Ask Gary Anderson

This weekend, a new era of Formula 1 will get underway in Melbourne with the switch to 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 engines and associated aerodynamic changes representing the biggest shift in regulations in grand prix history.

GARY ANDERSON has been through plenty of rule changes during his illustrious F1 career and his mailbag this week includes questions about fuel use, race strategy, Renault's troubles and Coke bottles.

There will be some new technical quirks to overtaking in 2014 © XPB

Will the drivers have a boost button for overtaking?
@James_Frankland, via Twitter

Yes, a boost button is still possible but in a different way to last year's KERS button.

The engine power and the electrical power will be mapped together to achieve the best laptime and the driver will just be driving using that total power available.

But the electrical energy from what is called the Motor Generator Unit-Heat (MGU-H) can be used to charge up the battery pack for use later or be diverted directly to what is called the Motor Generator Unit-Kinetic (MGU-K) for an instant power boost.

The driver could have control over when this will happen, so in effect has a boost button to help overtaking.

How many races will it be before Renault sorts its engine issues?
@admp4, via Twitter

It's very difficult to answer, but I don't believe Renault has any actual engine issues. And if it does, they will be around for a while because these engines are now all homologated.

From my understanding, the problems are more about the energy-recovery systems (ERS) management and how Renault harvests and disperses that energy. Also, there are problems with how Renault controls the electric motor attached to the turbo (MGU-H).

Red Bull has had the most problems of any Renault team, and that's not a coincidence © LAT

At the end of the last test Renault stated that the problems were all software issues. If someone at Renault has a eureka moment, these sorts of problems can be fixed overnight but that is very unlikely.

And when we talk about Renault problems, we're also talking about Red Bull problems with its aggressive engine installation. You could say that no team achieves success without taking some level of risk, but sometimes you can go over the top.

At a guess, I suspect it will be the start of the European season before we see Renault at maximum performance. Even then, there is no guarantee that its maximum performance will be a match for Ferrari or Mercedes.

Can the two 'new' teams (Caterham and Marussia) score points this year?
Richard Chilton, via Facebook

This is going to be their best chance since coming into F1.

The Marussia-Ferrari package looks to have more speed than the Caterham-Renault. But it will still be difficult to break into that top 10. Reliability will play a big part and if they get on top of this and some of the others are still suffering problems, then anything can happen.

Marussia has its best chance yet of a top-10 finish © LAT

But they need to take advantage of this early in the season, as reliability will improve very quickly.

With the 100kg fuel limit for the race from lights to flag, will the FIA get a live readout of every car's fuel use?
@OppolockF1B, via Twitter

Yes, I believe they will and I just wish they would share it with us.

As far as the racing is concerned, this is going to be the area of most confusion. Who is saving fuel for later? Who is using more than they should? It's going to be very difficult to understand until the chequered flag drops.

If the FIA or the teams were to share this information with us, then all the other teams would also know what each other was up to. So any way-out, whacky strategy would be a waste of time.

Alongside my AUTOSPORT commitments I'm working with FOM this year and hopefully will be able to influence to some extent what data is put up on the screen to help the viewer and the commentators understand a little better what's going on.

But I don't think we'll be seeing a live fuel-consumption figure as part of that data.

Will drivers tuck in behind in the slipstream for longer than normal, despite being quicker, to preserve fuel?
@theWPTformula, via Twitter

This will become a critical part of the overall strategy, especially on circuits that are very heavy on fuel consumption.

It may make sense to slot in behind a rival and save fuel for a while rather than passing immediately © LAT

To achieve this effectively, you'll need to be within a second of the car in front of you. That puts you in the DRS zone, so I can also see drivers saving fuel behind a car with the DRS open but not trying to pass until they've saved enough fuel to be able to put the hammer down and get away.

There would be very little point in passing someone and then allowing him to follow you, saving fuel.

The thing you need to be careful of is that on circuits with fast corners, it will be very easy to overheat and damage your tyres if you're that close to the car in front.

If at the start of the race you can sit behind someone and not overtake them, you can save around five per cent of the amount of fuel the car in front of you is using. Then, later in the race, let's say after your last pitstop, you can use this extra fuel with the fresh tyres to make a break.

What exactly is the 'Coke-bottle' area of an F1 car and why is it so called?
@apemms, via Twitter

The Coke-bottle area is the width of the bodywork in between the rear wheels.

The best place to see an F1 'Coke bottle' is from above © XPB

If you look at the car from above, the bodywork sweeps inwards as it goes rearward, a bit like the neck of a Coke bottle. The first I can remember of this on a car design was on a McLaren that Alan Jenkins was involved with back in the 1980s.

This narrowing body allows the low-pressure area behind the car to pull the airflow that would normally be displaced by the rear tyres inwards. This reduces the overall drag of the car, making it faster in a straight line.

It also helps to pull the airflow around the leading edge of the sidepods of the car, in effect helping the airflow out from underneath the front of the chassis and in doing so improving the front-wing performance.

It's very important and is one of the areas that separates one team from another as far as overall aerodynamic performance is concerned.

Do you think electrical energy will be used to 'torque fill' before boost is made, or more at higher rpm to overtake?
@JamesH675, via Twitter

I think the answer to this is a bit of both.

To get the maximum torque out of an internal-combustion engine, the torque curve becomes a bit peaky and not very driver-friendly. So the engine people would then trim off the peaks to smooth it out that little bit, but this does mean that at some engine rpm and throttle opening, you do not have maximum torque.

With the new powertrain, some of the electrical torque will be used to patch in the dips in the torque curve. This means that the torque curve will be smooth, driver-friendly and the maximum torque will always be available.

On top of that, the leftover electrical torque will be used as and when required to achieve the fastest laptime.

The torque-usage map will be very different from qualifying, when the fuel flow is limited to 100kg/hr but fuel consumption is unlimited compared to what it will be in the race when the 100kg maximum for the distance comes into play.

Is there a chance that some cars won't make the 107 per cent qualifying limit?
@JPalmski, via Twitter

When the final Bahrain test times were combined, Maldonado's best was outside the 107 per cent cut-off © XPB

I don't think this will happen because the 107 per cent rule only comes into play in the first part of qualifying (Q1), when all 22 cars are involved in the session. So here you have the widest spread of car performance.

It's very unlikely that one of the frontrunners would use the fastest tyre in that session, but if they did and the FIA wanted to go by the letter of the rule then it could be a potential problem.

The rule is there to eliminate any real stragglers that could potentially be a safety issue to themselves or another driver. Out of the 11 teams and 22 drivers we have, I don't think we have anyone that doesn't deserve to be on the grid.