Whiting may attend First Test Amid Legality Rumours

[John S]

Charlie might check things himself in Jerez, says Daily Telegraph.  
 
"There are reports that the FIA's technical director Charlie Whiting may travel to Jerez next week due to concerns over the designs of the new cars." says Tom Cary, the F1 Correspondent for the Daily Telegraph.

Rumours are being generated that some teams are flying too close to the limits of the regulations with their new cars, notwithstanding the banning of blown exhausts. At the launch of the new McLaren, for instance, the exhausts and the diffuser were carefully hidden. Though I'm sure Macca are not the only team Charlie will want to run his rule book over.

[Ian]

As long as they are within the limits there should'nt be a problem, unless Ferrari lose out of course.

[Jericoke]

Wait, in the past they didn't bother checking if cars were legal or not during testing?

I suppose cars are allowed to be 'illegal' during testing, but having someone on hand to give a definitive answer would seem to make sense.

Or is that my downfall, assuming the FIA makes sense?

[cosworth151]

I can see it now:

Charlie runs into a garage at Juarez and shouts, "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"

[lkjohnson1950]

The reasoning used to go along the lines of " We can't rule on the legality of a car until it is officially presented for technical inspection". There was some doubt that the Brawn would be allowed to run in '09.

[John S]

Wait, in the past they didn't bother checking if cars were legal or not during testing?

I suppose cars are allowed to be 'illegal' during testing, but having someone on hand to give a definitive answer would seem to make sense.

Or is that my downfall, assuming the FIA makes sense?

Until this year cars didn't even have to be crash tested ahead of testing. It makes sense that teams are allowed unrestricted testing to run new ideas which may or may not prove to be legal, then if the ideas don't work they never put them on a car for a race anyway.

I'm sure Lonny is right, you can run anything until you offer the car for pre race scrutineering.  However with limited testing in F1 now the teams will probably prefer Charlie's early decision on any controversial areas, giving them more time if they need to make changes before Australia.

One downside is that there may be fewer suprises for all of us, including the scrutineers, to get excited about on cars for the opening race.   
 

[lkjohnson1950]

With pre-race inspections, we might never have seen things like ground effects, or even wings.

[Scott]

The reasoning used to go along the lines of " We can't rule on the legality of a car until it is officially presented for technical inspection". There was some doubt that the Brawn would be allowed to run in '09.

That's what I thought.  He can privately tell the team that either they're dreaming if they think it will pass, or that it is no problem, but it isn't set in stone until the car is inspected at race 1 by the FIA team.  It can still fail, even if Charlie thinks it is 'OK'.