F1 News
Date: 28/06/2011
During the Valencia F1 weekend, FIA race director Charlie Whiting took time out from his usual duties to explain the reasoning behind the two big mid-season technical rule changes.
The first, which came into effect at Valencia, was a ban on special 'qualifying' engine maps, introduced to counter the use of 'extreme' settings that could not possibly be used in the race.
"[Now] the teams are not allowed to make any changes with a computer that they plug in," explained Whiting.
"The drivers are still allowed to change things from the steering wheel [but] the single ECU only supports fine adjustments from the steering wheel.
"We are on the verge of issuing a note to the teams to give them a list of things that they can change when they connect their computers, but that will be a very limited list."
Paddock speculation had suggested that the mapping restriction could hit the dominant Red Bull team hardest. But that wasn't the case in Valencia, where Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber qualified a perfect one-two on the grid.
With few obvious differences further down the field either, some questioned if the ban was even needed, However, Whiting insists he had seen evidence of 'extreme' engine maps being used by a number of teams.
"It is not for us to say whether or not one team will be penalised more than another," he said. "It depends how extreme they're going. I've certainly seen evidence of maps from a number of teams that are ‘extremely' extreme. And it's not confined to one team."
Whiting then turned to the off-throttle blown diffuser ban, which comes into effect from the forthcoming Silverstone round on July 10.
This will stop teams continuing to run their engines at high-speed when the driver has lifted off the throttle, in order to pump exhaust gas under the car and therefore increase downforce.
Teams will still be allowed to channel their naturally occurring exhaust gases through the diffuser, but Whiting wants to stop engine output being dislocated from the forward motion of the car.
"We know exhaust gasses have an influence on the aerodynamic performance of the car and we accept that," he began. "The point is that a design should not attempt to use the exhaust for a completely different reason [aerodynamics].
"We're saying that if a driver comes off the throttle - zero pedal - then the throttles have got to be [at most] 10 per cent open at 12,000rpm and 20 per cent open at 18,000rpm."
A secondary issue that the ban aims to address is a more advanced form of the blown diffuser concept, whereby when a driver lifts off the throttle, fuel is passed through the cylinders for combustion in the exhaust system itself.
This provides a powerful flow of exhaust gases for the diffuser, without powering the car forwards (during braking and corner entry). It's clearly wasteful in terms of fuel consumption, but the downforce benefits appear to have made it worthwhile.
"Similarly, we will look at any extreme use of ignition," confirmed Whiting. "We will know what the team used to do with regard to fuelling and ignition. If we see a clear imbalance then I think we will suspect it is being done for different [aerodynamic] reasons.
"We haven't put clear limits for a given torque demand. We have just said the set-up you use for fuelling and ignition must be normal for the demanded torque. We are looking for anything abnormal. I think that's the best we can do for the moment."
Whiting defended the decision to introduce the rule changes during the racing season, claiming that there is a risk of protests if something is not done immediately.
"Our argument is that there is a strong case to suggest they are illegal. Ultimately, the stewards [would] decide," he said.
"We have not had protests yet. I think we got close to a protest in Monaco. I gave the team in question an assurance that we were going to follow this through; we weren't going to give it up.
"On that basis we haven't had any protests yet, though I have always emphasised to the teams that this option is open to them."
Whiting also made a clear distinction between these developments and previous technical innovations that were only outlawed at the end of a season.
"The Double Diffuser and the F-Duct were legal," he explained. "During the course of the season the teams got together with us and we decided they weren't good for F1 and weren't needed, so we wrote laws to outlaw them.
"But they complied with the rules, which is why they were allowed to stay until the end of the season. They were completely different to the situation we have now."
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