21/12/2021
NEWS STORY
Ross Brawn admits that, all things considered, the current-spec F1 cars are "not very good racing cars".
Despite the fact that they are among the fastest cars in the history of the sport, Ross Brawn will be glad to see the back of them.
The F1 technical boss, who won titles with Benetton, Ferrari and, of course, his own Brawn GP, is the driving force behind the new era of car due to his the track next season as the sport seeks to level the playing field and improve the spectacle, not least by allowing cars to follow one another more closely than the current aero rules permit.
Asked if the current-spec cars will in time come to be regarded at the ultimate in F1 cars, the Briton tells F1TV's Tech Talk: "I think it depends on what your definition is of the ultimate Formula 1 car.
"If it's the fastest, possibly," he adds. "If it's the best racing car, no.
"I think these cars are far too critical when they're close to each other," he continues. "They're far too critical if they touch a kerb because a piece flies off and then they don't work anymore.
"They are incredible devices," he insists, "I mean the complexity of them is amazing.
"It's the methodologies they've now got," he continues, "with reiterative software, which just keeps checking and checking and checking until they arrive at the ideal design for a specific area of the car.
"Every piece is critical to every other piece, and when one piece gets knocked off, because they are racing cars after all, it doesn't work properly.
"That's been one of the focuses on the new car, that we try and make them a bit more robust, a little simpler, a little less critical," he adds. "No doubt, the teams will complicate the concept, but then I think we can pull it back again.
"So they're fascinating and incredibly impressive designs," he says of the current-spec machines which took their final bow in Abu Dhabi, "but actually not very good racing cars."