F1 2023 - News/Regulation change/Developments

And they were still within the rules, I guess. Blueprinting engines with minimal tolerances, weight matching parts, and balancing have always been the way to extract more power in many specs series.

 

Bouncing/porpoising is bad -- https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/norris-having-lots-of-back-issues-with-current-f1-cars/10514281/

Norris suffering back issues with current F1 cars
McLaren driver Lando Norris has said he has "lots of issues" with his back since Formula 1 moved to running ground-effect cars at the start of the 2022 championship.

The current generation of cars must be run very low to the ground and be very stiffly sprung for the underfloor venturi tunnels and floor edges to generate the best downforce levels when working in conjunction with the rear diffuser.


This has in turn changed how drivers feel their machines traversing the course compared to the ultra-high-downforce aerodynamic design era where Norris made his F1 debut in 2019.

Drivers are also unable to attack kerbs in the same way as before with the ground-effect cars without them becoming unsettled.

Most famously, the porpoising phenomenon across 2022 caused several drivers to complain about back problems - Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton struggling to climb from his W13 after last year's Baku race.

Discussing the idea of future F1 designs perhaps having softer rides ahead of this weekend's Italian Grand Prix, Norris said he "would love" such a change.

"I wouldn't say no, if we could have softer cars or something that makes it a bit more like it was in 2019, 2020, 2021," he added.

"I've struggled a lot with my back. I've had to make quite a few seats and do a lot more training just to try and strengthen my back, my lower back.

"I've had a lot of issues over the last 12 months or so. Similar to Carlos [Sainz].

 

Is the rumored Andretti-Cadillac team going to be announced soon?

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Formula 1 Owners Are Stuck Marketing A Sport After They Sold Us Entertainment
Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei lamented that fans are bored by Verstappen's dominance — but that's because hasn't really been marketing the realities of sport

https://jalopnik.com/formula-1-liberty-media-marketing-sport-entertainment-1850812398

 

I am OK with the cars not being able to bypass the paved surface as much as before.

They could have this back in an instant if they allowed 2020 suspension technologies (hydraulics and such).

 

Nothing in the technical F1 press about any such design use for the new regs. Wonder if they are going to address it at all.

 

Be nice to see 80+ or 100kg reduced --

F1 targets 50kg weight reduction as part of 2026 rules revamp
Formula 1's 2026 rules are on course to produce shorter, narrower and lighter cars, with the FIA targeting a 50kg reduction in weight.

 

is that a 50kg total reduction? As they also claim 34kg weight gain on the power unit (batteries...)...sounds to me like the actual reduction is only 16kg.

 

Sorry did not include the details. Failure of multi tasking and not enough coffee so far today lol

Via Autosport:

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Autosport's Italian language sister site it.Motorsport.com, the FIA's head of single seaters Nikolas Tombazis has said that the main shift will be in the size of the car.

"With the dimensions of the wheels, which will be narrower, plus with the rear wing and the car in general, we aim to reduce the weight of the cars by around 50kg," he said.

"So, it will be possible to see smaller single-seater cars: shorter and narrower. But we are talking about solutions that still need to be discussed.

"With the car on a diet, we will be able to reduce the cornering speeds a bit. Being lighter, they will go faster in a straight line, but will generate less aerodynamic load. So, we will need to increase the hybrid's energy recovery to ensure adequate lap performance."

The changes planned for 2026 have not been without controversy, as Red Bull earlier this year warned of the potential for 'Frankenstein cars' that would be impossible to race each other.

There were even concerns about drivers needing to change down gear halfway down straights to try to boost their hybrid systems.

 

https://f1i.com/news/486363-f1-plans-action-over-drop-in-aero-performance-rules.html

F1 plans action over dilution of aero rules

Formula 1 is looking into making changes to its aerodynamic rules for 2025 after a new study revealed that measures introduced last year to make it easier for cars to overtake are no longer having the fully desired effect.
Reforms introduced by former F1 director of motorsport Ross Brawn before his retirement sought to deal with the way cars handled 'dirty air' and turbulence that stopped pursuing drivers from catching and passing cars in front.
The initiative, which included the return of the ground force effect, was designed to improve on-track competition and was initially deemed a success by teams and drivers.

But an analysis of the latest cars suggests that they have given up half the aero performance gains achieved in 2022, backing up comments made by Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz at last week's Italian GP.

"It's starting to become a bit like 2021 or 2020 where it is difficult to follow," he said at Monza.

In an exclusive interview, the FIA's single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis told the Italian edition of Motorsport.com that the governing body's own studies had confirmed the impact on aero loads.

"If we take the 2021 F1 cars, based on being two lengths from the car in front, they were losing more than 50 per cent of the load," he said. "With the 2022 single-seaters, there was only a 20 per cent reduction in load.

"Now we are at about 35 per cent," he added. "There has definitely been a worsening, and on this point Carlos is right. We have identified what we should act on."

With development work on next year's cars already well advanced, there is no chance to make changes to next year's rules meaning that 2025 is the earliest opportunity to address the problem.

"There are several aspects in the interpretation of the aerodynamic regulations that we do not like at the moment, but to change something we would need to go through the procedures to achieve a broad consensus.
"We are studying solutions for 2025," Tombazis said. "We have identified some parts of the cars to act on, such as the endplate of the front wing, the side of the floor and the fins inside the wheels.

"We could lay down somewhat more restrictive rules in these areas," he noted. "It is clear we no longer have the advantage of 2022, and therefore we know that there is work to be done."

