JordanMugen wrote: ↑Mon Jul 04, 2022 4:51 am
The current regulations stipulate a maximum deflection of 2mm at the two middle plank holes and no more than 2mm at its rearmost hole in a bid to ensure that the floor is stiff enough.
However, there were claims some teams have managed to cleverly flex the floors by as much as 6mm in total, which would allow them to run with higher rake and much closer to the ground for increased performance without the risk of suffering the ill effects of ground strikes.
Tombazis made clear that the FIA believed teams having 'excessive deformation' of the floor was being done: "to achieve significantly lower ride heights, and hence an indirect aerodynamic gain."
The 2mm tolerance will be rigorously enforced and the stiffness around the floor hole must now be uniform for a radial distance of 15mm outside the periphery – with a variance not exceeding 10 percent either way.
The FIA added: "Competitors will be required to demonstrate compliance with these provisions by way of a detailed inspection of both the CAD and the physical installation, as well as Finite Element analysis."
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-f ... /10332153/
What's all this about?
Same thing it's always about in F1, teams bending the rules to gain a performance advantage, while it takes the FIA a while to cotton onto it. The assumption will be that Red Bull and maybe Ferrari have been doing this. But we'll find out soon enough if teams lose performance at the French Grand Prix. How much performance ? Hard to say at this stage, it could cost a couple of tenths or it could be bigger.
Any truth to the rumours that the big springs, found on most of the cars, will also be banned?
Not heard anything about that, but it wouldn't surprise me if the FIA do decide to ban that. Though I guess the teams might argue they are needed to smooth out the bumps to protect drivers long term health.