Subscription

Car Racing

Motorcycle Racing

Racing in Oz

Shop

FORMULA 1 GP: RULE CHANGES

2006 F1 SEASON RULES

QUALIFYING CHANGE: KNOCK-OUT FORMAT

• Formula One Commission meeting, Oct 24:
  in 2006 season qualifying will involve 3 sessions.
• Session 1, 15 minutes: 5 slowest drivers will be eliminated
• Session 2, 15 minutes: next 5 slowest drivers will be eliminated
• Session 3, 20 minutes: 10 drivers will compete for the grid

ENGINE CHANGE:

• from 2006 season, Formula 1 will use 2.5 litre V8 engine compared to 3 litre V10 used in 2005.
• FRANK WILLIAMS (OCT 2005): " the change to V8 technology, the most fundamental change to the technical side of the sport in 16 years ... I believe that Cosworth, our engine suppliers for next season, are possibly the best placed company as acknowledged global experts in V8 technology, to take best advantage of this change. So after 27 years of Williams adapting to change and competitive challenges, I am actually very optimistic about next year."

FERRARI PREVIEW OF 2006 RULES (MAR 2006)

• The 2006 Formula One World Championship gets underway this weekend in Bahrain (Mar 12, 2006) with the Sakhir circuit having the honour of hosting the opening round, as the city of Melbourne is busy with the Commonwealth Games. This is the third year that Bahrain has hosted a Grand Prix, so the track itself should hold few surprises for the teams, especially as Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro conducted a long test session here in February.
• However, the Prancing Horse and the ten other teams will all be facing the challenges of changes to the technical and sporting regulations. As usual, these have been introduced by the FIA with the aim of reducing costs, reducing speeds on safety grounds and improving the show for the public.
• This year the main changes compared to 2005 are as follows: firstly, on the technical rule front, cars now run 2.4 litre V8 engines (although one team, Scuderia Toro Rosso is taking up the approved option of running a restricted-power version of the previous 3 litre V10.) Engines must still last two entire race weekends so the biggest changes to the sporting regulations concern the way qualifying is run and the fact that tyres can now, once again, be changed during the race.
• The Scuderia's Sporting Director, Stefano Domenicali explains the effect of these new rules and how they impact on the team's approach to qualifying and the race. "With the tyre situation, we will have seven sets of dry tyres of two different specifications that we are allowed to use over a race weekend. There is no longer a requirement to formally nominate one specification of tyre after a certain point in the weekend as was the case up until now. However, we must use the same specification of tyre for all of qualifying and the race."
• If the rules of parc ferme remain essentially the same, with work on the cars restricted, for 2006 these rules are different when it comes to fuel and tyres. "The rules concerning fuel are different because they are now linked to the qualifying procedure," says Domenicali, "and tyres, because you can use as many tyres as you want now for the race. Qualifying will be divided into 3 parts: the first part of 15 minutes followed by a 5 minute break, a second part of 15 minutes followed by a 5 minute break and the third and final part of 20 minutes."
• The race weekend also runs to a slightly different timetable this year: the Friday programme remains the same, but on Saturday, there are no longer the two 45 minute free practice session, but just one hour from 11 to 12, with qualifying from 2 to 3. "At two o'clock, the first part of qualifying begins and that signals the start of parc ferme conditions, with the exception of fuel and tyres," explains Domenicali. "In the first 15 minutes all 22 cars will run on track. Then the slowest 6 cars take no further part in the session. The same procedure will apply in the second part.
• "At the end of these two periods, these 12 cars now have their places confirmed on the last 12 places on the grid. In these two parts you can run whatever fuel load you like, normally a light load to set the quickest time possible of course and with the tyres that you want. There is no restriction on the number of sets of tyres or the number of laps you can complete. Then before the start of the third part, with the last ten cars, it is compulsory to go back to the restriction in terms of fuel. Because time between the three parts of the session is so tight, you will be allowed to refuel using the normal race refuelling rig."
• "There is now a system in place to give you back the fuel you use in this last part of the session, so that you start the race on Sunday with the same fuel load with which you began the final part of qualifying on Saturday. It is calculated by a formula published by the FIA prior to the start of the event. The FIA will make an estimation of kilos per lap they will give back to you. Assuming a car did 10 laps in the final part of qualifying and the FIA states that a lap of this circuit uses 3 kilos per lap, then you have to put back a total of 30 kilos on Sunday morning in parc ferme."
• It is a complicated system, rendered more so by the fact that not all the drivers will be running the same number of laps in this final session, therefore the amount of fuel to be added can be different for various cars. Domenicali believes this new qualifying format will be exciting, as long as it is explained properly to spectators and TV viewers.
• "Otherwise it will be very difficult to understand what is going on, especially when you consider that those people who were eliminated after the first two parts of qualifying were running on minimum fuel and they may have set times in Q1 and Q2 that are quicker than pole position! But it should be more spectacular as it is a long time since drivers have all been on track at the same time for qualifying and I am sure there will be some interesting and controversial moments."
• Domenicali believes these new qualifying rules will also impact on race strategy. "The twelve cars at the back of the grid are free to refuel with any quantity of fuel on Sunday prior to 12.30 for a 2 o'clock race. They can base their fuel calculations on the performance they saw achieved by the ten cars in the top ten grid positions as these drivers were running race fuel loads. This means we can have a very mixed race in the first and second stints of a race."
• The other change to strategy, compared to 2005, is down to the new tyre rules. "The effect on strategy of being able to change tyres in the race once again is very relevant," reckons Domenicali. "You can decide to use a very aggressive strategy if you have good tyre performance and in my opinion that will improve the quality of the race. With no tyre changes, you had to manage tyres in a different way. Now we can change whenever we want and, allowing for the number of tyres at your disposal, you can be as aggressive as you want. I'm sure it will improve the show."

