[Rules] Future Rule Changes

[Mike Harte]

The FIA have changed, or clarified, the rule for when lapped cars are permitted to unlap themselves during a safety car period.

Instead of the words "any cars" may be permitted to unlap themselves, it now states that"all cars" must unlap themselves before the restart.

The rule about re-starting the race remains one lap after all the cars have unlapped themselves.

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

The FIA have changed, or clarified, the rule for when lapped cars are permitted to unlap themselves during a safety car period.

Instead of the words "any cars" may be permitted to unlap themselves, it now states that"all cars" must unlap themselves before the restart.

The rule about re-starting the race remains one lap after all the cars have unlapped themselves.

I still think they should just send them to the back of the field and credit them a lap if necessary. Any advantage is minimal compared to lapped cars passing then racing round to catchup, and arriving at the rear of grid for a restart with warm tyres.... against faster cars on relatively cool tyres.

And people wonder why SC's sometimes breed SC's

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by E.B

I still think they should just send them to the back of the field and credit them a lap if necessary. Any advantage is minimal compared to lapped cars passing then racing round to catchup, and arriving at the rear of grid for a restart with warm tyres.... against faster cars on relatively cool tyres.

And people wonder why SC's sometimes breed SC's

While I’m not totally against the idea of putting them to the back of the field, granting them the lap back like that would be even worse than what we have now! That would mean theoretically those at the back have the advantage of one less lap on their tyres and one more lap of fuel.

Still at least now they’ve tightened the rules so that they can’t just pick and choose which cars go past, which leads to suggestions of manipulation

[chillibowl]

among the other rules one is to ensure drivers have their overalls on and fully buttoned up at all times on podium and post race.

for sure i get it, importance of sponsors, branding etc (although i thought their underlayer had all the sponsor logos on them anyways) but when they put out trivial rule adjustments along with serious ones, its hard to take the rule makers seriously.

[broadrun96]

We should show the FIA pictures of John Force getting out of the Castrol FC and then can realize reprinted logos on the under layer so the drivers aren't boiling might not be so bad.

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

among the other rules one is to ensure drivers have their overalls on and fully buttoned up at all times on podium and post race.

for sure i get it, importance of sponsors, branding etc (although i thought their underlayer had all the sponsor logos on them anyways) but when they put out trivial rule adjustments along with serious ones, its hard to take the rule makers seriously.

I know, it seems a pointless rule. No one really does it anyway, so why did they need to introduce it?

[E.B]

Originally Posted by S griffin

I know, it seems a pointless rule. No one really does it anyway, so why did they need to introduce it?

Yet they have gone back to awarding garlands to winners of Sprint races.... and said garlands hide the very logos that authorities are supposedly trying to protect with this schoolboy type rule of wearing your 'uniform' correctly and 'doing your top button up'.

(I note that the drivers themselves actually dont bother to wear the garlands as tradition would suggest they should.... presumably for the reasons of not hiding the all important logos from TV exposure. Wasnt that one of the prime reasons they gave up on garlands in the first place?)

[wnut]

Originally Posted by E.B

Yet they have gone back to awarding garlands to winners of Sprint races.... and said garlands hide the very logos that authorities are supposedly trying to protect with this schoolboy type rule of wearing your 'uniform' correctly and 'doing your top button up'.

(I note that the drivers themselves actually dont bother to wear the garlands as tradition would suggest they should.... presumably for the reasons of not hiding the all important logos from TV exposure. Wasnt that one of the prime reasons they gave up on garlands in the first place?)

Probably working themselves into a froth that one of the Wseries woman might undo two buttons on their race suit and create a controversy, and then point out that the boys are allowed to do it. OMG!

[broadrun96]

Great, now all the guys will be wearing skirts because they can't wear shorts by rule.

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

The FIA have changed, or clarified, the rule for when lapped cars are permitted to unlap themselves during a safety car period.

Instead of the words "any cars" may be permitted to unlap themselves, it now states that"all cars" must unlap themselves before the restart.

The rule about re-starting the race remains one lap after all the cars have unlapped themselves.

Be interesting to see if they change the over-arching rule above both of them - it was that over-arching rule that enabled what happened last year to occur (as confirmed by the stewards). Might be that the the over-arching rule is left there but updated instructions are issues to the new race directors?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Great, now all the guys will be wearing skirts because they can't wear shorts by rule.

It does get hot in those cockpits.

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

It does get hot in those cockpits.

Indeed, it's testament to their fitness, that so many can get out and look fresh faced at the end of a race

[Sodemo]

I guess the jury is still out for the moment on whether the cars can follow any better, however I wish that they could go back to lighter cars. At 800kg they are approaching 90s super touring car build weights (I believe the Audi Quattro A4 build weight was 865kg - and that was a car chassis built from steel - and then aluminum panels). Surely they could lower the weight somehow to 700kg or near? I can appreciate that might mean a re-working of components (engine), but having light cars is so intrinsic with this sport, the cars just look so much lazier and change direction in a much less dramatic fashion.

