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GPR MAR 21 NTWAC 1
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Special feature

The diva that stole a march on F1’s wide-bodied opposition

In 2017 new F1 technical regulations were supposed to add drama - and peg Mercedes back. STUART CODLING looks at the car which, while troubled, set the stage for the wide-bodied Formula 1 era

Next year a radically different technical formula – many details of which are still frustratingly undefined – promises to usher in a new era of on-track drama. The vision of a cost-controlled formula enabling a level playing field, populated by exciting but closely matched machinery, sounds positively utopian.

As the wide-body era of Formula 1 draws to a close after five seasons, it’s worth remembering how the present technical formula was born of a similarly lofty ambition to shake up the competitive order – and how a group of F1’s smartest engineering operators pulled together to thwart that goal.

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