Brawn assembling aero team to help racing

Ross Brawn is putting together a team to investigate ways to facilitate closer racing while keeping high levels of aerodynamic performance in Formula 1.

The opening race of the 2017 season saw few overtaking maneuvers as a number of drivers complained it is harder to follow another car due to the aerodynamic sensitivity produced by the new regulations. While many team bosses are keen to reserve judgement, Brawn – who is managing director of motorsport for new F1 owners Liberty Media – revealed he has already started assembling a team to see if it's possible to lessen the impact on a following car.

"We talk about aerodynamics, I think we have to recognize these cars are incredibly quick because they use aerodynamics and if we want cars as quick as this and as spectacular as this then we can't just turn the aerodynamics off," Brawn said.

"I think there's a view that we should get rid of the aerodynamics and have big, wide tires and then get the grip mechanically and then we can go back to cars racing each other. We can, but they will be a lot slower than most of the single seater cars that are out there.

"So I think we should embrace aerodynamics, but in a different way. We should work out how we can make the aerodynamics as benign as possible so cars can still race each other. That's never truly been done. I think if you look at the configuration of the aerodynamics we have, we've got cars now with very complicated bodywork structures which create very sensitive flow regimes around the structures which as soon as they are disturbed by the car in front, suffer.

"So can we come up with a set of regulations and a concept where we can still use the power of aerodynamics to give us the speed and the spectacle of the cars, but in a more benign way so that they can at least race each other more closely without having that impact. So that's my ambition, that's my objective and as I've said we're putting a team together within FOM to look at those ideas, with some substance."

And Brawn acknowledges it is the sport's regulator – the FIA – who will have to come up with any final rule changes. But he believes he is in a position to bring the required parties together to work on future improvements.

"We want to work with the FIA and we want to work with the teams and use the resources of the teams and use the support of the FIA and the direction of the FIA to try and achieve that. So just talking about that relatively narrow topic of aerodynamics I don't think we should view it as something we've got to get rid of, because we won't, we never will.

"Can we turn it on its head and say we need it because we want fast cars, but can we structure it in a way where it's much less damaging for cars to race each other? I've heard it said that some of the cars out there do race each other quite well with large aerodynamic performances – the sports cars for instance and IndyCars at the moment are not suffering so badly – so I think a proper campaign, concerted campaign would definitely take us in the right direction on that, I'm convinced of that."