[Mike Harte]

Referring to the post above about weight, I would think that weight hasn't been mandated arbitrarily; I believe that it was mainly related to increased safety related to improve crash survival.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by Sodemo

I guess the jury is still out for the moment on whether the cars can follow any better, however I wish that they could go back to lighter cars.

I generally agree. But I think they would have to simplify the cars (less complex power unit) among other things. I was reading elsewhere that people are saying that the Red Bull was 20kg overweight during testing at Bahrain and while they had slimmed down for the race, they were still overweight. So teams clearly struggle to get to the min weight today. If they have to ballast up to min weight, they probably are not putting much weight on the car to do that?

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Referring to the post above about weight, I would think that weight hasn't been mandated arbitrarily; I believe that it was mainly related to increased safety related to improve crash survival.

For sure that accounts for a good bit.

Richard

[chillibowl]

was mentioned during the SKY broadcast and dont believe i have heard it mentioned before, but one of the knock on effects to the heavier cars apparently is that they are more difficult to clear from the track.

i assume they mean in terms of taking longer, better cranes/equipment needed, as well as track personnel/more hands?

no doubt safety is a key concern but how best to balance driver safety while not compromising track side safety?

[Sodemo]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

was mentioned during the SKY broadcast and dont believe i have heard it mentioned before, but one of the knock on effects to the heavier cars apparently is that they are more difficult to clear from the track.

i assume they mean in terms of taking longer, better cranes/equipment needed, as well as track personnel/more hands?

no doubt safety is a key concern but how best to balance driver safety while not compromising track side safety?

Some time ago the FIA said that they were against making the cars heavier because in a crash it meant more mass had to be absorbed by barriers / fences etc.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

was mentioned during the SKY broadcast and dont believe i have heard it mentioned before, but one of the knock on effects to the heavier cars apparently is that they are more difficult to clear from the track.

i assume they mean in terms of taking longer, better cranes/equipment needed, as well as track personnel/more hands?

no doubt safety is a key concern but how best to balance driver safety while not compromising track side safety?

I didn't watch the Sky broadcast, so I don't know the context of when that was said. But I believe the cars have grown about 6% in weight between 2021 and 2022. 752 to 798 is an extra 46kg.

So someone is saying that an extra 46kg is impacting the equipment needs and time required for vehicle recovery? Was the existing equipment so close to lift safety margins that the extra 6% pushed them over the edge? Is each circuit going to have to buy the next larger JCB for F1?

I personally find that hard to believe. That comes across to me as a talking head on TV watching a slow recovery effort and then wildly speculating on why it was slow.

Richard

[bjohnsonsmith]

According to this article, the increase in weight for 2022 was agreed amongst the teams.


https://racingnews365.com/minimum-f1...ncreased-again

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by Richard Casto

I personally find that hard to believe. That comes across to me as a talking head on TV watching a slow recovery effort and then wildly speculating on why it was slow.

Richard

lol probably! talking heads have to talk.

[Tourer]

I've made the point before that IMHO the current cars are way too big and way too heavy as F1 cars go.

Can't see a big change without a different (lighter, simpler) approach on power units though and as we know, the sport seems to be pretty much wedded to the hybrid units for the foreseeable future.

As expected, the cars were visibly slower and clumsier in the slow corners at Bahrain and the new design, allied to larger diameter wheels/tyres has resulted in cars that have little or no capacity to brake and steer at the same time (certainly into slow corners anyway) which makes them look even slower and even clumsier.

I really wish there was a rethink on this but I doubt that it'll happen - feels to me like Monaco could be a very different viewing experience this year.

[nagter96]

interesting information

[Sodemo]

Maybe they should return the front wing to the near ground position? My understanding of placing the wing higher up from when they raised it in 2001 and then again in 2005 was that it was more likely to suffer in terms of being placed into disturbed air. I guess the reason they have mandated a higher position to the front wing was to encourage airflow to the floor area, but I think they should re-think this as what are they trying to prioritise, outright floor downforce generation or having the front wing working when behind another car?

If they lowered the front wing it would place it back into a ground effect scenario and would likely be in cleaner air, downside would be that it would rob the floor of some airflow, but I don't think thats all together a bad thing.

[Taxi645]

Originally Posted by Sodemo

Some time ago the FIA said that they were against making the cars heavier because in a crash it meant more mass had to be absorbed by barriers / fences etc.

Not only this, but it also means that in case of a crash, drag from the air will not be able to slow down the car as much before it hits the barrier.

Compare it with a sheet of card board and the same sized steel plating. One will loose speed (and kinetic energy) quickly, the other will loose speed much less so.

[wolfhound]

The drivers are going to have decide themselves whether to give back a place with a marginal overtake cross kerbs white lines etc. as race control will no longer tell them . It will be the stewards who will decide if a driver has overstepped and not returned a place.


https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/wh...calls/9305406/


I am expecting some drivers will be regularly moaning about the penalties they get for using the outer edge of circuits.