Motorsport: Formula 1 really starts today

The Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas during the F1 tests at the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit. Photo / Getty Images

Today Saturday 24th March 2018 is the first day of the new season for the Formula One circus.

Yes, I know they have been testing the cars in Barcelona and that the cars were on track on Friday but today is the first time in the season that all the cards, or whatever cards a team has to play with, will be on show.

Qualifying brings the best out in the teams and the drivers.

I also know that any mechanic of any team, any designer or engineer, will say that the season 2018 started just a few days after season 2017 finished.

I know all that.

But today success will be on show, deficiencies will be on show and failure will be plain to see for all. It is truly a fascinating time in the sport.

To some the cars will look pretty much the same to those of last season. Apart from the glaringly obvious of course but more about that later. So just what has actually changed?

For a start the cars are heavier this year at 733kg minimum, including the driver, 6kg heftier than last year. Mainly due to the extra allowance for the 'thing' around the cockpit which in actual fact weighs more than twice that amount, some estimates say up to 14kg.
In turn that means the teams cannot use all of the strategically placed ballast used previously to bring the car up to weight, which, once again in turn, means the larger drivers have to lose even more weight. That is not going to be easy for many of them, already on subsistence diets to try and keep their personal weight to a minimum.

In terms of bodywork, gone is the universally disliked 'T' wing sitting up on the back of the large 'shark fin' engine cover which itself has been cut down to a more modest and aesthetically pleasing size.

As Formula 1 engineers are apt to do, they look for any loopholes in the regulations, a trait that has gone on for generations, and the FIA then move to close those loopholes in an ever continuing, and escalating, battle.

Suspension has always been a target for finding loopholes and a new regulation has been introduced that outlaws the practice of the suspension controlled ride height of the car changing with the steering angle of the wheels. Basically meaning that as the car turned a corner the suspension drops resulting in more front wing down force being applied.
Clever but now illegal.

It looks like there will be more of those ridiculous grid penalties applied with the teams now having only three engines for the 21 race season instead of the 2017 allowance of four over 20 races.

However, the system of grid penalties has itself been modified. According to the FIA "….whereby if a driver incurs a penalty exceeding 15 grid places he will be required to start the race from the back of the starting grid, If more than one driver receives such a penalty they will be arranged at the back of the grid in the order in which the offenses were committed."

That should simplify things.

Hopefully Brendon Hartley, with his new Honda power unit, will, for the first time ever, actually be able to start a Grand Prix from his real qualifying position.

Pirelli have jumped on the confusion band wagon with a mind boggling array of tyres.
Nine different varieties, more I think that there are Liquorice Allsorts and with as many brightly coloured sidewalls with the new 'hypersoft tyre in a very fetching pink colour to a delightful midnight blue wet weather tyre at the other end of the spectrum.

One wet compound, one intermediate compound and seven slick / dry weather compounds although Pirelli say only three of the dry weather compound tyres will be available to each team at each race.

For those who like to spot which driver is on which tyre, the 2018 full fashion range is: hypersoft (pink), ultrasoft (purple), supersoft (red), soft (yellow), medium (white), hard (blue), superhard (orange), intermediate (green) and wet (a darker blue, but with spray coming off it).

Of course many will notice the absence of the promotional womenfolk on the grid. The so called 'grid girls' now banned at the behest of the apparent equality inclined progressive minority.

Lastly we come to the halo, aka the jandal, the flip-flop and a couple of other names that are best left unsaid in polite company. For the record it has not, as many people speculated, become unnoticeable, certainly not to me. It is still an ugly gargoyle, a monstrosity, mocking the beauty (mostly) of the car. Despite it's looks at the moment, and I am sure over time the teams will learn ways of using it to their aerodynamic advantage, this safety inspired carbuncle is an incredibly strong and well engineered piece of equipment. Built to withstand, allegedly, anything that can be thrown at it, I guess it will, in time fold into the look of a 'normal' car.

Actually, no I don't think it ever will.

The forces it is built to withstand are extreme. A force from the front of 83kN, and a lateral load of 93kN and a maximum downward load of 116kn. In simple terms 1kn (kilonewton) is roughly the equivalent of 100kg of load.

The halo is designed to deflect a strike by a 20kg object - such as a wheel - hitting at around 225km/h.

As this weekend progresses, and the season rolls on, let us hope that those parameters are never tested.