Tech Talk: The challenges of India - Yahoo! Eurosport UK
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Formula One heads to India for the first time ever this weekend – so what can teams expect and what challenges do they face as they prepare to race on the new Buddh International Circuit?
Grand Prix teams and drivers are getting used to taking on new circuits these days, with a regular supply of additional venues on the calendar in recent years.
The new Indian circuit, near New Delhi, is 5.14 km in length with significant altitude changes and its layout typical of the design seen on many new circuits, with long straights into tight hairpins as well as a mix of high and medium speed corners.
Despite this, early indications are that it will provide a real driving challenge, a complex set-up approach and a variety of strategy options.
The long right corner that comprises turns 10, 11 and 12 has already been picked out as perhaps the most significant talking point, similar to Turkey’s popular turn eight but instead of being flat-out it will require some throttle management by the drivers as they negotiate a complex run of apexes.
According to Red Bull, the circuit is set to have the second highest average speed on the calendar at around 235km/h (a lap time of around 1m18s) but tyre manufacturer Pirelli is predicting around 210km/h (1m27s per lap), showing the wide range of unpredictability the teams are facing as they head into the weekend.
LEARNING CHALLENGE
All drivers will have driven virtual laps of the Indian track, either on personal computer gaming systems or on the high-tech simulators that most front-running teams use on a day-to-day basis.
This initial learning is essential, and within a few laps on a simulator an F1 driver can quickly hone in on the target lap time. This was clearly demonstrated when I visited Red Bull Racing’s simulator before the start of last season and saw Mark Webber getting to grips with the new Bahrain circuit, driving a lap for the very first time then shaving off at least one second per lap each time he completed his next tour of the track.
The simulators are not perfect, however, particularly for new circuits when teams have not managed to collect any data of their own. They only give drivers an indication of the layout and, according to Webber, get them just 85 percent of the way to perfecting the track performance.
That remaining 15 percent – a significant amount in F1 terms – can only come from learning the intricate bumps and kerb levels that the teams simply do not have the data to simulate for a brand new track. And that comes from a combination of the Thursday bike ride or track walk and the opening day’s F1 practice itself.
SET-UP CHALLENGE
As always, engineers face the difficult compromise between downforce and drag as well as mechanical set-up elements such as optimising gear ratios and managing suspensions stiffness to be hard enough for minimal aerodynamic movement but soft enough to handle the bumps and kerbs.
The long straights in India demand low drag but there are some quite high downforce requirements in the slower sections and the challenge is finding a balance to suit the aforementioned fast T10-12 section and the slow hairpins at turns 3, 4 and 16.
Some teams say simulations point to high downforce and medium breaking requirements, and some say it will be similar to Korea and Suzuka. All predictions will simply serve as a starting point for engineers to develop their set-ups, however, and that makes it particularly crucial to focus down quickly on a good set-up on Friday morning and develop that through the day.
The use of DRS is likely to push teams towards using a higher downforce set-up that suits the low-speed sections as standard, with drag then being reduced, particularly during qualifying, using the wing system.
The problem is, new tracks lack basic grip from the off and as the rubber is laid down that grip level evolves. So while finding an initial set-up is vital for preparations, so too will be anticipating how that grip level will evolve during the weekend.
TYRE CHALLENGE
The India circuit includes some corners with high loading but track temperatures are expected to settle at less than 40 degrees, making tyre wear a bit of an unknown.
The high corner loading, particularly on the front-left tyre through the T10-12 section, will put significant work through the tyre, but the severity will depend on the initial surface – which is understood to be very smooth – and then how the track rubbers in.
Pirelli has opted for quite a conservative tyre selection, picking the soft and hard options with the aim of providing one tyre that is very durable and one that offers more performance but with increased wear. They have predicted a lap time difference of more than one second per lap, maybe even two, between the two types.
If the temperatures and energy loadings prove to be low, the soft tyre should be the ideal one to go for as it will be easier to generate grip but won’t be too adversely affected in terms of wear, while the hard tyre might be difficult to warm up and therefore provide a significant loss in performance.
On the flip side, if the corners prove challenging and the temperatures go high, the hard option will be safer and the softs could last much fewer laps, meaning more softs would be needed for the race and more pit stops required.
DRIVING CHALLENGE
The circuit looks set to provide a few good overtaking spots, particularly with the use of KERS and DRS, the latter rumoured to have two zones for this weekend’s race.
If reports are correct, drivers will be able to use their DRS on two separately detected sections, the first on the main straight and the second, perhaps most significant of these, into the hairpin at the end of the long straight between turns three and four.
In terms of a natural challenge, the early part of sector two will offer significant interest, with five quick turns that require a driver to have a good rhythm to maximise their speed. Any mistake on entry and that lack of pace will be carried right through the section.
The 215 degree T10-12 will also be one to watch out for, as drivers will be looking to maintain speed at around 200km/h around here and with the multi-apex nature there could be a variety of lines that work well, making this area key to setting up an attack later in the lap.
Elevation is significant, with eight percent of the circuit sloping downhill and ten percent uphill, and there are four main sections of significant change, the most sudden being at turn 15, which sees a short rise on entry and an even sharper drop at the exit.
This elevation presents a range of challenges including the physical effects on the body due to the additional vertical forces in play, the visual effects that make it harder for drivers to pick apexes accurately in blind corners, and the effects on car performance both in braking and acceleration due to the hills.
STRATEGIC CHALLENGE
Strategies will be very much dependent on early running, as teams get an understanding of where they are at with the tyres they have – and it could be a tight balance between tyre performance and pit stop time.
With a long pit lane running at around 600m teams may look to make fewer stops – but with the soft tyres expected to offer a significant performance benefit they could in fact go for a higher number of stops if the conditions make the speed advantage of those tyres outweigh the loss of time in the pits.
Some teams have even suggested the hard tyres will only be used because of the rule that they must run on both types of tyre during the race, and that could lead to a strategy similar to that adopted by Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa at the Nurburgring earlier this year, where they made a stop at the end of the race and used the hard tyre for just one lap.
