This weekend’s race in Valencia will make the start of a slightly new era in Formula 1 as the FIA has instructed teams that the exhaust-blown diffuser is no longer allowed and so engine maps will have to be changed and team will have to struggle with changed aerodynamic performance.
In future when the driver lifts his foot fully off the throttle pedal, then the ECU maps must be set up so that the engine closes the throttle – whereae previously it was possible to configure the engine maps to leave the throttle open and reduce the engine power by other means. In addition the engine maps must be configured so that they cut off the fuel supply to the engine to avoid other clever tricks with combustion. The new rules will mean that the ECU cannot be reprogrammed between the race and qualifying, which will stop teams having exaggerated maps for qualifying sessions.
It is anticipated that the loss of downforce for the teams using such systems will be significant and the key will be to find the right balance, particularly under braking where the exhaust-generated downforce was most useful. Thus we need to watch out for cars becoming more unstable under braking and presumably a few drivers complaining about understeer.
Hi Joe,
Enjoying some great posts here this week.
I thought the off-throttle mapping changes were only being enforced from Silverstone onwards, with this weekend introducing the interim rule that engine maps used in qualifying must be the same as at the start of the race?
I thought this was being introduced for silverstone?
This could not only change the pecking order of teams but drivers as well. I remember hearing that the introduction of off-throttle mapping was what let Vettel gain such a consistent advantage over Webber around mid-2010, specifically on accelerating out of a corner, Webber could deal with the previously inconsistent build up of downforce out of the corner better than Vettel, who prefers the smoother consistency of continuously blown diffusers. This might all be fluff of course; like ‘Button loves understeer’.
Drivers would be complaining of oversteer and not understeer no? The ban on either cold or hot blown diffusers and floors will affect mid car and rear aero performance, not front. What will happen in my opinion is that teams will have to move the aero balance rearwards in order to rebalance the car.
Joe, is this not happening from Silverstone?
I thought it was ‘as you were’ until then…
Interesting Joe – do you have a view as to who will be the most impacted by this? Clearly RB have an optimised package and good traction/balance out of the slow corners – which not definitive might point towards a highly effective exhaust diffuser. Ditto Mercedes?
My hunch is that Ferrari have the most to gain.
Joe
does the new exhaust blown diffuser rule start this weekend or at Silverstone?
Keep up the great work and all the best
pjcb
I’m surprised that the standardised ECU allowed such extreme programming in the first place. Anybody know more about this?
What I find most interesting, is how much this will effect the car.
Is it a minor issue, that will just trim off the Red Bull and Renault advantage, especially in Q3, or is it a fundamental part of the car’s aero concept that will truly reshuffle the 2011 cards ?
Given the large speed advantage the current “Aliens” have, will it jumble the pack up enough to really give us a decent fight for the Drivers Title ?
This is good news indeed, Joe. Will this mean Red Bull Racing will no longer be dominant? You never know, maybe they have an ace up their sleeve. Whatever happens its seems one can guarantee Vettel on the top step for qualifying and the race this season. But the engine mapping clampdown could truly have an effect.
Joe – was waiting for you to mention the engine mapping rule change – I don’t understand, as I thought the drivers could select multiple engine maps from steering wheel control (12 settings??) – so surely they can use 1-4 for qualifying, 5-8 for race, with some spares for limping/sensor faults/in lap economy without ‘changing maps’ between qualifying and the race ?? Is this not how they work ?
I must admit I was a little surprised by this post. Most people have been reporting that from Silverstone blown diffusers are banned but after looking around some more I am now of the impression that hot-blown diffusers are banned as of Valencia, meaning all of the throttle map restrictions and so forth whilst cold blowing will be banned by Silverstone – meaning mechanical changes to the cars. Am I on the right track?
It will be interesting to see whether or not Red Bull run their typically aggressive rake angle given the shift in aero-balance and loss of diffuser performance… Then again I’m sure Newey will come up with something!
Joe i thought that the drivers change between engine maps all the time during the race via dials on the steering wheel. How will the quali and race engine map be policed?
Ive heard they can only change map at pitstop with laptop but i thats not how i understood changing maps to work…
I thought that the this change was from Silverstone, but the change for Valencia was that the teams would no longer be allowed to change from a qualifying engine map to a race map?
