Blog - Formula 1 Future Cars

Formula 1 Future Cars

In new Formula 1 system there will be 3 types of car parts to be purchased or developed - engine, aerodynamic parts and mechanical parts. This is no change to the current system. What will be changed are the details.

The most important change is that thanks to costs cap we will have better estimations of what teams would be able to build. Currently the teams are building parts with quality around 93-95% and close to potential. So it does not make much sense to continue development to gain some advantage during the season like we have in real life F1.

The target of new cars system would be that when teams spends all the money from the costs cap quality for the parts should be little above 85% and potential still closer to 95% than 90%. So it should be possible to do side projects to improve current car at a cost of next season`s car development.

Since there will be many options it will be necessary to plan long term and take smart decisions. Remember, there will be costs cap implemented.

Engine

The problem with the current engines system is that it is difficult for us to find balance between price/quality of independent engine suppliers. (but also gearboxes which are not used from suppliers at all). New system should fix this issue and independent suppliers will be removed, while feature to sell engine built by teams to other teams might be added.

Besides the controversial suppliers the feedback from managers is that the new engines system is a pretty good and interesting thing. So this system will be the same in the future with some small adjustments.

• rules cycle - fixed 8 seasons (no coin flip)
• building new engine will be possible for 4 season before they can be used and then 4 seasons to improve when they are already in use before new engines will have to be implemented
• energy store and gearbox are mechanical parts but they are optimized for engines therefore the same rules cycle will be used for them as for engines so the 4 years before engines can be used is also time to develop engine, gearbox and energy store.
• independent suppliers for all 3 parts will be removed from the game
• every part will have information about level of main facility stored (highest value during development) - downgrade of the facility will require fee to be paid to maintain quality of the related part equal to maintenance fees until new engine can be developed - or significant downgrade of the parts.

OPEN TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION

It is realistic from real F1 that one team (Mercedes) can supply engines to few more teams (Aston Martin, McLaren, Williams). So we are thinking of reasonable system to allow this.

• maximum 3 customer teams per supplier team
• customer teams cannot tune engines, receives combination of best parts designed by the supplier team, and this engines will have lowered handling attribute (not natural integration penalty)
• supplier team will set budget for full engine development at the beginning and the engine price for the customer teams will be based on this, so it won’t be possible to build super engine and sell it cheaply to friendly team (in general price for 8 season payments would be similar to budget spent on the engines)
• supplier will decide whom to sell engines, agreement between teams will be reported and stored in agreement register
• supplier cannot cancel the deal during rule cycle (to avoid teams being left without engine)
• customer can cancel the deal after any season unless agreement have the minimum seasons clause (so if supplier makes bad job, customer can look for better)

Gearbox and energy store can be supplied too.

Chassis and Aero Parts

Building chassis and aero parts is too straightforward at the moment. Concept of aero parts will be modified to create more influence on management analysis and decisions.

Every chassis is good for 1 season but can be used in the next season after being downgraded. New element to development strategy will be added as sometimes it might be more efficient to evolve old chassis (cheaper option to get quality result) but when the time says so, it will be better to start from scratch. It is also realistic in real F1. Teams can reuse old chassis to have funds for other projects.

• chassis will be the same as current system - build chassis and get basic aero parts
• concept of aero parts will be modified - every aero part will influence performance of other aero parts - for example in real F1 front wing affects the flow of the air therefore performance of diffuser, vanes or side pods is limited
• so the first aero part to be upgraded from base parts will be the main part and potential of the part will stay at maximum. But the second part to be upgraded will only have potential reduced to 90% from the original part, the third part 80%, the fourth part 75% and others to 70%.
• that will require some analysis and smart decisions taken.
• importance of aero parts will be modified after 7 seasons - so teams will have 7 seasons to decide optimal order to upgrade aero parts
• so it will be similar to the real F1 rules change to the new F1 2022 cars
• every part will have information about level of main facility stored (highest value during development) - downgrade of the facility will slightly downgrade parts and parts potential will be lowered to the quality level so it is not possible to upgrade anymore.

Development options

• start from scratch - chassis will be built from the scratch and new aero parts to be generated 
• adjust car from previous season - chassis quality downgraded by 20% and potential unchanged, chassis can be upgraded - that means chassis quality will slowly drop each season. this option should give worse result than start from scratch BUT should save some money. Aero parts for downgraded chassis (or further upgrade) will be generated.

Mechanical Parts

Mechanical parts are too straightforward as of now. Once built no more development is needed. That will be changed.

Cooling System

• developed by team
• quality decreased by 1% every season as a result of changes in aerodynamics parts
• potential stays the same every season
• teams can upgrade the downgraded part or
• teams can start development from scratch (and 100% potential)

Steering Wheel / Brakes / Suspension

• can be developed by team or from suppliers
• in case of developed parts - same system as cooling system (dropping quality)
• in case of suppliers there will be only cheap but weak options available

Electronic Control Unit

• purchased from the independent supplier ONLY

Every part will have information about level of main facility stored (highest value during development) - downgrade of the facility will slightly downgrade parts and parts potential will be lowered to the quality level so it is not possible to upgrade anymore.