FIA reacts to Zhou’s horrific accident

After the major technical reform last season, the second of the Ground Effect cars only cosmetics operated according to regulations.

The seemingly smallest change is the biggest. The edges of the bottom plate should be bent upwards by 15 millimeters. That is it bounce prevent the cars from jerking at high speeds.

The drivers had complained of back pain and blurred vision as the car went up and down movements keeps going up the road. 15 millimeters sounds like little, but it is aerodynamicist almost an “attempted assassination”.

Without countermeasures, 20 points of downforce would be missing and the cars would be half a second slower. We hear from the teams that the engineers have already made up for the loss through further development.

Black like never before!

Another big problem was the weight. The FIA wanted to lower it from 798 to 796 kilograms, but had to go back to the old minimum weight under pressure from the teams. Reason: The new Pirelli tires have become heavier. Despite the concession, all teams are struggling with the kilos. Last year only AlphaBeautiful the weight limit, later Aston Martin and Willems. Red Bull, on the other hand, was lying up to 20 kg more.

At the beginning of the season, everyone should reach 798 kilograms. But that has its price. You have never seen so many black areas on the cars. As in 2020 and 2021, Mercedes will be completely black. Black means unpainted carbon fiber. color is hard. Haas saved two kilograms by using less white and more black. Other teams even more!

Zhou’s crash has consequences

In two places the FIA improved in terms of safety. After Zhou’s horror accident at Silverstone, the roll bars are reinforced. The survival aid was broken off with the Chinese when the AlfaBeautiful upside down on the asphalt.

The mirrors have been widened from 15 to 20 centimetres. This is to reduce the blind spot.

At Pirelli you can now choose from six instead of five different mixtures. The time the tires spend in the electric blankets is reduced from three to two hours.

Bonus and inflation increase spending limit

The technology also includes the cost cap. Red Bull had broke it last year and now has to pay with ten percent less wind tunnel time. As world champion editor Bull already has less time in the wind tunnel than everyone else.

This year, the base amount of the cost cap drops from $140 million to $135 million. In reality, the total is higher. Including inflation surcharge and the bonus for 23 instead of 21 Grand Prix and the six sprint races, the upper limit is around USD 154 million.

Source : Blick