The technical regulations have changed in only a few areas for this season and while some of these have far reaching effects back at the factories, little will have obviously changed from visual point of view when first practice starts in Melbourne next week.
In terms of the racing, the apple cart has been upset so the relative competitiveness amongst the teams should be equalised. The rule changes are covered more fully in Adam Cooper's article, but the main changes affecting the cars' design are limited to the single tyre supply, engine freeze and safety changes.
Tyres now only from Bridgestone should help level the field once teams have learned the tyres © XPB/LAT |
Tyres
The single tyre supply has allowed Bridgestone to create a new generation of tyres. These are partly related to last year's tyres but also taking in the lessons learned from the no tyre change rule back in 2005. The character of the tyres has, therefore, been altered and not only do they now have less grip, their balance of grip front to rear has shifted forwards.