The FIA (the governing body of motorsport) has made quite a few changes to the technical regulations of F1 cars. Some of these will be in effect as early as the start of the 2006 season and the rest will only come into play in 2008.
Here are some of the more interesting specs that have changed:
It was decided last night (Monday 24th Ocober) at a meeting of the Formula One Commission in London that the qualifying format for Formula One is changing for next season and the changing of tyres during races will be allowed again. They are also considering a radical change in the rear-wing design which might be brought in as early as 2007.
The new qualifying is going to work as follows:
A 3 phase qualifying knockout with the 5 slowest cars after 15 minutes dropping out. 5 more cars will drop out in the next 15 minutes and the remaining cars will compete in a 20 minute session for the top positions on the grid.
Qualifying has been changed a lot in recent years to try and get better exposure for smaller teams and at the same time mix the grid up to allow for more overtaking during a race.
The new split rear wing (called the Centre Downwash Generating Wing) has been designed to allow closer following and therefore more passing opportunities as well. A step in the right direction as recent changes to the cars and especially aerodynamics have been mostly to slow the cars down instead of increase entertainment.
The weight of the entire vehicle, including the driver, must now not be less than 550kg. This has been decreased from 605kg.
The engines have been down-sized to 2.4 litre V8 motors with 4 valves per cylinder. The minimum number of gears for these cars is 4 and the maximum is 7. The wheel width at the front of all cars must be between 390mm and 450mm with the width at the rear being between 490mm and 505mm. The overall weight of the engine must be at least 95kg.
The FIA have given a concession to manufacturers and teams not ready with their new engines saying they will allow them to use other engines (such as the V10 engines currently being used) with the performance decreased; obviously this will be controlled by the FIA and no-one else.
All cars must now be fitted with a starter which the driver must be capable of using to start the engine from his seated position. This should cut out some of those embarrassing failed starts to GP’s for some drivers.
From 2008 the FIA will choose 1 tyre manufacturer to supply all the teams. This is a dramatic change and should increase the excitement value by levelling the playing field a bit; it’s a real pity they could only get this in from 2008.
Pit to car telemetry will be prohibited so the team will not be able to fix any gremlins from the pit-wall and all voice radio communication must be open and accessible to both the FIA and the broadcasters.
No competitor can carry out more than 30,000km of testing during a year.
Some interesting changes here, I sincerely hope it increases the competitiveness and excitement of this sport because it needs it.
