2021 F1 cars going to “be a real nasty piece of work to drive”

The 2021 Formula 1 cars will be a “real nasty piece of work to drive” according to SportPesa Racing Point technical director Andrew Green due to airflow coming off the front wing possibly affecting the handling of the car.

The aim of the 2021 regulations being put into place is to allow for cars to follow each other easier with a reduction of the amount of dirty air created by current and previous cars.
 
While the reduction of dirty has been proven Green says that air created from a drivers own front wing could potentially cause issues, wanting more freedom around its design to avoid any problems.
 
“I think there are areas that could do with being freed up around the front wing,” he said to Motorsport.com.

“Around the front of the car I think it’s incredibly restrictive to the point where it’s really going to hurt the handling of the car.

“It's going to be a real nasty piece of work to drive. I think it’s something that if they allowed a little more freedom would allow us to sort that out, but still retain the intent of the ground effect car and low following wake.”

In recent years the look of F1 cars have change, most notably in 2017 with longer, wider looking cars and more aerodynamics for faster cars.

But the increase in aerodynamics made it harder for cars to follow closely and now with the new regulations the aero could make the car unstable.

“Aerodynamically it’s going to be quite unstable. I don’t think that’s a nice thing to have,” Green added.

“You want cars that are a bit more predictable, so that drivers can attack, be sure what they’ve got underneath them, they know what’s going to happen, they can drive the car at the limit knowing that it’s stable at the limit. From what I see at the moment none of those statements are true for 2021.

“It’s more about what’s happening at the front of the car, and where the dirty air is going, right into the tunnels. The car currently is creating its own dirty air.”