|
FIA's Charlie
Whiting answered a series of questions regarding the new rules for the 2012
F1 season.
Q: Why has a
four-hour total time limit been put on Grands Prix?
CW: Last season the race in Montreal went on for four hours and four
minutes. A race really should not go on longer than that. Should four hours
elapse during a future race, drivers will receive a signal telling them they
have one more lap before the chequered flag.
Q: Race stewards will now be able to investigate an incident without
first reporting it to the race director. Why is the system changing?
CW: In the past stewards might see something suspect and alert the race
director. He would look at the incident and request the stewards
investigate. It was a process that consumed a lot of time. If they identify
something worth investigating, there’s nothing wrong with them taking a look
and then giving the race director an opinion. It should make the process
less cumbersome.
Q: Drivers are now instructed to not deliberately leave the track without
good reason. Why?
CW: We’ve seen drivers taking shortcuts on in and out laps, either to save
time or fuel. We could put up barriers to stop them exploiting short cuts
but it usually looks stupid! The rules say the drivers should use the track.
If they don’t, they will need to justify their actions.
It also follows that safety will be improved as other drivers are more
likely to know that a car has left the track for a good reason.
Q: The ‘one-move’ rule on defending a position has been reinstated. Has
there been a problem with dangerous blocking in the last few seasons?
CW: This isn’t really a new overtaking rule, rather we’ve put into the
regulations what was an unwritten rule. A driver can make one move only to
defend a position – but when that driver then moves back onto the racing
line to take a corner it can be construed as a second move, which is not
allowed. It’s a matter of deciding to what degree resuming the original line
is acceptable. We don’t want to get into silly arguments about centimetres
so we’ve decided the defending driver must leave at least one car width on
the racing line otherwise he will be judged to have made a second move and
penalised accordingly. We need to have drivers giving each other space on
the track – otherwise we risk dangerous collisions.
Q: Previously cars needed to pass crash tests before racing. Now they
have to pass before testing. Why?
CW: Safety cannot be compromised. It is indefensible to have drivers testing
cars in the winter that haven’t met the safety standards we demand for a
race. The teams resisted this for quite a while, telling me it would be
impossible to get the crash tests done before the first test. It came as no
great surprise that nearly everybody managed it.
However, as we have seen, two teams failed to pass all their crash tests in
good time and were subsequently unable to participate any of the pre-season
testing in Jerez and Barcelona (both of these teams have now passed all the
required tests).
Q: Why are drivers now allowed more than three sets of tyres for FP1 and
FP2 on Fridays?
CW: Each driver still gets eleven sets for the weekend and three still have
to be given back on Friday evening and another two after FP3 on Saturday.
This has not changed. We are, however, allowing teams to use more than three
of their eleven sets on Fridays to give them the opportunity to do more
running on the first day of practice should they wish to do so. As an
example they might expect Saturday to be wet and want to get more running in
beforehand on a dry track. It is to the benefit of everyone that they are
allowed to run as much as they want during the Friday sessions.
Q: With the safety car on track, lapped cars will be allowed to unlap
themselves and rejoin at the back of the field. Why is F1 going back to this
system?
CW: We took this rule away because it was difficult to manage and
potentially dangerous. We have reinstated it with new safeguards. Drivers
will only be allowed to overtake once they have all passed the pit entry
twice, this will allow all drivers to pit if they want to. We will also
instruct the lead drivers to stay on the racing line once the order is given
to allow cars to overtake. They will be allowed to weave again, to get heat
into their tyres, when we inform them it is safe to do so.
Technical regulations
Q: Why do the 2012 cars have the ‘platypus’ nose?
CW. The height of the survival cell in front of the driver was 625mm – and
we wanted to reduce that to 550mm. Our intention was to ensure the nose is
lower than the cockpit sides, to protect the driver’s head in the event of a
‘T-bone’ accident. Some teams complained that lowering the whole car forward
of the cockpit would force them into a radical redesign. We agreed a
compromise that the 550mm height would only apply from a point 1950mm in
front of the rear edge of the cockpit template. This achieves the objective
equally well, and without requiring the teams to fundamentally overhaul
their suspension packaging. They do all look like ducks though…
Q: Measurement tolerances have been tightened. Why?
