The FIA has made changes to the regulations governing Formula 1 Drag Reduction Systems following the row over McLaren’s so-called ‘mini DRS’ earlier this year.
At the Azerbaijan Grand Prix footage emerged showing McLaren’s rear wing element deforming as the car reached top speed when the car did not have DRS activated. This potentially allowed the team to achieve higher top speeds. McLaren and other teams altered their wings after the race following discussions with the FIA.The sport’s governing body has now made two changes to its technical regulations for 2025. One change requires the DRS flap to comply with the same restrictions on bodywork deformation when the system is not in its deployed state.
“With the exception of the driver adjustable bodywork, when in the state of deployment… all aerodynamic components or bodywork influencing the car’s aerodynamic performance must be rigidly secured and immobile with respect to their frame of reference defined in Article 3.3,” the updated rule now reads.
A further clause has been added to define a minimum gap between the rear wing elements when DRS is not activated. “At all points along the span, the rear wing profiles (as defined under article 3.10.1) must have a minimum gap of between 9.4mm and 13mm,” it states. “This will apply when the DRS is not in the state of deployment (as defined under Article 3.10.10) and will be measured with a spherical gauge.”
Another new addition to the regulations defines how teams must change their cars if the race director indicates there is a risk to driver safety due to heat levels. When this happens teams must fit extra aids to cool their drivers, and the minimum weight limit will rise by 5kg to 805kg to allow for it.
The new addition to the Sporting Regulation lays down how the procedure will work: “If the Official Weather Service predicts that the Heat Index will be greater than 30.5C at some time during the sprint [race] or the race at a competition, or at the sole discretion of the race director, a Heat Hazard may be declared twenty four (24) hours prior to the scheduled start of the competition,” it states. “Once a Heat Hazard is declared it shall remain in force for the Competition. All competitors will be notified via the official messaging system.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
“Once a Heat Hazard is declared: (a) The additional items to aid driver cooling must be fitted, including driver cooling systems, as described under Article 14.6 of the Technical Regulations. (b) In accordance with Articles 4.1 and 4.7 of the Technical Regulations the Heat Hazard Mass Increase shall apply.”
Other minor changes to the rules for 2025 define the use of mule cars for post-season testing of the new tyre sizes for the year after and give teams greater freedom to maintain their cars’ energy stores during factor shutdowns.
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories - and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
Formula 1
- Ben Sulayem says he may change FIA’s criticised misconduct rules
- Which penalty calls did the stewards get right – or wrong – over the first five rounds?
- How to watch the 2025 Miami Grand Prix and IndyCar Alabama Grand Prix live
- Mexican GP to sign new Formula 1 contract ‘next week’
- “Are the others struggling?” How Hamilton ended up half a minute behind Leclerc in Jeddah
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
13th December 2024, 2:18
Yep, as always, if it’s something unique that a team has spent huge hours and $ developing within the rules, it just has to be banned.
Oh for the days when innovation was encouraged and we got to see all sorts of things, some good and successful, some bad and completely unsuccessful.
Who remembers the walrus front on the Williams?
osnola
13th December 2024, 20:17
The illegal wing build by McLaren was far from an acceptable innovation.
It was very illegal and as thus should have been banned earlier. McL is very lucky they did not loose any points
stjs16 (@stjs16)
13th December 2024, 21:20
Illegal ? Do you have a source to back that up?
Roy Beedrill
14th December 2024, 5:13
Certain “FIA 2024 Formula 1 Technical Regulations” ;-)
3.2.2:
3.10.10 g.:
Dale
14th December 2024, 12:40
Exactly NOBODY remembers the walrus or dildo nose era fondly.
And it’s not preventing innovation, it’s preventing costly and unnecessary arms races and large differences in lap time while others catch up.
If you are old enough to remember the Williams walrus nose then you’re old enough to remember the double diffuser Brawn season. Had that occurred under cost cap regulations, it would have resulted in a Brawn domination for up to three seasons.
Understanding what you watch is more important than just watching it.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
16th December 2024, 21:12
The McLaren wing does not appear to have been in compliance with the bodywork angle regulations in the first place according to the TV camera footage in use, with Article 3.10.1 of the Technical Regulations specifically at issue:
“Outboard of Y100, the normal to any point of the profiles surface must not subtend an angle greater than 20° to a Y plane.”
It doesn’t meet the “spent huge hours and $ developing within the rules” idea. At no point in the procedure does the FIA appear to have understood the issue.
grat
13th December 2024, 4:27
How exactly are the carbon fiber wings expected to be “rigid and immobile”?
