I'll start this article with a word of warning, this will likely turn
into a rant. (I have however been told that some of my best work appears
when I'm angry and that's likely due to the free flowing nature and
speed at what I write).
Yesterday (26.06.14) the WMSC ratified several changes to the 2015 F1 regulations.
Changes to 2015 Sporting Regulations
Powerunits
- The number
of engines permitted by each driver in a season will be four. However, if
there are more than 20 races in a season, the number will increase to
five.
- The
penalty for a complete change of Power Unit will be starting from the back
of the grid, not the pit lane.
This was always on the cards but it could be seen as a step too far too
quick. Reliability has been a little hit and miss so far in 2014 and at
this stage Vettel, Raikkonen, Maldonado, Kyvat, Bianchi, Chilton and
Kobayashi would already be on the precipice of receiving grid penalties
following the 2015 regulations.
Aerodynamic testing
- The number
of wind tunnel runs will be reduced from 80 hours per week to 65 hours per
week.
- Wind-on
hours are to be reduced from 30 hours per week to 25 hours.
- Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) usage is to be reduced from 30
Teraflops to 25 Teraflops.
- Two
periods of tunnel occupancy will be allowed in one day (rather than only
one).
- Teams will
only be able to nominate one wind tunnel in one year.
These restrictions are designed to curtail the rate of development
available to the teams, making it difficult to get gains in those minuet
areas. This is of course primarily designed to cut costs, however
vicariously it'll aid the smaller, lesser funded teams. Of course the
bigger teams and their partners will see this as a challenge, pushing
resources into more efficient hardware and software. Meanwhile modeling
is not time spent in CFD (solving) and so meshes will be built more and
more complex in order to attain better results from this more efficient
soft/hardware.
The nomination of one tunnel is another example of curtailing the later
teams, with the big teams often using more than one to correlate their
results. Ferrari for example used 3, their own once it was rebuilt, the
Toyota facility in Cologne which they'd been using whilst their own was
offline. On top of this they performed a few days correlation days in
Saubers tunnel at Hinwil.
I totally understand what the FIA are trying to do introducing these
regulations but they're stifling creativity at the same time.
Convergence is becoming a much larger factor, which for me is a massive
problem. If I wanted to watch a spec series I'd just watch GP2/3 or
IndyCar. This (F1) is the pinnacle of Motorsport, the differential
between the teams is bought about through engineering excellence, from
those striving to be better than their competition. Creating
equilibrium through forced regulation may well help to cut costs but it
inevitably leads to a closing of the performance gap.
Testing
- There will
be three pre-season tests of four days each in Europe in 2015 (currently
teams are able to test outside Europe). This will be reduced to two tests
of four days in 2016.
- There will
be two in-season tests of two days each in Europe (instead of the current
four). Two of these four days must be reserved for young
drivers.
Another cost cutting measure that unfortunately leads to pressure on the
teams to cram important data mining exercises into a much shorter
timescale. Pre season testing cut backs are fine by me, it does however
put more pressure on the teams to get things right out of the box and
leaves less time to react to any unforeseen issues. In season or post
race tests provide some of the less funded teams the opportunity to run
well funded (read as pay) drivers to both evaluate their credibility,
cultivate relationships and essential receive money from for allowing
them to drive.
Car specification at an Event
- The current restrictions to the
parc fermé will now apply from the start of P3 instead of the start
of qualifying.
Perhaps one of the more interesting changes ushered through, this
essentially makes Friday a practice day and for the evaluation of new
parts, whilst Saturday will be completely locked down. This of course
puts a further onus on the availability of parts with any damage
resulting in no changes to specification of parts (just like we find
when a driver crashes during qualifying).
This will of course prohibit teams flying in parts last minute (for FP3
evaluation) in the hopes of a small performance gain in qualifying,
reducing costs once more but taking away another performance
differentiator the larger teams have at their disposal.
Wheels and
tyres
- The ban on tyre blankets will
be rescinded for 2015. This will be re-discussed if and when the wheel and
tyre diameter increases in the future.
A welcomed climb down by the FIA on something that wasn't really
required. It appears the sticking point was exposure for the tyre
supplier, which has been resolved with the teams able to sell the space
back to Pirelli for £200,000 per season (Williams showing their support
for this in Austria).
Personnel
Curfew
- The Friday night curfew will be
extended from six to seven hours in 2015 and will increase to eight hours
in 2016.