The diffuser engine mapping changes come in over the next two races and it is really too complicated to go into which bit happens where…
It should help Sauber, I think I am right in thinking that they don’t have this? You could see how this affected the exit speed for Kamui when nick ran into the back of him. The WDC needs a change so it doesn’t become the Seb show although alas it may be too little too late.
Fair enough. Thanks Joe.
James makes a very good point but I fear the truth may not be as straight forward as one might expect. Surely the FIA wouldn’t allow such an obvious loophole but on the other hand I cannot imagine how they will police that… I’m betting there must be a perfectly complicated explanation in proper F1 fashion.
Not too complicated… James Allison: “The headline changes for the Silverstone Grand Prix are as follows: when the driver lifts his foot fully off the throttle pedal, then the ECU maps must be set up so that the engine [to all intents and purposes] closes the throttle – previously it was possible to configure the engine maps to leave the throttle open and reduce the engine power by other means.
“Furthermore, when the driver lifts fully off the throttle, the ECU maps must be configured to cut off the fuel supply to the engine – this is intended to prevent so called ‘hot blowing’ where the energy of the exhaust gas is increased by combustion.
“Finally, with immediate effect, it will no longer be possible to reprogramme the ECU configuration between qualifying and the race in the expectation that this will discourage extreme ECU setups for qualifying – previously electronic access to the ECU under parc ferme conditions had been explicitly permitted.”
Ben Bailey,
Nottoo complicated if you time to get into such details
To be clear, the rule limiting the throttle position to 10% on the overrun (affecting both hot and cold blowing) will come into force for Silverstone. For Valencia, the only change is that teams can no longer change engine maps between qualifying and the race, so if they were to run an extreme engine map in qualifying (as it is suggested that Red Bull do), then they would have to run that engine map during the race as well – which would be unacceptable for the health of the engine. I imagine that ‘cold’ blowing, ie keeping the throttles open but not injecting fuel, will still be used throughout the race in Valencia.
Will be very interesting to see what happens in next 2 weekends. I don’t think it will simply be a case of RB suddenly falling back into clutches of the rest of the field as it will affect most cars on grid. Wonder if any teams use any of the practice sessions to test the settings that will come into force in Silverstone ban.
Of course we’ve seen this before this season, track or circumstances under which Red Bull are supposed to be beatable and then Vettel or Wbber romp to pole position.
I feel this is an attempt to destabilize the Red Bull dominance at the top. FIA was aware that Renault and Red Bull were working in this area since last season. If FIA had to be fair it could have clamped this area end of last season rather waiting to see Red Bull running away with title and then reacting clumsily.
Reminds me of the Michelin Tyre tread saga of 2003 and Renault Damper saga from 2006, even in those cases the said party was using that idea for more then a season before FIA vindictively forced the team to go back and make fundamental design changes mid-season. At least then there were no Budget caps, Resource restriction agreements and more importantly no mid-season testing bans.
I am sure if one of the front runners had introduced the idea of Double diffuser in 2009 FIA would have deemed them illegal, just coz a underdog used the trick FIA approved it and fixed 2009 season results.
Bloody race fixing…
@ Chris
cold blowing is not affected by the rule changes – it will still continue after silverstone.
basically the rule is that from silverstone onwards, hot blown operation will be limited to 10% of what it currently is, and from valencia onwards, you will not be able to change your engine map between qualy and the race.
at the moment i believe the driver controls related to the engine are limited to fuel / spark mapping, but do not extend to large scale off-throttle operation (i’m guessing they can fine tune the positive torque under decelleration to stop the rear wheels locking tho) so the drivers won’t be able to change between a hot blown and non-hot blown map from the cockpit.
I’m not really a big fan of the FIA tweaking / changing the rules mid way through the season. It kind of seems like the FIA is trying to mix up the results a bit more, generate some entertainment. It’s almost like Jean Todt has been sitting around going “it’s getting a bit boring having Vettel win 5 of the 7 races to date, lets have a look at what Red Bull are doing well, and we will ban that, that’ll mix it up”. Or maybe the mysterious horse whisperer has had a chat to Todt, and complained about how unfair it is that Red Bull and McLaren are winning everything.
Joe is Sauber using a hot blown diffuser?
Brent,
No.
