[Rules] The FIA - what's occurring there?

[E.B]

Originally Posted by chunterer

That'll be an orange car from surrey then.

Orange car from Surrey with 'Chrome' highlights even.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

The FIA has issued an edict to take affect from the US GP about concerns certain teams have that an unnamed team has been using a device on the front bib that can allow it to be altered between qualifying and the race, a period during which the cars are supposed to be under parc ferme rules.


See: https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f...rick/10663272/

https://www.planetf1.com/news/red-bu...-us-grand-prix

So apparently Red Bull has admitted it is them and will be making changes to the RB20. My understanding is that the adjustment capability is not specifically illegal. What other teams (and FIA) are concerned about is that with the location for making the adjustment being in the cockpit, that it allows for potential easy of breaking parc ferme rules. This is apparently not a driver control, but the fear is that an engineer could easily covertly adjust without anyone noticing while in parc ferme.

In short, no proof of cheating, but calls to alter to prevent potential for cheating. Who knows if anything was done against rules previously or not. Probably impossible to prove one way or another at this point.

Richard

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Richard C

https://www.planetf1.com/news/red-bu...-us-grand-prix

So apparently Red Bull has admitted it is them and will be making changes to the RB20.............


Richard

Which proves that it is best not to jump to conclusions about who may have been the naughty boys.

[Gerard C]

Mike, don't you ink they all are naughty boys and girls?

[Richard C]

Selfishly I am glad it's not McLaren as I think their resurgence has been a good thing for the championship (and F1 in general). So I would have hated to see their upsurge be down to something potentially sketchy and a FIA crackdown potentially reversing their recent form.

Richard

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by Gerard C

Mike, don't you ink they all are naughty boys and girls?

Well, I certainly don't think that any one of them is the Messiah!

But then, I do have a tendency to always look on the bright side of life, so what would I know?

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by Richard C

Selfishly I am glad it's not McLaren as I think their resurgence has been a good thing for the championship (and F1 in general). So I would have hated to see their upsurge be down to something potentially sketchy and a FIA crackdown potentially reversing their recent form.

Richard

Agree completely. In reality, is all something of a storm in a teacup at this point.

One team has an adjuster that is completely legal to use in practice sessions but which "might" allow the odd sleight of hand adjustment in Parc Ferme. The team says it isn't accessible once the car is assembled (as it is in Parc Ferme) and the FIA hasn't seen it being used in Parc Ferme (despite having cameras on every car the whole time and observers doing their thing too).

Sounds pretty "meh" to me but no doubt there'll be plenty of intrigue and innuendo on display at Austin.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Tourer

Agree completely. In reality, is all something of a storm in a teacup at this point.

One team has an adjuster that is completely legal to use in practice sessions but which "might" allow the odd sleight of hand adjustment in Parc Ferme. The team says it isn't accessible once the car is assembled (as it is in Parc Ferme) and the FIA hasn't seen it being used in Parc Ferme (despite having cameras on every car the whole time and observers doing their thing too).

Sounds pretty "meh" to me but no doubt there'll be plenty of intrigue and innuendo on display at Austin.

I'm not too certain about that. There were suspicions that an engineer could "activate" the mechanism unseen whilst it was being pushed back in to the garage after qualifying when it was low on fuel, and the car would meet the ride height requirements. They would have needed to allow the ride height to be higher for the race to meet the same ride height requirements when it was fully fuelled for the race.

So maybe not quite so "meh"; and we only have Red Bull's word that it couldn't be activated when fully assembled. That could be a play on words; the mechanism itself cannot be reached when fully assembled, but what about the switch or whatever that activates that mechanism. There would seem to be little point in having a valve operated system installed to make the adjustment if you can't activate it; that would seem to defeat the purpose of it.

Of course there is the possibility that it was never actually used, but the fact that it was there is enough to cast doubt about the matter.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Richard C

https://www.planetf1.com/news/red-bu...-us-grand-prix

So apparently Red Bull has admitted it is them and will be making changes to the RB20. My understanding is that the adjustment capability is not specifically illegal. What other teams (and FIA) are concerned about is that with the location for making the adjustment being in the cockpit, that it allows for potential easy of breaking parc ferme rules. This is apparently not a driver control, but the fear is that an engineer could easily covertly adjust without anyone noticing while in parc ferme.

In short, no proof of cheating, but calls to alter to prevent potential for cheating. Who knows if anything was done against rules previously or not. Probably impossible to prove one way or another at this point.

Richard

Shock horror!

Not orange team but main rival!

They're all at it!

[Greem]

So far as I am concerned, from what I've read - there was no positive benefit to The Thing, so...

Yeah. That's why everyone was pointing at McLaren. Just goes to show that you never can tell!

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

I'm not too certain about that. There were suspicions that an engineer could "activate" the mechanism unseen whilst it was being pushed back in to the garage after qualifying when it was low on fuel, and the car would meet the ride height requirements. They would have needed to allow the ride height to be higher for the race to meet the same ride height requirements when it was fully fuelled for the race.

So maybe not quite so "meh"; and we only have Red Bull's word that it couldn't be activated when fully assembled. That could be a play on words; the mechanism itself cannot be reached when fully assembled, but what about the switch or whatever that activates that mechanism. There would seem to be little point in having a valve operated system installed to make the adjustment if you can't activate it; that would seem to defeat the purpose of it.

Of course there is the possibility that it was never actually used, but the fact that it was there is enough to cast doubt about the matter.

I haven't seen anything about a valve operated system - simply that an adjustment method is "accessible from the cockpit" - which is not illegal and is fine to use in practice sessions. The question is whether or not it has been used or could be used in Parc ferme conditions.

Given that the driver is in the car when it is being pushed back into the garage, there wouldn't be much room in the cockpit for an engineer to do anything and with the FIA having CCTV on every car in its garage, the team would be taking a big risk to activate something.

Still feels "meh" to me but I may end up with egg on my face on that score.

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

There would seem to be little point in having a valve operated system installed to make the adjustment if you can't activate it; that would seem to defeat the purpose of it.

Of course there is the possibility that it was never actually used, but the fact that it was there is enough to cast doubt about the matter.

Agreed Mike. Benetton "Option 13" launch control from the mid 90's springs to mind. Somewhere in the systems it had a hidden menu that when accessed could activate an (illegal) launch control system via "option 13'' of said hidden menu. Of course (according to Briatore) it was never used, despite being there, and accessible, along with the Benetton's ability to never make a dud start. It was impossible at the time to determine if it had been used or not.

Do we now expect Red Bull to have another bad weekend just as they seemed to be clawing back a little? Not that this little cheat system has been used of course. Asking for a friend.

[Tourer]

How RBR's ride height device works.
No valves, it is a screw mechanism; nosecone needs to be removed, two separate panels removed and that gives access to the mechanism, which is under the driver's heel panel.

Yeah, I'm going to stick with "meh". Clearly can't be adjusted with the driver in the car and the FIA has CCTV of all cars in their garages, so pretty hard to sneak it by - although I guess almost nothing is totally 100% impossible.