One area of the 'outwash' problem that has been attracting major attention in recent weeks is the development of flexible wings and body parts with the FIA introducing new load tests on current cars.
"We have the right to act on flexible bodywork when we see something that does not convince us, because the regulation says that parts should be rigidly secured and immobile," commented Tombazis.
"In reality we know that this is not [absolutely] possible so there is a right to apply common sense."
Tombazis admitted that in the past, some well-intended changes had not always had the intended result.
"90 per cent of the regulations are in line with what we wanted, but there is ten per cent that with hindsight we would have done in a different way."

 

250 Kg is a better target...............

 

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/hidden-mechanisms-and-concealed-parts-what-triggered-f1s-flexi-wing-clampdown/10518570/

Hidden mechanisms and concealed parts: What triggered F1's flexi-wing clampdown
The potential for hidden one-way mechanisms and moveable parts concealed by rubber components have emerged as key driving forces behind the FIA's latest Formula 1 flexi-wing clampdown.

From this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix, the FIA has got tougher on the design of front and rear wings in a bid to stop teams from playing games with flexible parts.

As first revealed by Autosport, the FIA has demanded to see all design drawings of wings ahead of the Marina Bay race to check they comply and has outlawed specific wing ideas that it believes contravene the rules.

This includes wing elements that move or rotate in relation to the bodywork they are fixed to, the use of elastomeric (rubber) fillets that can help permit localised deflection, plus designs that use soft trailing edges to aid flexing.

The FIA has long faced a battle to stay on top of the teams' flexi-wing antics, but its single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis has revealed how it was pushed to respond after discovering the lengths some teams were going to get around the rules.

In an exclusive interview with Autosport's Italian site, Tombazis has explained the thinking behind the new tough stance over flexi-wings.

"In the F1 regulations, we have many flexibility criteria: there are loads that we apply and a certain deflection is allowed," he said.

"There are static tests that we do to check, and it is obvious that these tests are never perfect because the direction of the [test] load you apply is always a bit different from the load that is on the track when it experiences genuine aerodynamic force.

"There may be differences and, for this reason, in the regulations, there are some general and conceptual specifications that, in essence, prohibit mechanisms.

"For example, one could draw a wing that, when applying the forces of the FIA test, is fixed but when applying any other load, it could be more flexible. For this reason, we have been clarifying for years that mechanisms are not legal and we have written several clarifications on what we consider a mechanism."

Tombazis then suggested that a line has had to be drawn because of clever mechanisms that teams could use to get around the rules – which has included the use of designs hidden beneath rubber coverings.

"If under a carbon surface, we have levers that allow a deflection in one direction and not in another, we can consider this a mechanism," he said.

"Another thing we have said in the past is that it's not acceptable when a component has relative motion against an adjacent element, sliding in a different direction [from it].

"What happened recently? Some teams have components adjacent to each other that have a fairly high movement but do not slide [in tandem] because these areas are covered with rubber material. We do not consider this acceptable and, for this reason, we have made a clarification."

Tombazis suggested that teams had been exploiting this with both individual front-wing elements and the attachments with the nose.

Furthermore, it has been inspecting the flexibility of the lower rear wing components to the crash structure. The flexibility of upper wing elements has been better policed thanks to the introduction of reference dots from the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

He added: "We have observed some rotations, and we have analysed them with the teams because we conduct some examinations.

"At the track, we will open up one of their components to see what's underneath, or we will look at their drawings in CAD to better understand how the various elements work."

Asked if this was done in collaboration with teams, Tombazis said: "It's not that they want to, but they have to. Lately, we have seen drawings in which things were exaggerated. The trend was evident, so then we intervened with a more severe clarification."

 

DHL used trucks run on biofuel - hydrotreated vegetable oil - to transport freight between races on the European leg of the 2023 F1 season, delivering an 83% reduction of logistics carbon emissions on average.

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Omg! Finally! I’m so happy!

 

Have not heard much news lately on the Tire Warmer issues but in DTM this is now a HOT topic lol. So will F1 ban the sun as well??

Abt calls for action against DTM teams using sunlight to heat tyres
Abt Sportsline has called for the DTM to penalise teams if they are caught using sunlight to heat up tyres in the final two rounds of the season.

 

LOL

 

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Sorry Zak but there should be much more room for teams to invest in facility improvement to be more competitive given the budget cap. Id like to see a stronger Williams. Absurd.

Brown "sympathetic" to Williams F1 but warns against CapEx spending spree
McLaren CEO Zak Brown says he is "sympathetic" to Williams Formula 1's plea to be allowed to invest in new facilities, but cautioned bigger CapEx allowances can't be a general solution.

 

FIA to reject 3 applications for new F1 teams.

 

And Liberty and Teams will reject the winner lol

 

Short attention span fans are leaving lol. No shock. Short term gains for Liberty.

Formula 1 reverses social media gains amid lack of title fight
Formula 1 has witnessed a dramatic drop in social media mentions, new followers and reach off the back of Red Bull’s total domination, a new research study has revealed.

 

Or not.

F1 data counters new report's purported social media 'crisis' | RacingNews365

 

Have they compared 2014 thru 2020?

 

Of course they counter it - statistics are manipulated entity lol. The report for the Autosport article is online. Here it is. I dont really care who is wrong or right as both will specify they are with given metrics.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/buzz-radar_buzz-radar-white-paper-13-have-we-reached-activity-7113067262462316546-EWNG/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

 

Just watched some WRC. It is far more exciting than F1. And in my opinion the drivers are just as skilled as F1 drivers, and the teams work much harder.