Take an F1 car from last year and compare it to the ones you'll see in Melbourne this weekend and the difference is striking. 2009-spec F1 cars look more like they did 15 or 20 years ago.
Gone are the winglets, chimneys, turning vanes and bargeboards that festooned the cars in recent years. Instead, the surface area is largely smooth and uncomplicated, and aerodynamic downforce has been reduced by around 30 percent.
The front wing sits lower and wider, causing triple world champion Niki Lauda to declare that F1 cars "now look like harvesters". But it's adjustable, allowing the drivers to alter the car's drag.
The rear wing is much narrower and higher than before, and the rear diffuser is longer and set further back. These elements will reduce the wake turbulence produced by the car at high speed, and ultimately make it easier for a following car to overtake.
To compensate for this loss of downforce, slick tyres have been brought back for the first time since 1997 to boost mechanical grip by about 15 percent.
The most controversial addition to the car is KERS. Hidden under the bodywork, it's a battery that stores energy generated by braking. This energy can then be released to boost acceleration for up to 6.7 seconds, by pushing a button on the steering wheel, which will generate as much as 80 extra horsepower - roughly the same as a family car. It's said that KERS could be worth up to 0.3 seconds per lap, but the system isn't mandatory this season. The only teams who are running it in Australia are McLaren, Ferrari, BMW and Renault.
With some teams running KERS, some not, the drivers now having control of power boost and aerodynamics, and only a few of them having driven an F1 car with slicks before, this season could prove the most difficult to predict ever. But above all, we should see an increase in overtaking.
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Good post, there's a few on a similar subject kicking around right now. This is one of the better written ones though.
Really benefited from reading this over my morning coffee.
Nice!