The Federation has avoided taking radical countermeasures in the face of concerns about the inaugural race. The Melbourne circuit is one of the most critical in terms of energy, full of straights that increase consumption and poor in braking to recharge the battery, a mix that will force management techniques even in qualifying. The FIA therefore limited the energy recoverable on the flying lap on Saturdaybut without going as far as the regulation would have allowed.
The numbers
The FIA has finally published the document with the energy constraints for the Australian Grand Prix, parameters which, by regulation, the teams receive at least four weeks before the event. There are no restrictions for free practice, allowing you to recharge up to 8.5 MJ of energy each lap. In the race, however, the number is reduced to 8 MJ, except for the scenarios in which overtaking mode can be used. During the duels, whoever is less than 1 second behind the person in front will be able to recharge half a Megajoule of extra energy at each lap, which can then be spent in the attack phase to exploit the greater electrical power granted above 290 km/h.
The situation changes for qualifying, for which the Federation has limited the rechargeable energy per lap, to prevent the drivers from having to do too much management outside of braking. The FIA has set the recoverable energy on the single lap on Saturday at 7 MJwithout going as far as the 5 MJ that the regulations allow to be imposed for up to 8 Grands Prix in the season. Finally, the exception is the exit lap from the pits, in which you can recharge the battery up to 8.5 MJ to then have it ready for the attack on the time.
| Rechargeable energy per lap | |
| Free trials | 8.5 MJ |
| Qualifying, exit lap | 8.5 MJ |
| Qualification | 7.0 MJ |
| Race, basic mode | 8.0 MJ |
| Race, overtaking mode | 8.5 MJ |
Constraints on power
Another theme of the new machines is the reduction of the electric power in a straight line by the control unit to save energya practice limited by the regulation. For Australia, the FIA has decided not to place further constraints, imposing a maximum reduction in electric power of 150 kW at the start of each straight and then another 50 kW every second. The only exception is the slowest section of the third sector between turns 11 and 13, where all 350 kW of electrical power can suddenly be cut.
