Listen to this article F1 will begin its new technical era this weekend as the Bahrain Grand Prix offers the first chance for teams to race their overhauled cars. A concerted effort has been made by F1’s rulemakers to reduce the technical freedoms available to teams, pushing to create closer competition while retaining the goal of making it easier for cars to follow so on-track battles are improved. There were some fears it would result in all the cars looking the same under the new ruleset, but teams and drivers were pleasantly surprised to see so much variation through the launches and in pre-season testing. One of the biggest areas where teams took different directions was with sidepod design. Mercedes brought a radical slimline solution to the second test, while Ferrari has a far wider, dipping design. The FIA’s head of single-seater matters, Nikolas Tombaz …