An own goal by the FIA? Have the new floor rules made the racing in F1 worse?
The start of F1 2023 has been mostly🅰 dull - eve꧟n if you forget that Red Bull have dominated both races.
Looking back to 12 months ago, Bahrain and🍌 Saudi Arabia were full of great overtakes and wheel-to-wheel action, wit🍨h the new regulations receiving plenty of plaudits.
With the regulations n🤪o longer immature, it seems that as teams improve their cars, 🥃the racing has steadily gotten worse.
S♑peaking after the race in Jeddah, Sainz - who finished sixth - explained how he felt that running behind another car was more difficult compared to last year.
“I probably paid the price during the first stint with the tyres because I did want to pass him [Stroll], but in the end I paid the priceﷺ,” Sainz said after the race in Jeddah.
“These꧂ cars in dirty air have got a bit worse compared to la♎st year, probably adding downforce and the new regs.
“They are starting to become𝓀 a bit like the old cars where the dirty air is becoming a limitation, and today it wasn’t that easy to pass – but in🎐 general, I don’t think it would have changed much the end result.”
The reason for this?
A potential explanation has been put forward by German publication AMuS.
They explained that teams are putting more “outwash elements” on their cars to increase th𒀰e downf൩orce their cars produce.
Teams have been forced to do this after the implementation of TD-39 - the regulation that stipulates that all cars must run with a minimum 15mm ride hei🌳ght.
The technical directive was introduced on safety grounds - or more cynically, affected Red Bu🎀ll.
It could have had an unintended consequence with cars not be♕ing able to follow eacﷺh other as closely as result.
Given that the FIA can only intervene for safety re🧜asons, it’s unlikely there will be any drastic changes until 2024 meaning F1 could be set for a boring season.
With a sharp eye for F1’s controversies and storylines, Connor ✃is the heartbeat of our unbiased repoꦅrting.
