2010 F1 regulations finalised

[PoleMan]

Yesterday the FIA published the finalised 2010 F1 regulations, confirming a raft of new rules for the sport, along with the controversial £40m voluntary budget cap. Here is a summary of all the rule changes to take effect from next year.

2010 rule changes
- Minimum car weight incrased to 620 kg (previously 605 kg)
- Mid-race refuelling banned
- Qualifying to be contested on low fuel (Q3 previously contested on race fuel)
- Tyre warmers banned
- Maximum number of teams allowed to compete in the championship raised to 13 (from 12)
- Stewards can now drop a driver any number of grid positions at a driver's next race if he is involved in a racing incident (previously drivers were dropped 10 grid places)
- KERS no longer allowed to operate when a car is travelling above 300 km/h
- KERS energy storage (battery or flywheel) must be located behind the driver and in front of the engine
- Rear brake pressure may be reduced by use of a valve during KERS use
- Tyres must now be inflated with only air or nitrogen (CO2 also previously allowed)
- Teams can avail of a voluntary £40m budget cap, offering them greater 'technical freedom'

'Technical freedom' offered to budget-capped teams
- No limit on testing mileage or dates (non-capped teams limited to 15,000 km between 1 January and week of first race)
- No restrictions on wind tunnel scale or speed (non-capped teams restricted to 60% scale and 50m/s rolling road speed)
- No restriction on use of engines during a season (non-capped teams limited to eight engines per season)
- No restriction on use of gearboxes during a season (non-capped teams forced to run with four-race gearboxes)
- Moveable front wing allowed to move 10° any number of times per lap (non-capped teams allowed 6° movement twice per lap)
- Moveable rear wing permitted, controlled by driver (not available for non-capped teams)
- No restriction on engine revs (non-capped teams limited to 18,000 rpm)
- KERS to be twice as powerful, producing just over 160 hp of boost for 6.67s per lap (non-capped teams limited to 80 hp for 6.67s per lap)
- Four-wheel drive permitted (non-capped teams limited to two driven wheels)
- KERS permitted to drive all four wheels (non-capped teams limited to KERS powering the rear wheels)

[david1275]

Four wheel drive?? That's a new one on me.

Can't see any teams picking up on that.

[Scott]

It'll be interesting to see which way teams choose to go if they stay in the budget cap...but unlimited engines and gearboxes will cost them so much money it will probably put them over the cap if they make one all the time.

4WD is a new one to me too, and I can't see the benefit of running a driveshaft between the driver's legs to get to the front wheels - it would certainly add too much weight.  But what do I know?

I think the combination of harder tires and no tire warmers will cause the first part of the race to be chaos.  As I said once before, I think Brawn may be the real winner, because if anyone will get the strategies right, it will more than likely be him.

I wonder when the teams will have to declare themselves under the salary cap?  I suppose before the beginning of the season?  Will we get to know?

[PoleMan]

Scott from now on to provide all the news
I am  happy he knows all the news

[John S]

Without knowing where this set of 2010 regulations is sourced makes it difficult to understand just where the two tier system has re-emerged from. The whole thrust of the battle between FOTA and the FIA was about a two tier championship being unacceptable.

FOTA not the FIA is in charge of the 'Resource Restristions' rather than the FIA as 'Budget capping'. The FIA's own website has nothing new on regulations since December.

[Jericoke]

4WD is a new one to me too, and I can't see the benefit of running a driveshaft between the driver's legs to get to the front wheels - it would certainly add too much weight.  But what do I know?

4WD could be accomplished via electrical motors located at the front as part of a KERS system.  My knowledge of physics is fairly limited, but isn't an electrical KERS the opposite of an electric motor?  If you're going to put the weight into your front wheels anyway, there isn't much cost to make any KERS enabled wheel into a drive enabled wheel.

[Dare]

Scott from now on to provide all the news
I am  happy he knows all the news

-


Poleman,people post topics and people make comments on them.

[Dare]

This one surprised me too



Stewards can now drop a driver any number of grid positions at a driver's next race if he is involved in a racing incident (previously drivers were dropped 10 grid places)

[John S]

This one surprised me too



Stewards can now drop a driver any number of grid positions at a driver's next race if he is involved in a racing incident (previously drivers were dropped 10 grid places)

That one appears to be true Dare, its in the 2010 sporting regulations published by the FIA on 15th December [reg 16.3(c)].

Those same regs also seem to allow tyre warming, but only by blankets heating the outside surfaces of tyres [reg 29.3(f)]. - Yeah that suprises me as well!

Absolutely no mention of different rules for testing, wind tunnel, rev limits or engine usage for capped & uncapped teams though.

[FW14B]

The rules seem very different to what I had thought, and mention of a budget cap again is kind of worrying given the problems we know it caused.  4WD is a weird one, would it make any benefit to an F1 car?  I am also not at all savvy with regards to engineering so some of this makes no sense to me without explanation.  Not sure any team would put in a KERS system given that FOTA has agreed to not use them at all, so what other affects would that have on other regulations?

[Scott]

4WD could be accomplished via electrical motors located at the front as part of a KERS system.  My knowledge of physics is fairly limited, but isn't an electrical KERS the opposite of an electric motor?  If you're going to put the weight into your front wheels anyway, there isn't much cost to make any KERS enabled wheel into a drive enabled wheel.

Can you imagine the engineering challenge of getting an electrical motor to sync with a high revving gas engine?  I don't know if it could be done (although they'd officially have a hybrid in F1).

[cosworth151]

Jeri- In it's simplest form, elecrtical KERS connect the wheels to a generator. The kinetic energy of the car is converted to electrical energy. Normally, the kinetic energy is converted to heat by the brakes. A DC generator and motor are esentually the same thing with different wiring. Take a toy electric motor and hook the wires to a flashlight bulb. Spin the motor shaft and the bulb will light.

Like Scott says, the problem would be synching the front and rear wheels.

[Monty]

If this report is true (I have no reason to doubt that it is) the regs are even more ridiculous than I dared imagine.
Moving wings - banned years ago - will be accidents waiting to happen. I note there is no reference to how much adjustment will be allowed on the rear but if it is significant enough to make a difference on the straight, the car will simply not make the next corner if the driver forgets to re-adjust.
To me (no expert) the two tier system would seem to really only offer one viable option (budget capped).
To be able to use as many engines as you want and have no limit on the revs would give such an advantage that the engine rules alone would make the decision to accept capping a no brainer! I cannot remember the exact figures but the last Honda engine was designed to run up to something like 21,000 RPM, when the rules changed and they could only use 18,000RPM they lost something like 150BHP (and the engine sounded awful!!)

[cosworth151]

I was just reading the regs on the FIA's website:

http://www.fia.com/en-GB/sport/regulations/Pages/FIAFormulaOneWorldChampionship.aspx

5.1.3 Crankshaft rotational speed must not exceed 18,000rpm.

9.1 Transmission types :
No transmission system may permit more than two wheels to be driven.

9.9.1 The KERS must connect at any point in the rear wheel drivetrain before the differential.

[littledave]

They don't sound right at all.