While all the efforts goes in to salvage good results in the current Formula 1 season, one eye has to be on the coming year which brings certain changes which can be utilised in favour like Force India will do in Hungary.
The 2019 regulations doesn’t have a whole lot of changes from the 2018, but one key area which will see modification is the wings – whether the front wing or the rear. The idea behind the change is to make it simplistic and allow for more overtaking.
With limited days at hand to test the newly designed parts on track, the teams has to utilise every extra day they get so that they can validate whatever they are working in the virtual world if it will reap the results in the coming year.
Force India will do the same in the upcoming post-Hungarian Grand Prix test where the car will be shared between Nikita Mazepin and Nicholas Latifi. Andrew Green revealed they will be running some fresh parts to check if the direction they are taking is right or wrong.
“I think those [2019] regulations were officially defined a few weeks [ago],” he started. “We have been working on the basis of those regulations for a couple of months, mainly in the virtual world, in CFD. We’ve made some progress.
“We’ll be testing some parts in the week after Hungary, to confirm the direction that we are going in and the changes to the car that these regulations make. The front wing is key to everything that gets set up further down the car, so changing that is a big step.
“So, we want to make sure we are developing in the right direction, so we are bringing parts after Hungary just to confirm that. It’s an interesting set of regulations that’s for sure. I’m not sure that it’s a pretty set of regulations, but it is interesting.”
When asked how much less downforce the change will provide, while not giving away a number, Green assessed it will be a ‘significant chunk’. The Silverstone-based team will hope that they can co-relate the new parts better for 2019 after the troubles in 2018.
The team started off slowly due to the issues it faced because of the numbers not matching up from their windtunnel to on-track. That is why it finds itself in a tight pack this year in the fight for fourth position in the constructors’ championship.
