Guide to 2004 Formula 1 Rules Changes - from Autosport Mag

[sydude]

Formula 1 is heading to its second consecutive season with big changes to the format of a race weekend – even if they will not quite be as radical as they were from 2002 compared to last year.

Dealing with them in the order with which they will appear over a race weekend, the first obvious change is the demise of Friday testing. The extra two hours handed to the sm***er teams last year proved brilliant at mixing the order up – ***owing Renault and Jaguar to get a head start on the opposition at many tracks.

Instead this year the bottom six teams will be ***owed to run a third car on Fridays, although their test driver cannot be too experienced. Although this may not seem such as big an advantage as the full two hours of extra running, the switch to a one-engine per weekend format could make having a third car, capable of endless laps on the Friday for tyre evaluation, a big benefit to those teams fighting at the front. BAR particularly stand to benefit because it has Anthony Davidson on tap and its car appears a match for the front-runners.

Managing the single engine per weekend limit will probably favour the top teams, because they will have the means and ability to evaluate their engine performance better than some of the sm***er outfits. Those manufacturers that had their 2004 engine running early – especi***y BMW – are likely to benefit most from the change on the rules because they are simply better prepared in terms of experience.

On Saturday the major difference will be qualifying, which although strictly one session is unoffici***y split up into two sessions, again with single-lap running. The first session, which runs in the order of the result of the previous race (for Australia 2004 it will be Japan 2003) will decide the running order for the second session. The second session, in which cars must run in their race trim and fuel loads like last year, takes place just two minutes after the first session ends.

Although there were fears that the new format would heavily penalise the sm***er teams, because of the little preparation time between the two sessions, the reality is that it does not favour or penalise anyone in particular. Drivers and teams are unlikely to run ultra low fuel settings in the first part of qualifying because there is no real need – and the advantage of knowing how a car handles in race trim outweigh any benefit from running slightly later in a session.

For the races, launch control is now banned (added to the fact gearboxes now have to be operated by drivers). This instantly wipes away any advantage Renault had with its electronic systems and it will be fascinating to see how drivers cope with this change. Ferrari could suffer, because Michael Schumacher is a renowned poor starter.

In the race themselves, the raising of the pit-lane speed limit to 100kph increases the likelihood of three stop races. This could favour those teams that have had trouble looking after their tyres over long distances, most notably Jaguar last year, but it will still mean managing tyre performance over full race stints.

The final rule change is the revised bodywork regulations, with a two-plane rear wing and t***er engine box. Designed to increase sponsorship space it has forced the teams to work hard to recover lost downforce – something that will no doubt help the bigger teams rather than the sm***er ones.