This would normally have been a Bahrain Grand Prix-view but seeing as it was cancelled its just a collection of general thoughts on the upcoming F1 season. The final testing session is underway in Barcelona with teams getting their cars ready before shipping them off to Australia for this seasons opening Grand Prix.

There have been a Number of rule changes for this season. The big talking points from the last 2 years F-Ducts and Double diffusers have both been banned and Kers makes a return to the F1 Grid. More teams appear to have it on board this time as the minimum weight has been upped by 20kg, which is quite a bit in F1 terms. Gearboxes now have to last 5 races instead of 4 which rewards reliability and all wheels have to have an additional wheel tether on them to try and stop wheels becoming detached in the event of a crash. There are also fixed weight distributions for cars to stop  any one team getting lucky with the weight distribution because of the new Tires. This leads me onto the biggest changes for the 2011/2012 F1 season.

New Tyres
Pirelli replace Bridgestone as tyre supplier to Formula 1 and by all accounts have been told to make the tires degrade more than the Bridgestones did. This should increase the number of stops and the strategy element comes more in to play. Drivers who are easier on the tires like Button should also benefit by getting more performance for longer, whether that will make enough difference only time will tell.

Movable rear wings
The new rear wings have a movable vein in them to allow a driver to reduce drag at the push of a button. These are only allowed at certain points on the track and only when a driver is within a second of the car in-front. This should increase over taking and they are also allowed to be used at any time during qualifying and practice.

The re-introduction of the 107% rule
Originally introduced in 1996 when the total number of entrants fell to 26 cars and was designed to stop really slow cars automatically starting and just getting in the way. The 107% refers to the cars time in the first part of qualifying and there will apparently be some leeway where a car can't do a run due to mechanical failures for example. I also believe performance in practice will be taken in to account in some circumstances.

More Penalties from Stewards
Ex-drivers being on the stewarding panel was a resounding success last season and their powers have been increased this season to give them more options of sanctions against drivers who violate the rules. These include time penalties, disqualifications or even kicking out drivers from the following race(s)

A New Curfew
Teams are barred from the circuit over night for a 6 hour window to stop teams working all night every race and allowing mechanics at least some sleep. This seems a sensible thing to me when a mistake from a tired mechanic could put someone's life in danger. Teams are allowed up to four "jokers" which they can use through the season to ignore this rule as at times they may need to re-build a car that has crashed for example.

Team orders "Return"
After the débâcle of Germany last year and the FIA once again failing to act in the face of Ferrari cheating, the FIA have decided to remove the no team orders rule which is a massive shame. Instead of being tough and heavily penalising teams for cheating , because it was Ferrari they pandered to them once again and have now changed the rules to suit them. I maintain had Schumacher had to actually race his team mate his 7 titles would have been less and therefore they are tainted. Brilliant driver he may be but had they been allowed to how many points would Irvine and Barrichello taken off him? Can you tell I'm not in favour of this change?

Part 2 will be coming next week

….oh go on then


Written by Steve Jarvis