https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/fia-wont-hesitate-to-act-on-f1-2022-flexi-floor-abuse/8248871/ FIA "won't hesitate" to act on F1 2022 flexi-floor "abuse" The FIA has warned Formula 1 teams that it will have no hesitation in clamping down on any flexi-floor tricks in 2022 if it feels the rules are being "abused". Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login By: Jonathan Noble Feb 17, 2022, 6:40 AM F1's all-new rules era this season has led to a shift to a more ground effect concept, with much more of a car's downforce generated by airflow running under the floor. The new cars have large Venturi tunnels on the underside to help direct the air, and the design changes have prompted a rethink about finding fresh performance gains. As teams have better understood this new generation of cars, they have quickly realised that there are great benefits to be gained by maximising the under-floor flow. This has led to an acceptance that there will need to be a much stiffer suspension set-up in 2022, but there are now fears teams could start using tricks to flex the edges of the floor down to help gain even more performance.
Spec series thinking eh Ross?? Brawn: F1 teams unlikely to find “silver bullet” in new rules Formula 1 managing director Ross Brawn believes teams are unlikely to have found a “silver bullet” in the 2022 regulations that could give them an edge over rivals. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login By: Adam Cooper Feb 16, 2022, 7:03 PM Since the new rules were first announced there has been speculation about the possibility of a savvy competitor matching what Brawn’s own eponymous outfit did in 2009. That year Brawn GP introduced the controversial double diffuser and enjoyed a huge advantage in the early part of the season. Brawn said he couldn’t guarantee that loopholes had not been left open, but he remains confident that "robust" regulations have made it less likely. “You don't know about silver bullets,” said Brawn. “If you knew where the silver bullet was you would have stopped it. “There's no guarantee that something may occur that we just haven't anticipated. And I think if it is going to occur, you won't see it in Barcelona [testing]. Probably someone will spring it on F1. “But actually, I don't think that will be the case. I think the regulations are pretty robust. But you can never say.” Brawn added that the new FIA governance system, which does not require unanimity among the teams to outlaw technological innovations, will also help. Teams now know that their R&D investment could be wasted if a route they have pursued without clearing it with the FIA is subsequently blocked.
they probably have specs around floor stiffness and floor materials to try to control….if not, then they already know something is being manipulated lol
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/how-f1s-new-show-and-tell-technical-sessions-will-work/8310258/ How F1’s new ‘show and tell’ technical sessions will work The FIA has explained the process for its new technical ‘show and tell’ sessions for Formula 1 car upgrades in 2022. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login By: Luke Smith Feb 19, 2022, 6:29 AM F1 managing director Ross Brawn revealed last November that series bosses were planning an open session for media in which teams would be required to reveal and explain car upgrades at each race weekend. Early drafts of the sporting regulations for 2022 said teams had to declare a “reference specification” at the start of a weekend to the FIA, meaning F1 saw no reason not to make these technical developments public and have them be explained, particularly at the start of a new technical era for F1. PLUS: The downside to F1's show and tell proposal The FIA has now expanded on how the process will work for the new updates and parts to be explained ahead of each race weekend. According to the sporting regulations, all teams are required to submit to the FIA a document that gives the “name and brief description of all major aerodynamic and bodywork components and assemblies” that were not used at the last race and are intended to be run that weekend. This needs to be submitted to the FIA on Thursday afternoon, and will not be revealed to the media until the ‘pre-event automobile display’, which will take place no later than 90 minutes before the start of FP1. In this display, teams must make both of their cars available for the media outside the garage for up to one hour. They must be fitted with “all major aerodynamic and bodywork components that are intended to be used when the car leaves the pit lane for the first time” at the start of practice. A second show and tell session will then take place 30 minutes after qualifying, once car specifications are locked in under parc ferme. For this, five teams will be required to supply one car each as selected by the race director. Image Unavailable, Please Login An FIA delegate inspects the car of Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes F1 W11, in Parc Ferme Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images During this session, each team must make a senior figure available for a media session to explain all the aerodynamic and bodywork changes made to the car since the Friday display. The move comes as part of a wider shake-up of the race weekend that is intended to condense the time that drivers are required to be at the track. F1’s designated ‘media day’ on Thursday has now been moved to Friday mornings, with opening practice typically scheduled for early afternoon at events this year to allow time for these commitments. Speaking about the plans for the show and tell sessions last year, Brawn said they would “create another nuance and other interest in the sport” for fans interested in technical developments. PLUS: The "rabbit hole" that F1 needed to stay out of But there will naturally be a level of secrecy that teams will want to maintain through the sessions to ensure they do not give information away to their rivals.
F1 regulations update confirms removal of Q2 tyre rule The FIA has confirmed Formula 1 drivers qualifying inside the top 10 will no longer be required to start the race on their Q2 tyre from the 2022 season.
