Nikolas Tombazis, director of the single seater section of the FIA, admits that there are too many loopholes when it comes to the technical regulations that the F1 teams make good use of. Tombazis believes this has had a negative impact on the show on the circuit this season.
At the beginning of 2022, the technical regulations were rewritten, the ground effect returned, which ensured that the downforce is mainly generated by the bottom and the floor. This approach turned out to be successful because it has since become easier to track a car. This is mainly because there is less dirty air at the back of the car, which in turn improves overtaking options and close racing.
However, development in the F1 world never stands still, which has ensured that the air flow over a car has increased this year, especially at the front of the car. This in turn affects the air turbulence at the rear of the car and so we come to the conclusion that it was again more difficult this season to follow a predecessor at a close distance.
Short-distance tracking has certainly become a bit more difficult this year, Nikolas Tombazis acknowledged according to Speedcafe. We knew that things would deteriorate a little if the teams developed a little more.
“There were a few specific areas of the car where we couldn’t close some of the regulatory loopholes quickly enough,” he added. This concerns the end plates on the front wing, the area around the wheel arches, brake lines and the like on the inside of the front wheel.
The increased flow of dirty air was therefore an important factor for tire degradation, Ferrari in particular suffered from this at the beginning of the season, it was almost their biggest problem at that time.
There are currently no plans from F1 and the FIA to intervene before the new 2026 regulations come into effect. However, Tombazis is confident that things will not get worse in the future.
I expect it to remain very similar. I don’t think it got worse over the year either, I think it was just this year compared to last year. I don’t think there are any new loopholes in the regulations that are yet to be discovered by the engineers, concludes Tombazis.
Written by Vincent Bogaerts