Former F1 driver Stefan Johansson believes part of F1’s focus should be on improving its tyres, as better grip with less downforce is a good recipe for better racing.
Formula 1’s managers are hard at work defining the sport’s 2021 regulation platform. Beyond the much debated power unit format, aerodynamics are also an area to which Ross Brawn and his team of experts are devoting time and resources.
Johansson, a man with valued knowledge and common sense when it comes to F1, believes tyres offer a better and less costly means of improving racing than complicated and onerous aerodynamics.
“There’s no way to escape the effects of aero unfortunately,” the Swede said in his season review, published on his website.
“Now they are talking about generating downforce from underneath the cars rather than from the top. That might help limit the turbulence a little bit but it won’t eliminate it. If you follow another car there will still be dirty air.
“As long as you have a lot of aero, you’re always going to have this problem, and the more complicated the aero is, which an F1 car is the epitomy of, the more affected your car will be from the dirty air.
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“So unless they simplify the front wing considerably, I am certain they will still have the same problem.
“I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, I know I’m starting to sound like a broken record. The easiest way to get more grip – and it would be so easy – is to simply improve the tyres.
“Even on a much lower level than F1, like when we used to run LMP2 in sports car racing, you could easily spend a million dollars developing the aero of the car to gain, maybe half a second.
“Then you bolt on a different set of tyres that cost maybe $2,000 and you pick up a second-and-a-half.”
“It’s beyond me that improving the tyres is never even mentioned in F1,” adds Johansson.
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