Well it makes an odd kind of sense to me: enough changes to make Valencia a bit more interesting, and hopefully enough time for the teams to iron out “artificial” pecking order changes so as not to make Silverstone a crap shoot. Like others, i am really interested if this gives MW better chances to close the gap. Theatrically, i think it’s not bad at all, to have big rules changes at about half season. Craig Scarborough is excellent at explaining, and crucially, illustrating, these very technical things (i’m pretty dim, when it somes to sussing new things, so if i can get it . . ) for those who’ve not taken a gander. Hmm, complex rules changes to distract teams smack bang on the start of the silly season . . handier for other reasons also? – j
I also read that teams/drivers will not be allowed to change the engine map between qualifying and the race, though how far into the race was not stated. This more than anything may affect red bull who are thought to use an aggressive re-heat during qualifying, somewhat whimsically termed “exhaust valve cooling” by our Aide. They could not run the same degree of hot blow during the race without burning something (supposition)
It is maybe the map change banned this weekend and hot blowing at Silverstone.
To quote you Joe ‘It is anticipated that the loss of downforce for the teams using such systems will be significant and the key will be to find the right balance, particularly under braking where the exhaust-generated downforce was most useful.
Thus we need to watch out for cars becoming more unstable under braking and presumably a few drivers complaining about understeer.’
Lets hope not too unstable given Webber Kovalainen last year
This is a bit of a shame. One thing I really enjoyed in Montreal was the Bren gun clatter of the Renault cars on the over run! Totally unique. However, hopefully this will even things out a little. It was very obvious that, in the wet, Kamui Kobayashi was able to dance his Sauber through the corners as fast as everyone except Seb V. Once the racing line dried, though, he was eaten alive and only really held people off temporarily because he managed to get decent drive once he was back on the throttle.
One more thought… I wonder whether it might not be oversteer that we see more of, not understeer, and potentially that nasty snap oversteer under braking. The centre of pressure for the EBD system should be somewhat behind the driver (as the floor of the car only starts under their backsides) so a loss of downforce at that point would shift the aero balance forward, unloading the rear. Add in to that the slight unpredictability of some people’s KERS regeneration systems (which have already caused a few mishaps as the system kicks in or cuts out suddenly while the driver is on the brakes) and we could see a few cars swapping ends like an early Porsche 911 on a wet B-road!
Interesting clarification thanks to Craig Scarborough, the prohibition on altering the engine map dies when the red lights go out. So in theory a qualification setting can still be used, which could then be switched to a race setting at the first pitstop…
@Martin,UK
At least this has given us something to look forward to (though it could be a false alarm), because otherwise we’ve nothing to be excited about thanks to another boring track and a rocketing Vettel-shuttle.
@HeadWithWings: I thought that as well on first reading this. Then I read something a little bit more in depth elsewhere which clarified things. If you lose rear downforce from these tweaks to the regs you then have to move the aero balance further rearward to compensate. Then under acceleration out of corners, you potentially get an extra load of rear downforce from the exhaust gases suddenly becoming energised, which would then make the car more prone to oversteer (at least on corner exit). It will be very interesting to see how it unfolds certainly as lack of stability and consistency in a car tends to be one of the harder things to drive with and still push (from what gathered anyway).
Just a thought but when I read this – “when the driver lifts his foot fully off the throttle pedal” then why don’t the drivers push ever so slightly on the throttle even when braking to get the full effect. It might be impossible (limited mechanical knowledge but willing to learn) but that was the first thought that popped into my head.
I think Newey anticipated this (on basis of F1 history) and I think we will see that the strength of Red Bull does not lie in the off-throttle blown aero. I think they hit a sweet spot with the tightly packaged rear end. So sweet that they were willing to sacrifice KERS over it.
Maybe this explains the aggressive rake of red bulls?
What Williams 4Ever said.
Bloody race fixing.
So I stay on 0.1% throttle throughout..?
Hopefully this will liven up a race on a deathly dull circuit.
For John C., and Googol,
(since this is now the weekend, racing wise, and in play)
I do not understand how engine maps are not a simple Q of adding more notches on the steering wheel dial . . if you want to turn it up to 11.
More for Googol,
Considering how some teams have not been able to get their engineering talent behind any of this new stuff, and that is also a function of having enough money, how far do you think Newey can design a car, firstly to balance the blown off throttle exhausts, and also have a backup plan for without? Obviously the guy’s a raving genius, but that much so? I mean, all that would have had to be in at least computational testing all the way, if he can stride out with a perfect car, sans the tricks that definitely have helped them. Or, is this why the KERS got so sidelined? I shall take my worry over MW away from that Q.
– j
I’m so dumb, Scarbs just explained all what i was bothering about. – j