2005 F1 SEASON RULES

ENGINE RULE CHANGE:

• Longer engine lifespan:
  to save cost, 1 engine to be used for 2 successive races

AERODYNAMICS CHANGE:

• Less downforce:
  reduce downforce about 20% by higher front wing, bring rear wing forward and lesser diffuser height

TYRE CHANGE:

• only 1 set of tyres for qualifying and the race
• each team must choose 1 compound by Saturday morning practice
• to last longer, tyres have to be more resiliant using harder compound ; this will reduce grip

NEW QUALIFYING FORMAT: (** scrapped after first 6 races **)

• two sessions, one on Saturday and one on the Sunday morning; 1 flying lap per session
• Saturday qualifying - order based on previous GP race result; last placed driver starts first
• Sunday qualifying - order based on Saturday qualifying; slowest driver starts first
• starting grid decided on the sum of the times from Saturday and Sunday qualifying sessions

2006-2008 SEASON RULE CHANGES

FIA MEETING, MAY 4, 2004

At a meeting of F1 governing body, new proposals put forward by Max Mosley has largely been agreed. As early as 2006 season major changes could be introduced primarily to reduce cost. The main change is to have a single tyre manufacturer and smaller engines.

MOSLEY (FIA):

• "... Where I had expected very significant dispute and debate there really was none and it was very constructive. We went through all of the proposals and discussed them with the teams in some detail and as far as doing things sooner than 2008 there was a wide measure of agreement that we need changes much sooner ... The only discussion on the engine was whether it was more economic to extend the engine life of a V10 rather than to have a 2.4. That's to say a V10 three-litre doing three races, four, five and eventually six races, rather than a 2-4 V8 doing at least two races and possibly more races later on. But the multi-race engine principle is completely accepted; the need to reduce the power is completely accepted ...
• On the transmission, braking and steering, the only discussion there was whether it would be more economic, given the current state of knowledge, to stay with an electronically controlled differential but with the electronics completely under the control of the FIA, so that there were no traction control or anything of that kind. And whether we would be better staying with modern gearboxes rather than purely manual gearboxes, it was pointed out that we would never go back to the old 'H' and missed gears and all of that. That is in the past.
• But on the transmission, braking and steering, complete agreement that we would simply go for the least expensive solution and perhaps most importantly complete agreement that there will be no traction control, no electronic driver aids, they are going to go.
• We also had agreement on standard brake discs, pads and calipers and agreement on reducing the weight limit. The weight limit may come down even more than we had thought because eliminating a lot of the electronics and the technology from the cars will in turn make the cars much lighter, so the final reduction in weight may be very significant, and therefore the energy going into a crash. But with that comes the need for very substantial reductions in aerodynamic downforce and changes to the tyres, and also an increase in the drag of the car.
• On the sporting aspects, again agreement that we would not have a spare car as it is currently known, they would have a spare chassis (a spare monocoque rather) ready in a box, like the Formula 3000 teams, but there would be no third car in the pits. The cars would certainly be in parc ferme overnight, you would be able to adjust the car but not rebuild it. There was complete agreement for the need of a single tyre supplier. There was just one question about current contractual commitments, which we think could be resolved.
