Ferrari: New F1 rules will make cars 1.5s slower

F1 has made several aero changes for this season, introducing simpler front and rear wings, brake ducts and bargeboards to try to make it easier for cars to follow one another.

At the launch of Ferrari’s 2019 car, the SF90, new team principal Mattia Binotto – who was chief technical officer until last month – joined the many senior figures who have predicted a swift development race to recover the time that has been lost.

“We predicted an impact of 1.5s per lap when we [first tested] in the wind tunnel [and] it’s what we got,” said Binotto. 

“So, these cars are heavier compared to last year, and the aerodynamics, especially the front wing, has been simplified a lot. The expectation has been 1.5s and that has been [proven]. 

“So, now it is how much we recover of the 1.5 seconds during the entire period of development. How much the others recovered, only the track can tell.”

The changes to the front wing have a significant impact on the aerodynamic performance of the whole car. 

This is because the team’s now have less intricate designs to try to manage the airflow and have less control over how to direct it downstream. 

Earlier this week Racing Point technical director Andrew Green characterised it as “a lot of optimisation and redesign work”. 

He also reiterated his concern that the changes will improve the spectacle as intended.

“Ultimately we may struggle to find out if these new rules improve the racing and unfortunately I don’t think they will help close the grid up,” he said.

“But what we know from looking at our data is that they produce a significant loss of performance, one we are still fighting to recover.”

Andrew Green, Racing Point F1 Team Technical Director, Lance Stroll, Racing Point F1 Team, Sergio Perez, Racing Point F1 Team and Otmar Szafnauer, Racing Point F1 Team Principal with the Racing Point F1 Team RP19

Photo by: Racing Point