Tomorrow's Australian Grand Prix will provide the long-overdue acid test for the raft of new technical regulations designed to enhance the racing while keeping the lid firmly on lap speeds.
Much has been made by the FIA president Max Mosley of the new grooved tyres, wider body and reduced overall car width, yet most chief designers are sceptical that the pecking order is likely to alter. When rules change frequently, they say, it favours the better sponsored teams who can afford more research and development to coax the best out of new regulations.
"All the teams do all their testing, then turn up and run two days of practice, sorting themselves out on a grid in the order of their performance capability, so you might reasonably ask why should there be any overtaking in the race," the Williams technical director Patrick Head pondered.
"Nevertheless the relative deterioration of the tyres, which should be different from circuit to circuit, will produce quite a bit of overtaking."
Yet it is not the need to have grooved tyres which is the real worry here. Williams, along with Ferrari, Jordan, Sauber and Tyrrell, are more anxious about whether they have the wrong brand of tyre. In recent weeks these Goodyear users have been beaten in testing by the McLaren and Benetton teams, who both changed from Goodyear to Bridgestone over the winter.
If the racing is better this season it may be due most to the disparity of performance between the Goodyear and Bridgestone tyres. Goodyear has announced that it will withdraw from Formula One at the end of this season, leaving Bridgestone as the sport's monopoly supplier next year.
Testing has shown that the Bridgestones retain their performance over longer periods, allowing drivers to set their quickest times after 10, 12 or even 20 laps. The Goodyears, although initially slightly quicker, have shown a tendency to lose grip after half a dozen laps.
A combination of less aerodynamic downforce and reduced grip from the grooved tyres indicates that the season will start with lap times between three and five seconds slower than in 1997: the chassis difference will probably cost two seconds per lap, the grooved tyres three seconds. But lap times are expected to tumble when the season gets into top gear.
A large part of the design work expended on the 1998 generation of Formula One challengers is to comply with rigorously revised constructional requirements for the chassis. The roll-over structures both in front and behind the driver will now have to sustain an impact of 7.5 tons, plus a much more severe side-impact test.
Because of this the cars will be safer in heavy accidents. In addition, the reduced width has caused engineers to concentrate on developing more compact engines and very thin longitudinal gearboxes in order to maximise the airflow out of the sidepods and over the aero-dynamically crucial diffuser, the ramp-like undertray beneath the rear wing.
