The FIA technical directive designed to control the amount of porpoising and bottoming out suffered by 2022 Formula 1 cars will not be implemented until the Belgian Grand Prix.
This intervention, being made on safety grounds because the ground-effect cars are very stiff and some are suffering from the porpoising aerodynamic effect as well, centres on the FIA establishing a limit for the vertical oscillations drivers can be subjected to.
To ensure its complicated aerodynamic oscillation metric can be applied equally across all cars, the FIA is seeking to ensure that all teams are adhering to the intended limits around floor stiffness as well.
The FIA has discovered that some cars have planks with significant deformations over and above what the technical regulations were intended to allow, because some teams have engineered flexibility into the skid blocks.
And the governing body believes this non-uniform stiffness of the plank is being done deliberately to circumvent the intention of the technical regulations, to achieve significantly lower ride heights and an aerodynamic gain.
To combat this, several changes are planned – including specific amendments to the technical regulations, which has angered Ferrari and Red Bull, two teams said to have adopted the interpretation the FIA is unhappy with.
This was outlined in a revised technical directive issued to teams ahead of the British Grand Prix last week.
The FIA’s proposal is for a specific addition to Article 3.15.8 of the technical regulations, in reference to the plank deflecting no more than 2mm at the two holes at the front of the plank and the rearmost hole.
Its addition includes a requirement that the “local stiffness around the periphery of these three holes for a radial distance of 15mm outside the periphery must be uniform, with a variance not exceeding +/- 10%”.
The overall skid area of the plank is also set to be extended to ensure additional skids are placed around the three holes in question.
In a Friday meeting of the F1 Commission, the FIA received feedback from teams and has decided that the implementation of its technical directive should be delayed.
This is to give the teams enough time to make the necessary changes to the plank and skid assemblies.
