GreenBkk Formula 1 | 'F1 cars set for major overhaul'

'F1 cars set for major overhaul'

Smaller wings, specially-shaped underfloors designed to generate downforce underneath the car and 35 per cent less fuel being used are just a few of the radical changes that F1 cars will undergo in the next few years, according to a report.

In an exclusive, BBC Sport's Mark Benson claims that the Formula One's bosses are keen to make the sport more exciting and efficient by the 2013 season and engineers Patrick Head and Rory Byrne have come up with potential design changes.

According to the report, cars will much sport smaller front and rear wings in two years' time while 'far greater proportion of the total downforce of the cars will be created by the underfloor, compared to the wings'.

Other changes will see 'the average proportion of a lap that a driver is able to spend on full throttle be cut from 70% in 2010 to 50% in 2013' but 'tyres will remain large and chunky to ensure cornering speeds remain high'.

One of the most interesting changes though will be the reduction in the amount of total downforce created by the car as 'the underfloor of the cars will be shaped along its length to generate downforce for the first time since the 1982 season'.

"We are only going to have roughly 65% of the amount of fuel and a [limited] fuel [flow] rate - that was a given," Head told BBC Sport.

"We were just told 'That's what it will be, you've got to come up with a car spec that is not going to be more than five seconds a lap slower than a current F1 car'.

"So some circuit simulation was done by Rory at Ferrari and when we'd come up with some numbers in terms of drag and downforce it was then to try to come up with a geometry of a car that could try to achieve that."

Credit: PlanetF1.com (www.planetf1.com)