I think we can expect pressure behind the scenes by all major teams to increase the budget cap and somehow link that to costs/inflation. Watch this - they will win it and have it increased LOL Wolff: Inflation, wrong concept switch adds to F1 cost cap headaches Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says that higher inflation levels have made it even harder for the bigger Formula 1 teams to operate within the sport’s cost cap limits. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login By: Adam Cooper Feb 20, 2022, 6:46 AM He also admits that the tighter cap will make it hard for a team that discovers it has followed the wrong concept with the new rules to switch direction and produce a substantially modified car during the 2022 season. This year the cost cap drops from $145m to $140m, forcing the bigger teams to further cut back their staff levels, or allocate people to projects outside F1. At the same time the latest official level of inflation as measured by the Consumer Prices Index in the UK – where the Mercedes team is based – is at a near 30-year high of 5.5%. “It has been very, very difficult to structure the company and the organisation in the right way to meet the cost cap at $140m,” he said when asked by Autosport. “Also in a high inflation environment, we are not only reducing by $5m, but we have a situation where you’re not able to really increase the costs and the payroll. So that is extremely painful. “And on the other side, you have to decide very carefully where you invest your dollar in R&D. In the past, it was a little bit easier because you could follow various avenues in chasing performance. “Today you have to decide which one has the highest potential and then embark on it. It’s a totally different way of operating for the big teams.” Image Unavailable, Please Login Mercedes W13 Photo by: Mercedes AMG Regarding a change of concept should one be required, he made it clear that teams will struggle in such a situation. “It’s one side where actually you can really change concepts technically, because sometimes you embark on a direction, that’s it," he said. Read Also: Karun Chandhok's 10 big questions facing F1 2022 Hamilton calls for action from social networks after Latifi abuse “And then the added pressure of the cost cap makes it very difficult to then change the basic, change the car fundamentally. “Because everything is planned, every upgrade and their related costs are planned, and therefore we are much more restricted with the budget cap in our ability to implement the creative process onto the car.” https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/wolff-inflation-wrong-concept-switch-adds-to-f1-cost-cap-headaches-/8337414/
This will be fun to see. A factor of increase for inflation etc etc. Good luck attempting to 'police' that. Slowly budgets moving up and up. Team socks to expensive to produce due to cotton prices etc etc? Add 2 million lol
Not overtly but track position is everything Ross LOL - Did he not lead a team in F1 at some point?!! Brawn: F1 teams won’t sabotage wake to make following harder Formula 1 managing director Ross Brawn is adamant that teams will not look for ways to ”sabotage” the new rules and make it harder for rivals to follow their cars.
https://the-race.com/formula-1/gary-anderson-why-mercedes-rippled-f1-floor-is-back/ Gary Anderson: Why Mercedes’ rippled F1 floor is back 7 hours ago By Gary Anderson 11 Comments Illustrations by Rosario Giuliana Formula 1 has all-new rules this year, but Mercedes has brought back the rippled design it used on the front corner of the floor during the first half of 2021. The 2022 version is actually more similar to the version used by Aston Martin last year, which had more of these small exit tunnels than Mercedes. Image Unavailable, Please Login But the fact this idea has been used on both this year and last year’s Mercedes shows that despite the dramatic rule changes, the philosophy and flow structure over the car is not so different. The splitter/turning vane set-up that you have on the leading edge of the underfloor will direct some of the wider airflow around the front corner of the sidepod. Last year this was accomplished with the very powerful bargeboards. Image Unavailable, Please Login Together with that airflow coming around the corner of the sidepod, these small exits scavenge some of that flow out from underneath the front corner of the floor. If you can set up a high pressure, which the raised floor leading edge does, inside the underfloor and a low pressure by turning the airflow around the the outside of the front corner of the sidepod, it will scavenge airflow through these small tunnels. The intention then is that this sets up a group of vortices. Looking from the front of the car on the side in our illustration, these rotate anti-clockwise. Image Unavailable, Please Login These then build as they connect up with each other. It then flows down the edge of the floor further rearward, reducing the amount of airflow being pulled under the car because of the diffuser generating low pressure underneath the floor area. For the previous generation of rules, sealing the underfloor in this way was crucial but you had the very powerful bargeboards to achieve this. With F1 returning to ground effect cars this year it’s now even more important but you don’t have those bargeboards to do it. This is the theory, but does it work in practice? Most teams are trying to create this effect to some degree. The norm is to use a turn-up floor edge section in the same area where Mercedes has its series of small tunnels. Red Bull, for example, has what I would call a fairly powerful turned-up section in this area but it’s a simple long section. I’m sure you can work both versions in a similar way, but my concern is that the more refined you make this type of system the greater the chance there is of it falling over because of the turbulent airflow – or even when steering lock is applied mid-corner. If you have perfect airflow, it is fairly easy to set up vortices but if the flow is turbulent it gets inconsistent – which is not what you want. The buzzword is ‘bursting’ the vortex. It is more about flow direction. In an ideal world it is coming from one direction so it is about managing it. With turbulence, it is coming from all directions so very difficult to manage. As an example, we always hear drivers complaining about cross winds creating problems. The reason for that is that it is ‘bursting their vortices’, or in some case even bursting their bubbles. The floor is going to be a major area of development in 2022, just as it was last year. But under the new rules, given the massive reduction in the aero detail in the bargeboard area, the floor itself is now even more crucial.
Via SKY F1 -- Online Q &A with Ted: MrJones: In the first few races are we just going to see teams protesting each other’s cars on every little detail? Sky Sports F1's Ted Kravitz: "Definitely. They've already started! "There are already lots of teams looking at various bits on other cars and going, 'hang on, I didn't think we were allowed to do that!' "Every single thing is going to be objected or even protested. That's the problem for these race directors - these two guys are coming in at a particularly red-hot time for inter-team protests."
The people polishing the car as it waits for its next qualy run reduce the lap time by .000001 ok?? It all adds up lol
or 5x that, in Merc F1's case. What Dodo forgets it's that the budget cap and inflation affects everyone.
Dodo? Really. He clearly states what many are thinking. As if RedBull and Ferrari or Mclaren would not appreciate the ability to have a slightly higher budget. Good luck showing them thats a bad idea. Alfa and Haas on the other hand would feel not so great. Any adjustment should reflect actual increased costs to the teams. The world tends to be more expensive, not less over time.
FIA Response regarding Russia-Ukraine issue - No events to be held there for now, no national teams can participate - Drivers can race but under FIA symbol - Commission members to stop work - No grants from FIA: Image Unavailable, Please Login
Spa Francochamps update: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Mazepin is now banned from racing in the UK. Hopefully that will be the end of him and his money in F1.
