While the 2021 Formula One season is one of continuity on the technical front, revisions to aerodynamics have thrown up a new challenge for Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One™ Team.
The field has been split by a fundamental design philosophy regarding rake, which plays a key part in the make-up of the 2021 Formula One cars.
Rake is easily identifiable on a Formula One car and refers to the ‘nose down, raised rear’ look of the machines and the idea of a high-rake car is to generate more downforce from the floor and diffuser.
While the rake design has been a trend over the last decade in Formula One, there’s been a divergence in teams using a high-rake or low-rake design, with the latter focusing on generating more downforce from the floor.
Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One™ Team has carried the low-rake philosophy of last year into the current season and the revised ruleset has created challenges to overcome.
A low-rake design relies on the floor significantly and the change to the rules that require revisions to the rear of the floor around the rear tyres has created a knock-on effect impacting the AMR21.
As the Bahrain Grand Prix represented the first time in which teams operated in conventional race conditions, the potential disparity of high and low-rake cars became more apparent.
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“After analysing the data that the low-rake cars were hampered significantly more by the aero rake regulation change, we expected a tough race in Bahrain,” explains Otmar Szafnauer, CEO & Team Principal.
“But there are some positives to take out of it, when we're on the soft and the medium tyre we looked pretty competitive in the midfield, we overtook some of our competitors and were catching some of the others.
“We struggled a little bit on the hard tyre at the end, we've got to understand that but, in race conditions, we were a bit more competitive than we were over one lap in qualifying.”
Comparisons to the 2020 season also show the impacts of the rule changes over the winter.
“Look at where we were three, four months ago here in Bahrain at the same track,” added Otmar. “Now the tyres are a bit different and there’s a significant difference in the regulation change and we finished 10th in a very different race.”
While not an ideal start, the results of the Bahrain Grand Prix have focused the mind and long-planned upgrades will be made with an eye on improving the AMR21’s balance.
Otmar explains: “We have to start looking for more downforce and it'll be rear downforce that we're looking to improve.
“With that comes better balance and being able to dial in more front wing will help, too.”
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On the face of it, a raise of the suspension would theoretically create a higher-rake car, but the regulations regarding homologation mean the team cannot make significant changes to the suspension without development tokens.
Despite the challenges, the battle for victory in Bahrain came down to Red Bull, running a high-rake design in 2021, and Mercedes, using a low-rake design. The closeness of the battle demonstrates there are gains to be found in a low-rake design.
“Hopefully, by the time we get to Portimão, we will improve the car a little bit more and we'll work hard at it,” explains Otmar.
“I think a lot of the teams are a lot closer to Mercedes this year than they were last year, including Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari.
“Look at the lap times and you can see that the field is much, much closer this year.”
#IAMSTORIES: Bahrain Grand Prix
Go behind the scenes of Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One™ Team's opening race of the 2021 Formula One season.
The relentless innovation and drive to improve is a cornerstone of Formula One and it drives Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One™ Team forward in pursuit of its goals in 2021.
Development of the 2021 and 2022 cars is running in parallel, as is the case for most of the teams, but it will not detract from the push to improve the AMR21.
“We haven't and don’t intend to give up on this year and we have found things in the windtunnel and in CFD, so we'll start bringing them to the track pretty soon,” said Otmar.
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