New F1 Regulations

The stepped noses seen on most of this season’s Formula One cars - and deemed ugly by many - are very likely to disappear next year, thanks to a change in the FIA’s technical regulations allowing teams to cover them with special fairings.

The revised rules, just published by Formula One racing’s governing body, give details of the ‘modesty panels,’ which can be used to smooth the transition between the low nose and the high chassis. The fairings will not affect the car’s aerodynamics or impact-protection properties.

Article 3.7.9 of the 2013 technical regulations refers to the new panels as “an optional, single piece, non-structural fairing of prescribed laminate (whose precise lay-up may be found in the Appendix to the regulations) which may not be more than 625mm above the reference plane at any point.”

The rules have also been amended, as expected, to outlaw the double-DRS system pioneered this season by Mercedes, where the team use the DRS activation mechanism to trigger other aerodynamic changes on the car.

According to Article 3.18, the moveable rear wing "cannot be used to change the geometry of any duct, either directly or indirectly, other than the change to the distance between adjacent sections permitted by Article 3.10.2."

Metro 6r4 wrote:Unless F1 cars start to look like this again, then they will always be ugly to me.

But an improvement is better none.

RetrogradeRenegade wrote:

Metro 6r4 wrote:Unless F1 cars start to look like this again, then they will always be ugly to me.

But an improvement is better none.

With modern advancements in aerodynamics, yeah, that's not gonna happen. You can't just suddenly unlearn 30 years of progress. And frankly I don't think F1 cars looked that good until the mid-80s.

Though if I'm honest, I wouldn't mind unlearning, say, 12 or 13 years of aerodynamic progress...

RetrogradeRenegade wrote:With modern advancements in aerodynamics, yeah, that's not gonna happen. You can't just suddenly unlearn 30 years of progress.

TheMayor44 wrote:

RetrogradeRenegade wrote:With modern advancements in aerodynamics, yeah, that's not gonna happen. You can't just suddenly unlearn 30 years of progress.

...But you can ban it.

-Mandate that the side pods must one continuous surface or that they may only have 1 or 2 grooves/manipulations
-No aerodynamic appendages on the side pods or any other surface of the car outside of the front aerofoil and rear wing
-The front wing must be one surface (no miniature wings on wings)
-Limit the kind of data you can gather via a computer
-Ground effects?

TheMayor44 wrote:

RetrogradeRenegade wrote:With modern advancements in aerodynamics, yeah, that's not gonna happen. You can't just suddenly unlearn 30 years of progress.

...But you can ban it.

Mystrsyko wrote:They'll have no problem finding more downforce and less drag within the first few months of the rules. The whole aerodynamic war thing came about because F1 put rules in place to reduce the car's grip, which the engineers quickly made obsolete. No matter what rules are in place, they'll find a way to work around them. I wouldn't put it past them to start putting wings on helmets in the near future...