We used to measure tolerances across the flat bottom, the step and reference
planes with a margin of ±5mm. The tolerances were there to allow for
manufacturing discrepancies but teams were designing to the limit of the
tolerances, contrary to the spirit of the rules. We have therefore reduced
the allowance to ±3mm.
Q: The obligatory weight distribution rule was only supposed to run for
one season. Why has the rule been continued for a second season?
CW: We had this rule last year to allow teams to begin designing their cars
before they knew the characteristics of the Pirelli tyres. The teams have
indicated they would like to keep the rule in place for the second year
rather than make expensive wholesale changes to their cars for 2012. We have
no problem with this.
Q: The size and position of exhaust exits is now specified. Why stipulate
this area of the design?
CW: Our objective is to prevent teams operating a blown diffuser, which
under certain circumstances infringes Article 3.15 (moveable aerodynamic
device). In combination with additional constraints on engine mapping, as
described in technical directive number 36 and incorporated into the SECU
code, it will limit designers’ ability to exploit exhaust gases for
aerodynamic effect. However teams will not unlearn the knowledge they have
gained and it is quite likely this area of regulation may need to be
revisited again in 2013?
Q: Why are there new dimensional constraints for suspension uprights?
CW: This is to stop uprights protruding too far from the wheels and being
used, in effect, as wings.
Q: Why has helium been banned from use in wheel guns?
CW: Powering wheel-guns with compressed helium instead of compressed air
saved fractions of a second during a pitstop. Now everyone is aware of this,
it would have been a very expensive method of gaining no advantage.
Q: Why have active torque measuring systems been banned for wheel
changes?
CW: We want the wheel gun operator to be responsible for the action. Once
the torque is applied he should be making the decision to disengage. The
latest torque guns show a light when the correct torque has been applied.
That is as far as we want to go – we do not want any further automation.
Q: Why have the intrusion panels increased in size?
CW: The panels were installed 100mm-500mm above the reference plane, they
are now 100mm-550mm about the plane. The forward one was 400mm high and is
now 450mm high. This change should improve driver safety in the event of a
T-bone accident.
Q: How and why have the tests for front wing deflection changed?
CW: The rules state the wings (as well as all other parts of the bodywork)
must be rigid. We have halved the permitted deflection. Previously the wing
was tested with a 1kN load and allowed to deflect 20mm. As a result of this
the teams were testing wings until they found a design that deflected 19.9mm
under a 1kN load. Our allowances are only a guideline for us and we felt the
teams were operating outside the spirit of the rules and clearly designing
their wings with flexibility in mind. In our view Article 3.15 takes
precedence over Article 3.17 where the deflection limits are quantified.
Article 3.17.8 allows us to introduce new tests if we feel our guidelines
are not being following in an appropriate manner. The new test therefore
moves the pressure point rearwards by 10mm and inboard by 5mm with the
permitted deflection reduced to 10mm. We have also told the teams that we
may apply the load to just one side of the front wing, an asymmetrical test.
Q: There has been a technical directive on the subject of ride height
systems. Why have these been banned?
CW: The systems in question used braking torque to affect ride height
changes. If these changes are made primarily for aerodynamic benefit they
would be illegal under Article 3.15.
Q: Finally, there were some additions to the regulations ratified by the
F1 Commission at the World Motor Sport Council on 9 March. Can you expand on
those?
CW: The changes weren’t substantial and the amendments were in three areas:
firstly, we decided that one set of dry weather tyres can now be carried
over to Saturday if both Friday practice sessions are declared wet. The
reason for that is simply to give the teams the opportunity to run more laps
on Saturday; we also decided that we would clarify things with regard to DRS
use so that we can prohibit the use of the adjustable rear wing if we feel
that visibility is too poor in wet conditions. We did that on safety grounds
because of concerns about the speed differential between cars. Finally, we
just clarified things with regard to the curfew works to make sure that rest
periods remain constant throughout the season, irrespective of the timing of
practice sessions at some events.
The FIA would like to thank each of the 12 Formula One teams and Formula One
Management for their committed support of FIA Action for Road Safety over
the past year and the federation looks forward to continuing this valuable
partnership during the 2012 FIA Formula One season.
Action for Road Safety is the FIA’s response to the challenges raised by the
United Nations’ Decade of Action for Road Safety, the aim of which is to
prevent five million road deaths and countless serious injuries by 2020. |
