Ollie Bearman has admitted that Formula 1‘s new regulations cycle has left him preferring racing at tracks like Hungary as opposed to this weekend’s drivers’ favourite circuit – Spa-Francorchamps.
This weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix takes F1 to a circuit widely loved by drivers and fans alike, as its unique profile, gradients and lack of major changes over many years has given itself a popularity across newer and older demographics.
However, the length of a lap and the myriad of fast corners and flat-out complexes are triggering concerns that the battery usage will see cars take these areas of the track at, comparatively, much slower speeds.
So much so, that Fernando Alonso quipped before the weekend that he was pensive about the possibility of F2 cars going faster on some areas of the circuit.
Speaking to media, including Motorsport Week, ahead of this weekend’s race, Bearman highlighted the changes between circuits recently raced at, and issued concern that Spa will be “really tough” when it comes to the lack of heavy braking zones.
“Silverstone was a challenge coming from Austria, where you have good amount of energy, because you have a lot of braking zones, and you come to Silverstone where it’s a challenge,” he said.
“I think now it’s an even bigger step in that direction, because I think this will be the most difficult of the year in terms of energy management and feeling for the drivers, because we just don’t have enough essentially. So yeah, that will be interesting.
“It’s tough because, next week, we’re going to go to Budapest. And with the amount of braking zones you have there, you can pretty much run at full power, which is going to be amazing. But this weekend it’s going to be really tough. And it was similar with Austria and Silverstone, like I said. So it’s tough.
“We’re having to adapt to new things. And with the sensitivity of energy here, it’s so important to be as efficient as possible. So at the end, it’s taken care of by strategy. But I think that straight’s going to be quite long compared to last year. But that’s how it is.
“I think this is the worst track for it. And it’s going to improve as years go on, as we’re making these small tweaks on the regs. But there’s always going to be tracks like this one, like Silverstone, where you are reminded that we simply don’t have enough energy.”
New F1 regs ‘making us better drivers’
One common theme in drivers’ public feedback to the new regulations has been how, due to the energy harvesting and need to conserve, often at fast parts of a circuit, the driving style is therefore forced to be counterintuitive.
When asked by Motorsport Week if he feels that, because of this, himself and other drivers may favour racing at somewhere, like the Hungaroring, more than Spa under these rules, the Haas driver was affirmative in his answer.
“Yeah, the car is a bit more… you know how we’ve had it in the past, how we’ve had it in our whole careers in Hungary [it will be similar], whereas here it’s very, very different.
“So like you said, I think from a driver’s perspective, if you asked me last year where I’d prefer to race, it would be here. This year I would tell you probably Hungary and Austria, as opposed to Silverstone and Spa, which sounds crazy, but that’s what it is.
“It’s interesting, because also the way you approach some corners changes because some corners, you have twice as much power as others. So some corners you really need to focus on getting a great exit. Other corners it doesn’t matter as much because you have a very short exit with only 500 horsepower instead of 1,000, let’s say.
“So it’s interesting and it’s definitely teaching us a lot. As much as we like to complain, it’s making us better drivers.”
Bearman, on paper at least, is likely to suffer a little more at Spa, given the VF-26 is powered by Ferrari’s modest power unit, compared to the sufficient grunt of its Mercedes counterpart.
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