FIA intervenes again and changes the rules for next season! This will affect all teams without exception, but is it too late?

Formula 1 is already past the halfway point of this season, thanks to the Austrian Grand Prix, and all the teams have almost solved the problem of bouncing, or porpoising. In any case, the FIA is once again planning to intervene in the regulations and new technical rules will be in place for next season.

The International Automobile Federation is back in charge. This time, however, it is reacting to the aerodynamic peanut associated with the return of ground effect to Formula 1 as part of the entry into a new era.

The FIA had already introduced some kind of measurement at the Canadian Grand Prix, where teams were not allowed to go above a certain amount of bouncing. If this happened, the particular stable had to address the problem immediately, for example by changing the ground clearance. Otherwise, the FIA even threatened disqualification.

And since then, teams have managed to reduce the problems associated with porpoising very well.

In any case, the FIA has decided to change the rules for next season. The new technical directive, which the FIA published just before the Canadian Grand Prix, will almost certainly be in force in Spa, Belgium.

It is here that Formula 1 will take its mandatory big summer break. However, the FIA will already focus on floor flexibility next Sunday in France and will also measure and evaluate vertical oscillations. And it will do so using special metrics.

Change in technical regulations

But why has the FIA decided to intervene in the rules when the teams have almost solved the bouncing problem? According to the latest information, the FIA reckons that next year the cars will produce even more downforce, and this will lead to a worsening of this accompanying phenomenon.

And in the previous two Grands Prix, according to the FIA, the race was also held on tracks (Silverstone, Red Bull Ring) where the porpoising values were not supposed to reach any great heights. And that’s because of the configuration of the circuits.

So a few days ago the Technical Advisory Committee met and discussed possible options for changing the technical regulations.

And so, as you can see in the above twitter post, the committee made a decision. From the new season, teams must increase the floor margins by 25mm. The designers must also increase the diffuser neck under the floor.

The Federation Internationale de l’Automobile will also introduce stricter tests as to the lateral bends of the floor and deploy even more stringent sensors to detect and measure oscillations.

Sources: FIA, Motorsport, F1