Formula 1 is ready to face a real drastic change in terms of technical regulations, which will particularly affect theaerodynamics starting from the 2022 world championship. The changes, designed to make overtaking easier and create greater spectacle for spectators, are arousing interest and curiosity even before the start of the season, especially due to the substantial change in the design of the cars. A revolution that also seems to convince some of the pilots who have contributed to writing historical pages of the Circus, starting with Mario Andretti. The Italian-American, 1978 world champion, in fact expressed some positive thoughts on the new criteria that the teams will have to respect, starting with dimensions of the single-seaters.
Interviewed by Auto Motor und Sportthe 81-year-old explained his opinion on the cars that will soon take to the track for pre-season tests, not sparing a direct comparison with the models recently used in F1: “From what I understood – he has declared – these cars should emit less turbulence in the rear, so they are easier to control even in the slipstream. The idea is to generate more downforce under the car to reduce the areas above, which produce dirty air. Here because I never understood why, few years agoFormula 1 switched to wider machines and larger wings. This increased the turbulence and they were even more dependent on the DRS. They are now rightfully going in the opposite direction, but I dare not predict if this will be enough for the drivers to be able to stay close to the car in front again in the corners. Even if it improved by 30%, it would still be a great progress “.
Speaking of aerodynamics, Andretti’s name is associated with his victories at the wheel of the famous Lotus 79 ground effect, which destroyed the competition in the year he won the world championship. A story, that of Black Beautyactually born about ten years earlier, a period in which F1 merged its technology with that of aeronautics: “In 1970during a test in Kyalami with the Marchwe had removed the sidepods to reduce drag, and suddenly the car became light in front – he recalled – proving they were producing downforce. At the end of the 1976 season, we met at the Lotus factory with the engineers and Colin Chapman, and I suggested what we did in March, and we started discussing it. At that point we optimized the diffuser and the ground clearance to create the ground effect: the two channels in the sidepods were constantly freed to obtain a clean flow throughout the car, with the only flaw that I continued to have problems with the brakes. “.
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