There are hardly 15 days to go for the 2010 Formula 1 season kick-off in Bahrain. Almost all the teams have launched their 2010 challengers, and tested them in the official test sessions at Valencia and Jerez. The 2010 season sees some rule changes, though not as radical as what we had seen for the 2009 season. The biggest difference would be the banning of refuelling, which poses designers with the problem of accomodating a larger fuel tank. Another change is that the front tyres are made narrower, in comparison to last year. This is done to address the imbalance of front and rear grip that resulted from the reintroduction of slicks last year.

Longer Wheelbase
Cars are believed to be at least 15 cm longer than in ‘09. The longer wheelbase is actually necessitated due to the  demands of accomodating a larger fuel tank. However, a longer car woluld be lazier through the corners, and therefore, this is where the designers ingenuity could come into play. Moving the driver cockpit slightly forward, and building shorter gearboxes could be two ways of making more space for the fuel tank. Among the cars launched, some have looked longer than the rest. It would be interesting to see how they all perform on track.

Larger Fuel Tank
With the banning on refuelling for this season, the capacity of the fuel tank needs to be almost doubled. It is believed that a fully fuelled car and a near-empty one wuld weigh different by at least 200kg. This would lead to change in ride heights(and the centre of gravity) as the race goes on. A heavier car also tends to be more brutal on it’s tyres and brakes. It is believed that drivers like Jenson Button and Micheal Schumacher who know how to nurse their car through the race stand to win big this year, in comparison to the Hamiltons and the Alonsos wo go hard at their machinery. Also, it is believed that some engines are more fuel-efficient compared to the others, and that could affect race performances more this year. The Mercedes engine is widely regarded to be the best at the moment; however the Renault engine is supposedly the most fuel-efficient.

Narrow Front Tyres
When slicks were reintroduced last season, it led to a sudden increase in the mechanical grip. However, the tyre sizes  remained to be the same as that for previous seasons, since all the design work had gone forward with the previous dimensions. However, this had led to much greater grip at the front, causing the rear end of the car to be ‘loose’. Last season, designers had to come up with things to address this grip imbalance. But, for 2010 FIA has reduced the front tyre width. This would increase straight line speed by reducing drag. Also, a higher volume air can funnel between the tyres (space between the tyres has increased by 50mm in total), which will improve the efficiency of vanes and bargeboards in this region. However, this comes at the cost of lower front grip, which affects cornering speed. The net effect will be to give the car more of an understeer feeling.

For the 2010 season, DDD or the double decker diffuser is legal(although they would be banned from the next season), and all the teams have invested big in this area. Also, none of the teams would be having KERS this season and so there would be no ‘magic button passes’ this time round. Along with all these technical changes, we have 4 (possibly 5, if Villeneuve gets to race) world champions in the grid. With introduction of some new teams, Toro Rosso and Force India would no longer be the back markers and they are expecteed to fight in the mid-field. The wide range of fuel loads everybody are testing with, it is impossible to judge the pace. Only the Bahrain race weekend can give us answers about the pecking order for the season. Let’s wait and watch, as it’s racing time again.

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