The FIA has agreed to delay the introduction of new limits on Formula 1 cars ‘porpoising’ until the Belgian Grand Prix.
Following a meeting of the F1 Commission today the sport’s governing body confirmed it will postpone the enforcement of its new metric governing the allowed vertical movement by cars. It was originally due to be imposed from the French Grand Prix, but has now been pushed back to the Belgian round following the summer break.The FIA originally issued a technical directive at the Canadian Grand Prix outlining its plans to define a metric to control porpoising. This was superseded by a new directive at last weekend’s race. The new directive will also tighten up restrictions on floors due to concerns some teams’ designs were flexing more than the rule makers intended.
Some teams had raised concerns over the FIA’s plans to limit porpoising. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner described it as a “dangerous avenue” to pursue as the directive raised the possibility of the FIA instructing teams to alter their set-ups. Williams CEO Jost Capito described the proposed restriction as “much too complicated.”
Following today’s meeting the teams, FIA and Formula One Management agreed to delay the introduction of the new restrictions to ensure the rules would be applied fairly.
“There was a discussion regarding the draft technical directive that addresses safety concerns relating to the vertical oscillation of the cars (also referred to as porpoising),” said the FIA in a statement.
“Following feedback and consultation with the teams and in order to allow the teams to make necessary updates to the plank and skid assemblies, which will ensure a fair application of the metric used to measure this oscillation across all cars, the implementation of the draft technical directive issued to the teams prior to the British Grand Prix will come into effect from the Belgian Grand Prix.”
“The enhanced controls by the FIA introduced as from the Canadian Grand Prix will continue,” the FIA added. “Several proposed actions to address this issue in the 2023 Technical Regulations were also discussed, with clear directions to be taken to the Technical Advisory Committee.”
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Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
8th July 2022, 13:32
A couple of weeks delay here, a couple of months there, and before you know it the whole thing is buried, probably because it didn’t serve the purposes its initiators had in mind.
Andre
8th July 2022, 14:46
It’s Redbull’s modus operandus, always playing with the politics to extract an advantage. The porpoising monitoring was initially likely going to hurt Mercedes but that backfired on RBR and Ferrari after they detected the plank bending. The more they delay the clampdown due to “cost” and “manufacturing” and whatever reason they can come up with, the more points for the championship they can guarantee before they lose relative performance to the competitors.
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
8th July 2022, 14:56
Remind me, who came to the Canadian GP sporting a heretofore (and since) illegal second external floor stay?
Boudi
8th July 2022, 15:45
Mercedes brought it after the TD so top crying. Also it’s very clear RB will not benefit from the enforcement of these new TDs, this is why they keep on crying. Last year their rear flexing wings and this year their flexing floors. Seriously this team can’t but cheat.
S
8th July 2022, 13:46
What a shock
Jere (@jerejj)
8th July 2022, 13:46
Unsurprising.
Todfod (@todfod)
8th July 2022, 13:48
I’m more interested in the potential for Floor change regulations that might happen after these oscillation tests results are in.
To make this season interesting, we need to see the pecking order change a little bit. There is no way in hell that Ferrari will mount a championship challenge this year.. especially not with that aged Harry potter lookalike cooking up strategies in his red cauldron.
Asanator (@asanator)
8th July 2022, 15:34
Team principles don’t devise race strategies “rolleyes”
Todfod (@todfod)
9th July 2022, 19:26
@asanator
I didn’t say race strategies. I meant strategies on how to throw away a WDC and alienate the best member of your team.
Sam Crawford
8th July 2022, 13:50
They’ll continue to push it back and back, by which point the teams will have more of a handle on it and the test will be deemed unnecessary
NS Biker (@rekibsn)
8th July 2022, 14:00
Yep … this one is going to disappear quietly….. we hope. As noted above, the revised regs and “intent” were looking like they were getting out of hand and were being used for objectives other than “driver safety”.
In a month from now, the teams should have a better handle on the issues, Williams newest development as an eg. Hope their approach works.
BHJ
8th July 2022, 14:05
Can anyone figure out how this relates to the proposed clamp down on flexi floors? Is that also delayed or is this un-related?
Ajaxn
8th July 2022, 14:32
That was my question too.
As the FIA delay testing the new ‘boucing’ metric, does this mean they wont be testing the floors for flexing?
Does this mean those team continue to profit from their illegal advantage. Also, know how long has the FIA known about this side-stepping of their rules?
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
8th July 2022, 14:55
Did you notice that even the shocked (SHOCKED!) Mr Wolff didn’t appear to protest the result of the British GP?
Green Flag (@greenflag)
8th July 2022, 15:03
Everything about Red Bull is flexible. Floors, wings, ethics, morals. All flexible.
Boudi
8th July 2022, 15:46
Ethics if any*. They lack ethics as much as the Williams lack downforce.
anon
8th July 2022, 17:37
BHJ, the proposed clamp down on flexi floors is also postponed because it was part of the same Technical Directive (TD039).
Ajaxn, it’s not known when exactly the FIA first started their investigation. The FIA is reported as having instructed the teams on how the regulations were going to be applied before the season began, but the story only seems to have begun circulating after the Monaco GP – however, it’s not clear if that is when they started the investigation, or when the first draft of the new Technical Directive was produced.
Nicky
8th July 2022, 16:48
Ah does not surprise me…more time for MB to fix their problems…what a coincidence….
anon
8th July 2022, 20:02
Nicky, that doesn’t make any sense, since Mercedes are reported as having already gone through the homologation process to introduce new suspension components to tackle that issue, with those updated components due to come in at the French GP.
Red Bull and Ferrari were the only ones who are recorded as having formally objected to the introduction of this Technical Directive due to the introduction of new tests by the FIA to ensure they comply with the floor deflection limits.
OmarR
8th July 2022, 18:20
So the possible brain damage will wait for one month as well? Oh, Mercedes fixed it with one more cable. How convenient.