2019 Preview: 10 years ago... bigger wings, new rules and outwash front wings

With less than a week to go before the first race of the 2019 season, I'm sure I'm not the only one excited to see the cars racing together for the first time. We expect Ferrari to be the favourites, but Hamilton and Mercedes will be up for a fight, particularly if Leclerc lives up to his hype and can challenege for the title. Driver moves, new regulations, new power unit combinations and a very tight midfield all adds to the intrigue and expectation and excitement leading into the first race.

Some of you may have spotted that I have a 2009 season model review page https://fongugp4.blogspot.com/p/2009-model-review.html. I aim to go through my 2009 F1 models in the coming weeks. But I was left wondering was it really 10 years ago when we had the fairy-tale story of the underdogs taking both Championships? That idea is inconceivable today, and it was no less inconceivable back then. But in this post, I wanted to focus a little on the similarities between the 2009 season and the 2019 season.

Minichamps 436090022

10 years ago, one of the biggest rule changes for a decade were introduced. We were subjected to huge front wings and higher rear wings, sound familiar? The 2008 cars had so many aerodynamic appendages, the FIA felt it was time to tighten down the aero on the cars, and so the cars looked much simpler. In 2019, we are again subjected to very wide front wings and taller (and wider) rear wings, with an attempt to curb the aero appendages around the barge-boards.

Some teams were much more prepared than others. McLaren and Ferrari were locked in a tight title fight in 2008, and their focus was on beating the other for glory. The beginning of their seasons were particularly bad, relegated to being midfield teams. Red Bull saw their opportunity to utilise Adrian Newey's talents and they created a great car, but it was the Honda who would be the best prepared, but they nearly didn't compete at all.

Honda had decided to pull out of the sport, but Ross Brawn, fresh from a sabbatical from the dominating Ferrari years, and Nick Fry knew the potential they had in their car. Faced with massive redundancies, Fry and Brawn managed to buy the team for £1 and their entry fee waived considering the circumstances.

The beautiful Brawn BGP01 (albeit with ugly large wings)

Brawn, as well as Williams and Toyota had stumbled upon a loophole in the regulations, the double-diffuser. Brawn's car was better built around the concept and their car were a league apart from the competition. It took a few races for the FIA to deem the concept legal, before other teams started fitting their own solutions. Jenson Button, who had only won a single Grand Prix up to this season, took six victories in seven races. At the Chinese Grand Prix, Red Bull took their first victory as a team with Sebastian Vettel leading a one-two finish ahead of Mark Webber.

Toyota were one of the first teams to run a double diffuser

However, whilst the double diffuser was the major news worthy concept that people thought made the difference, actually the bigger difference was the front wing (and endplate) outwash (a big talking point in the change for the 2019 regulation changes). The front wing is the first thing the air hits on the car, and managing the wake from the front tyre is also a key battleground for aero. So what you do with the air at the front wing endplates is all important. So whilst teams spent weeks trying to introduce a double diffuser concept, a new front wing could have been made in a few weeks. All the front running teams in 2009 were teams who had cracked that outwash front wings were the way to go. Frank Dernie, who had indycar experience, identified this early on and was a key reason to Toyota's competitive start of the season. McLaren only introduced the outwash concept at the Hungarian GP, where unsurprisingly, they began being competitive.

McLaren running their in-wash front wing

By mid-season, it was Red Bull who were in the ascendancy, and Barrichello was performing better than Button. Even Ferrari won a race, as did a resurgent McLaren towards the end of the season. But it was all too little too late, and Button and Brawn were crowned champions, a true fairy-tale story.

Brawn, formerly Honda, formerly BAR and formerly Tyrrell, were to be bought out by Mercedes who are dominating the sport today.

Sadly, it was time when manufacturers were leaving the sport at a high rate, with Toyota and BMW leaving the sport at the end of the season, with Honda having left the season before, and their B team, Super Aguri not even completing the 2008 season.

2009 was a fascinating year and it's so rare for an underdog story to come good. It's almost unthinkable these days to find the top teams being caught out and fighting near the back of the field. It was the last year when there were a number of true manufacturer teams. It was a year where the development race was such that the competitive order was not too predictable from race to race.

In 2019, teams have tried various solutions of front wing and it remains to be seen which solution they will eventually converge upon. I suspect the more effective DRS will be more of a talking point this season and will make overtaking way too easy, whilst following other cars will remain a problem until 2021 (we hope). I hope I'm wrong, but 2009 wasn't exactly remembered for exhilerating wheel-to-wheel battling.