By Today’s Formula 1 is dominated by energy management but is it really that much different to past seasons when drivers had to control tyre wear, turbo boost, fuel consumption and other factors?
@Roger-Ayles argues that management has always been part of F1 but it is far more common and important now than before:
The only difference between management in the past and management today is that today it’s something that’s required on every lap of the weekend to some degree. In the past in races they would spend most of the GP managing something but did have the option of pushing to the limit for brief periods if they needed to and of course they were able to push to the very limit during qualifying which they can’t do currently.
I think back to the turbo’s of the 80s for example where they had to manage fuel but could turn the boost up for a short while to try an overtake or something knowing they would then have to do a bit of extra saving to make up for the extra bit of fuel that used. Or with tyre management where they would manage for much of the stint to ensure they had enough tyre life left so they could up the pace towards the end of stints. Or during the refueling era where Michael Schumacher for example would manage his pace if he was behind another car and then start pushing it to the limit for the laps before he was due to pit to try the over-cut.
They just don’t have the option of doing any of that now because the cars are energy starved all the time all weekend so even when they are pushing they are still having to back off in order to harvest energy so there is no option to push the car to the limit of grip at any point of the weekend now.
@Roger-Ayles
Read the original discussion here:
Gasly: F1 driving is no longer about pushing to the limit in corners
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