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
13th December 2024, 9:56
frame of reference :
“a set of criteria or stated values in relation to which measurements or judgments can be made.”
immobile :
“motionless” or stationary
so according to the new rules, there can be no flexibility observed under judgment criteria, but only with respect to ‘stated values’ or criteria. So there are still loop holes.
Like how about McLaren develops a wing that has very small holes in it which open up under air pressure change, yet the wing itself is completely fixed and static.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
16th December 2024, 21:24
Article 3.1.2 has a definition of Frame of Reference:
In other words, if any part of the car has to be in frame of reference to another, the two must move the same way and amount as each other.
Article 3.2.2 of the Technical Regulations requires all aerodynamic components to have a frame of reference as defined in Article 3.3 of the Technical Regulations. Since rear wings are part of the sprung mass of the car, the part that turns out to be relevant to rear wings is Article 3.3.3.1 of the Technical Regulations. This defines the frame of reference as Article 2.11.1’s co-ordinate system. Short version: this requires every aero component to be in the same position relative to every other aero component, in all 3 directions, but all can move in unison in response to energy from the suspension, tyres and airflow. What can’t happen is for one component to move out of unison with others (unless other parts of the regulations provide an exception, which is necessary for DRS to be possible in the first place).
Jere (@jerejj)
13th December 2024, 6:27
I initially assumed the tweaks concerning DRS would be about limiting its usage to X second amount like IndyCar’s push-to-pass system, Super Formula’s overtake system, or even how DRS was used in FR 3.5, but ultimately only about the rear wing gap.
30.5C, seriously. Low-30s are perfectly normal, especially in places like Singapore & Miami, & can occur even in Europe in mid-summer, so something like 35 would be a more fitting limit.
The next Bahrain & Saudi Arabian GPs will take place in April, so they’re also candidates.
Temporarily increasing the minimum car+driver weight limit from 800 to 805 kg is redundant (just like increasing to 800 because of separate driver limit going up by 2 kg) as the cooling device is relatively small in size, so reaching 800 should still be achievable for all teams.
WhatMyMammaSaid (@whatmymammasaid)
13th December 2024, 16:41
Not absolute 30.5°C, but a Heat Index of 30.5°C.
Source
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
16th December 2024, 22:24
If the humidity is low, the temperature would have to be quite a bit higher than 30.5 C before the heat vests were made compulsory. However, the higher the humidity, the lower the threshold gets.
Thresholds for drivers to wear a cooling vest, with some example 2024 races run at that temperature (first whole degree to achieve a 30.5+ heat index):
33 C -> 13% – 27% (Races rarely run at below 13% humidity)
32 C -> 28% – 36% (Las Vegas 2024)
31 C -> 37% – 46% (Bahrain 2024)
30 C -> 47% – 56% (Monza, Abu Dhabi 2024)
29 C -> 57% – 68% (Miami, Qatar 2024)
28 C -> 69% – 84% (Australia, Austria, Canada, Singapore 2024)
27 C -> 85+% (parts of Brazil 2024)
Some examples for comparison:
Singapore 2024 (where several drivers were had temporary heat illness immediately post-race): 75% humidity, temperature 29 C – Heat Index 34 C
Qatar 2023 (the race with lots of heat illness during the race): 77% humidity, temperature: 31 C – Heat Index 40 C
France 2022 (included because Hamilton’s water bottle failed): 43% humidity, temperature 29.1 C, Heat Index – 29 C
Hungary 2018 (no drivers reported heat stress, but I’m including this one because I got heatstroke watching them): 41.2% humidity, temperature 34.2 C – Heat Index 36 C
Malaysia 2012 (an example Andrea Ferrari cited of an especially bad race for temperature from last decade): 84% humidity, temperature 26 C – Heat Index 28 C
I wouldn’t worry too much about this, though. Once the drivers have their vests on, it is unlikely that the racing will be impacted by them or the extra 5 kg. In fact, the racing will probably be better because the drivers will hopefully be healthy enough to concentrate on
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
16th December 2024, 22:47
Additional example: Bahrain 2009 (Fernando Alonso had heatstroke at this race) 26% humidity, temperature 36 C – Heat Index 35 C
I’m willing to grant the limit could probably have been a degree or two higher without causing many problems, but the level that is obviously safe and the level where very serious problems occur are quite close together. Also, the fact this is being done based on 24-hour forecasting means there needs to be margin for the temperature to be a couple of degrees warmer and the humidity a few percent higher than predicted. A case in point is Brazil 2024, where the humidity varied by nearly 10% and the temperature by nearly 3 C over the course of the race.