We’ve had the odd epic race in the sport of Formula 1 this year. Baku was an absolute shit show in the most exciting sense of the term, Monaco was exciting for our boy Ricciardo (albeit rather boring otherwise) and China was a masterclass of pit-stop strategy combined with Danny’s wizard-like overtaking skills.
Well, the latter event has become the primary focus of the FIA’s future intentions with these incredible looking concept cars for the sport’s 2021 season. Currently, the car’s designs are so reliant on clean air for downforce (which is chewed up and spat out by the car in front) that they rarely get enough speed heading into corners to make a pass. Races like Singapore last night are prime examples of how stagnant a race can get when you’ve got a narrow track and few straights to build up the required speed.
“What we established early on in R&D is the cars we have now are very bad in following each other,” said F1 big boss Ross Brawn. “Once the cars get within a few car lengths of each other, they lose 50 percent of their downforce. So we set about understanding why that was and how we can improve it. I’m pleased to say we’re now at about 80 percent [retained downforce].”
He admitted that the necessity to make the car visually attractive also significantly swayed the design objectives. “We want cars that look better than what you see in a video game, cars that kids want to have up on their walls.”
The framework for these 2021 cars is said to be ready for teams to begin work on in 2019.
Take a peek at the stunning vehicles below.