What the FIA taketh with one hand they return with another, giving the
teams some additional time with which to work on their cars to ready
them for FP3. Clearly as a means of putting them from test spec (Friday)
to Qualifying/Race trim as part of the aforementioned extension of Parc
Ferme.
Safety Car
restarts
- Safety Car restarts will now be
a standing start from the grid. Standing starts will not be carried out if
the Safety Car is used within two laps of the start (or restart) of a race
or if there are less than five laps of the race remaining.
Another ballsy yet quite frankly uncalled for move by the FIA....
I understand from a safety perspective why they're looking to do this.
By calling out the safety car for any incident they are putting the
Marshall's out of harms way (That's based on the assumption that the
safety car will immediately lead the cars back to the grid). Now this is only the
start of the lunacy of this idea as lapped cars will clearly be out of
position and so I ask what procedures have to be put into place to
rectify the situation?
Regaining positions on the singular lap back to the grid would be labour
intensive for the drivers and go against the idea of running to a
delta. Furthermore it risks more incidents as they try to get back into
position (yes I realise they unlap themselves now under the safety car
but this isn't done straight away due to the way the grid gets
protracted).
The other option is to do it on the grid, with the drivers dash
displaying where they need to form up, this of course is also fraught
with issues and safety implications.
I have to say that the whole scenario smacks of a smokescreen and is
really being used as an opportunity to mix up the racing. Afterall fans
aren't overly pleased when the lead driver controls the pack up to the
restart line and then just scampers off into the distance...
There are several more issues to worry about on a standing restart for
me though. Let's say your favourite driver (doesn't affect me as I
don't have one, however as I'm neutral it always irks me when someone
unfairly gets mistreated) has been leading for X number of laps, when an
incident means a safety car and standing restart, any number of issues
could result in your favourite driver losing his position. Of course
this affliction could and probably will affect many drivers up and down
the grid with loss of places from a standing restart causing issues.
The other issue I have with a standing restart is exactly what happens
during normal race starts: Failures.
Changes to 2015
Technical Regulations
A number of changes have been
made, including:
- A number of new regulations for the
noses to ensure improved safety and to provide more aesthetically pleasing
structures.
Clearly the nose designs for 2014 were somewhat of a problem initially
with what we like to call 'finger' extensions clearly have other names
alluding to their resemblance to a gentleman's appendage amongst the
fans ;) It's therefore of no surprise to see the FIA/WMSC try to rectify
this going forward. However I must say it was a glaring error that
plenty of us outside of the teams picked up on ahead of the car
launches, signaling just how poor a job the FIA had done in structuring
that part of the regulations. This is another prime example though of
the FIA causing financial costs to the teams with the R&D to produce
this years noses being throw away now. The biggest issue for me that
requires resolving with these changes is reducing the chance of
submarining accidents. The increased crank height of the new PowerUnits
inevitably led to a higher crash structure, combined with a lower nose
tip increases the chances of rear shunts forcing the car into the air.
- A number of new regulations concerning
skid blocks to ensure that they are made from a lighter material (titanium)
and are better contained.
Edited upon the 2015 regulations release:
An interesting shift is a regulatory use of titanium as a material for the
skids. This clearly fits the bill in terms of
seeing sparks from the underside of the cars under load, (another false
positive the FIA are trying to put back in F1 to 'increase the show').
The FIA are also clearly looking to make life difficult for the teams in terms of scraping the plank along the ground (and by virtue of that create downforce). Titanium will wear much more quickly than the tungsten skids that the teams have been using, reducing the wear on the plank at the same time.
- New regulations to ensure that the brake
discs rotate at the same speed as the wheels.
I'm intrigued by this one, either a team has been very smart this season or enquired about doing something that the FIA have reacted to. The only plausible solution that comes to mind presently is that due to the increased work rate of the MGU-K most teams have opted to reduce their rear brake disc a caliper capacity. Thinking outside the box perhaps using the brake disc as a flywheel/freewheel (ie in motion whilst the driveshaft isn't)(Think about the rear gear cluster/cassette on a bicycle) would be advantageous in both terms of consistent aerodynamics and perhaps in the delivery of the Brake-By-Wire system.
- A two-stage wheel fastener retaining
system is now compulsory.
All teams have adopted this for 2014 but this becomes compulsory in 2015