Feedback from television images at the beginning of the season, especially in night races, highlighted the difficulty in distinguishing certain cars from certain angles.
In particular, it emerged that Aston Martin and Mercedes liveries, as well as Williams and Racing Bulls, have been singled out for the way they can sometimes appear indistinguishable from certain viewpoints when racing at high speed.
The problem of the similarity of some cars has also been exacerbated by the fact that in recent years teams have increasingly reduced the paintwork on their cars to save weight.
This has meant that the unpainted black carbon, identical on all cars, is increasingly in evidence.
The sources revealed that discussions have begun with teams to address the situation for next year, in order to ensure greater diversity on the grid and avoid the risk of cars having similar colours.
However, the situation is quite complex because, while on the one hand the FIA and FOM want the situation to be addressed to make it better and more usable for Formula 1 fans, on the other they do not want to go as far as imposing rigid regulations.
The FIA’s head of single-seater matters, Nikolas Tombazis, said the topic was being discussed further at the next F1 Commission meeting to try to find a solution.
“As always in F1, the issue is a little more complicated than it might seem,” Tombazis told Motorsport.com.
“One problem is that the cars have a little too much bare carbon, because obviously the weight of the paint, so the cars have a little too much black.”
“All the teams worked hard to change the type of paint, which nowadays consists of very thin films, to keep the weight as low as possible.”
“Another problem is that some teams seem to use similar color schemes, so they end up with cars that are visually very similar to each other. We are still discussing this with the teams and it will be discussed in the next F1 Commission.”
Tombazis believes the best way to resolve the situation is a collaborative process between teams, rather than new rules forcing their hands.
“We need to get to a process where teams, one way or another, communicate with each other and say, ‘Well, if your car is blue here, mine won’t be blue there.’ Or something like that.”
“But how exactly would this process work [resta da vedere]. This is not a regulatory process.”
“We don’t want to make regulations on liveries like the FIA, but we want the cars to be distinguishable.”
The debate on helmets also opens
The issue of different teams having similar-looking cars is not the only element of the talks, as there is also concern that it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish drivers from the same team.
With the design of emergency helmets no longer as iconic as in the past and also hidden by the halo, it is no longer as easy to recognize individual pilots as in the past.
At the moment, the only way teams are forced to make their two cars appear different is through a colored band on the on-board cameras.
Article 9.1 c) of the F1 Sporting Regulations provides that: “The on-board cameras located above the main roll structure of the first car must remain as supplied to the competitor and the second car must be predominantly fluorescent yellow in colour.”
F1 is understood to want to explore whether there are better ways to make it easier for fans to recognize every driver from the same team.
Tombazis added: “In the past, of course, pilots had more recognizable helmets because they had a simpler design. And they remained the same throughout their career.”
“Now the regulations have changed [che consentono di cambiare il design dei caschi] and there are all these strange nuances, plus you can’t see the helmet anyway because of the halo.”
“We have to find a way to let people know if it is [George] Russell or [Lewis] Hamilton, but also to be able to easily distinguish the cars.”
But, as with the livery issue, the FIA wants teams to deal with this themselves, rather than being forced to do so by new rules.
“We don’t want to insert a regulation and then report someone to the sports commissioners because we don’t like the color,” Tombazis said.
“We don’t want to get into it. But we want to get to a point where somehow the teams consider it a common good that the cars are recognisable.”
#Exclusive #diverse #liveries