• But there was no question that all of the teams recognised that if we had a single tyre supplier it would be far less expensive, because of testing, it would be fairer, because everybody would be on the same basis, and there would also be a very important safety aspect in that with a single tyre we would be able to control the degree of grip and therefore preventing excessive cornering speeds. We might even be able to give up the grooves and go back to ordinary slick tyres. The wheels will be wider at the back and narrower at the front, that results from the abolition of the ballast."
• There is agreement that we need a new qualifying system. I reminded them all that the current qualifying system was proposed by the teams. The suggestion now is that they should come forward with new proposals for qualifying, but these must take into account the needs for television for people like me, who watch most of the races on television.
• There was a lot of discussion about the scoring of points, whether we should have a constructors championship with more than two cars scoring, or another suggestion that has come forward is whether there should be an engine manufacturers championship and this is something that we are going to consider carefully. But everyone is agreed on the need to strongly encourage the major manufacturers to supply engines to the independent teams and I think we will have no difficultly in coming up with a good solution there.
• There was a lot of discussion also on allowing the sale of chassis to encourage smaller teams to enter the Championship, but reservations in that there are fears that if we allow the free selling of chassis, Formula One might become like other racing series with one or two or three makes and lots of people in the same cars. There was a feeling we would come up with solutions to these problems and I think that will certainly prove to be the case. But there is a strong desire to encourage new teams to come in, but understandably the existing teams do not want to give up any money or privileges as a result of that. But we will now see a much easier entry route for new teams, it is recognised that we do need 12 teams to take part.
• The idea of guaranteed entries for teams that contract for a long time, agreed by everybody. The idea that we should have majority voting on rule changes but only those teams voting that were contracted to take part in the season in which the rule change applies was agreed. We may have to introduce some sort of reserve there because it is reasonable that the people who make the engines should have a vote on the engines, and the people who don't make the engines should perhaps not dictate what they should be, but to be discussed.
• The basic principle will be that the person who has an interest in something has a vote but if you have no interest in it, either because you are not in the championship or because it is something you don't do - you're not an engine manufacturer or whatever, those with no interest would have no vote. What that comes down to is a much more open and flexible system for changing the rules than we have at present. It would be much more, actually, under the control of the FIA, as perhaps it should be.
• The idea of technical rule changes being made before July 1 to come in not the following year but the year after, and the sporting changes before July 1 to come in the following year was generally accepted. What it all comes down to I think is that, except for minor details, virtually complete acceptance of these very revolutionary proposals, agreement on the objectives and agreement that the engine manufacturers - the seven companies concerned with engines - are going to sit down together to reduce the costs of the engines by 50 percent. I think really I couldn't have asked for more from the meeting.