A new way of driving
With the first two qualifying sessions and races in Melbourne and Shanghai, it was quickly understood what the drivers meant when they spoke, even after the first approaches to the simulator and even more so after the tests, about a different way of driving, which they had not hesitated to define as counterintuitive and very far from what they had learned until then.
In the two weekends just passed, there was no shortage of statements in this regard, so much so that our publication has isolated two analyses, the one relating to qualifying “without a crazy lap” and the one on overtaking favored by differences in battery charge.
FormulaPassion.it asked Luigi Mazzola (present on Instagram at this address) – for 21 years at Maranello in various roles, including that of technical manager of the test area in the Schumacher era, for a thought on these innovations for Formula 1 drivers.
Optimizing battery charge matters more than going to the limit
Engineer Mazzola, in recent days the criticisms of this new regulatory course of Formula 1 have been gaining great resonance. Helmut Marko spoke openly about “overtaking between batteries”, Charles Leclerc admitted that he can no longer go to the limit in qualifying, while Max Verstappen was even harsher. How does this new F1 seem to you?
“It is clear that the state of charge – SOC – has become the basic element of performance. You have a car that has – let’s say – a thousand horsepower, of which 500 are electric, which you must use, because if you don’t use them you have less power and therefore less performance. And you have to use them in the so-called ‘power limited’ part, that is, when you can fully open the throttle and therefore at the exit of the corners, when you no longer have grip problems and therefore all the accelerations on the straights must be somehow supported, not only by the thermal engine, but also by the electric one.
And it is clear that all this, for what you have available in terms of ‘electric fuel’, you cannot do everywhere and therefore you have to charge. And you go to charge in areas where you don’t need to express power, that is, in braking, in corners and at the end of the straight, where you are forced to stay at full thermal power, but to brake with the electric.”
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Can drivers still make a difference, or are they too limited by the battery charge?
“If we talk about braking, fast corners, cornering speed, it is clear that there the state of charge takes on more importance, so it goes to limit what a driver normally looked for to go beyond the limit, because he tried to make his difference compared to other drivers, car permitting. So it is clear that a driver finds himself limited and must condition his driving style in order to optimize or maximize what is the state of charge, which will then allow him to be performant on the straights and therefore set the lap time.”
