James Allison thinks it is a unique year as teams work on three cars simultaneously – Formula 1 news
James Allison, the technical director for Formula 1 team Lotus, has stated that it is a unique year as all the teams on the grid work on three cars at the same time.
Since the current season is coming to its close and the teams have also got the new regulations for 2014 on their mind, Allison admitted that the current situation is something teams are not familiar with.
“This question comes up a lot at the tail end of the season,” Allison said when inquired about when they plan to begin developing for next season. “In a normal year, the answer would be that the focus has pretty much shifted to next year's car already. This
is not a normal year though. Every team on the grid is facing the unprecedented challenge of working simultaneously on three cars.”
The new regulations for 2014 include some technical changes for the cars produced in that year. The 2014 season will be the 65th season for the Formula 1 championship and will be introducing a new formula for the car engines. It is planned that the 2.4 litre
V8 engine will be downgraded to a 1.6 litre turbocharged V6 engine. The new engine is supposed to be environment friendly and fuel saving.
Commenting on the new changes, Allison said, “Anyone who followed the sport in 2009 will know that a large shake up in the regulations presents both opportunity and hazard which can significantly re-jig the traditional pecking order of the teams.”
He stated that the changes made for the 2009 season seem to be really small as compared to the changes made for 2014.
He added that they have to choose where they apply their resources more as three cars are in the development. He thinks it is more important to think on long term basis so they should focus on the new regulations as 2014 will mark the beginning of a whole
new generation of Formula 1 cars. He said that making these decisions is a challenge and they will only know the worth of it at the end of 2014.
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