out the last season due to an increased down-force.
The decline in downforce will naturally resulted from the restrictions enacted on other aspect of aerodynamics. Initially, floor size was restricted which followed three other aspects under the regulations.
Allison appeared in a Mercedes video, where he commented on the new regulations. He asserted that minor changes will lead to a significant impact on down-force.
“The combination of those four effects in their rawest form just cut-off and trim back in a way that the rules require brings the performance of the car way back to sort of somewhere near 2019 levels.
“It’s been our challenge over the weeks and months since those rules were set in stone to try to recover as much of the performance as possible.
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“That has been quite an entertaining ride in the wind tunnel and in CFD to try and make sure that we get that performance as far as possible back onto the car.”
“There has been a triangular cut-out to the edges of the floor in front of the rear wheels which when you see it you’ll think, ‘that doesn’t look that big,’ but on its own in its rawest form if you just chop that area off your car it’ll take about a second a lap away from the car.
“At the back of the car underneath in the diffuser area the fences were reduced in height so that they can’t go as near to the ground. [And] they can’t create as good of an aerodynamic seal to the ground as they did previously.”
Few changes were made to make tyres more durable, which added a variable to 2021. The new set of tyres for 2021 are anticipated to be 3kg heavier.
“We got a first glimpse of these new tyres back in Portimao in 2020,” said Allison.
“That’s not really very much opportunity to take on board a new tyre and get ready for a new season with it because these tyres will affect the way that the car performs, and they affect the way that you have to design the aerodynamic platform, and the way that you have to set up the car.”
