The FIA has no intention of giving up on the battle on the flexible wings. The teams will have to deal with a second turn of the screw in the control of the freedom of movement of the flaps, because Motorsport.com is able to anticipate a new regulatory intervention that will further clarify what the limits will be to counter solutions that the technical stewards they consider illegal.
As we had the opportunity to point out at the beginning of the summer that there had been some interventions to limit the proliferation of flexible wings, in particular Aston Martin had seen some materials rejected after the Azerbaijan GP, the FIA returns to the loaded in the belief that the technicians are once again going beyond the limits of the spirit of the regulation, given that all the wings subjected to static checks are perfectly legal.
To cut the interpretations on what is allowed or not, the FIA has decided to issue a new technical directive, the TD018, which Motorsport.com is able to anticipate, in an attempt to better regulate everything concerning flexible wings and bodies .
The TD018 was released to the teams ahead of the Dutch GP weekend because “specially designed localized areas of compliance” were observed as well as “relative movements between adjacent components” to improve aerodynamic performance.
The FIA clarifies what leads to a violation of article 3.2.2 of the F1 Technical Regulations, which establishes that all components that influence the aerodynamic performance of a car must be: “rigidly fixed and immovable with respect to their reference framework defined in the Article 3.3. Furthermore, these components must produce a uniform, solid, hard, continuous and impermeable surface at all times”.
The FIA is intervening because the teams would be exploiting sophisticated systems that rotate or flex the elements of the front and rear wings while being perfectly compliant with the static checks
The International Federation has defined four points on solutions that are considered illegal if:
1) The elements of the wings which can translate vertically, longitudinally or laterally with respect to the bodywork to which they are fixed.
2) The wing elements which can rotate with respect to the bodywork to which they are fixed, for example by rotating around a fixing.
3) Designs using elastomeric fittings, compliant sections of airfoil, or thin, flexible laminate at a joint that can distort, drift out of plane, or twist to allow localized deflection relative to the bodywork to which the component is attached.
4) Designs using “soft” trailing edges on wing elements to prevent “localized cracking” as a result of component assembly deflection.
The only exceptions that will be allowed will concern the assembly of the bottom and the opening of a small side slot to allow the flaps to be joined to the front wing bulkhead.
The FIA has decided to change the verification approach, no longer considering static load controls sufficient. Teams shall submit drawings of the assembly and fastening of the front wing elements to the nose, as well as the rear wing elements to the side bulkheads and to the rear impact structure and pylons. Not only that but the teams must show how the rear wing pylon attachments to the rear deformable structure are made to discover any deflections that can offer an aerodynamic advantage.
The new technical directive from the FIA will take effect on the occasion of the Singapore GP to allow the teams to adapt the single-seaters to the new regulations, but the drawings must be delivered by 8 September. Monza, therefore, will be played with flexible wings and then a cleaver will start. We will see if there will be any changes in values in the grid and which teams will lose performance and which will be able to recover performance. This is another regulatory change in the season, just like last year with the TD39 which had aroused so much controversy. Who is trembling for this measure?
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