The FIA has issued a note to Formula 1 teams that a select group of competitors will be subject to video surveillance to check ‘flexi-wings’ at next weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.
As per Autosport, a select number of teams will be required to install special video cameras during Free Practice at Spa-Francorchamps as the FIA seeks to gain further understanding regarding the legality of front wing flexibility.
Teams have been pointing the finger at one another regarding flexi-wings, claiming that some are pushing the rules too far in the search for greater aero performance.
Mercedes in particular has been under scrutiny since it introduced a new front wing at Monaco, but its Technical Director James Allison argued that “I think that all of us are trying to ensure that we pass the FIA’s flexibility test. They put loads on, and you’ve got to not move by more than an amount.
“But provided you can do that and provided your wing is just bending like a thing bends when it has load on it, then there’s no drama to be faced with the governing body.”
The FIA regularly carries out static load tests to ensure front wings are within the legal flexible limit, but the new video camera measures will provide Formula 1’s governing body with further information on the matter.
FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis issued a technical directive to all teams regarding the video capture methods that will be employed in Belgium.
“Selected teams will be required to fit their cars with additional wireless recording cameras,” read the note (via Autosport).
The cameras will be “focused on the inboard facing nominally vertical surfaces…to track the translation and rotation of target dots”.
The dots, which will be 20mm in diameter, will be placed on the inside face of the front wing endplate plus on the edge of wing flaps aimed towards the endplate and nose of the car to monitor flexibility through all elements of the front wing.
The cameras must be fitted for at least 50% of the hour-long practice session in which a team is selected for the test, unless adverse weather, technical or crash conditions interfere.
After the opening day of practice at Spa-Francorchamps, the FIA will conclude its video camera monitoring and normal service will be resumed for Free Practice 3 on the Saturday morning.
No team has fallen foul of the current static test of front-wing flexibility, as outlined in Article 3.15.4 of the technical regulations.
The static test is carried out using a 100kg load “applied in a downward direction using a 50mm diameter ram on a rectangular adaptor measuring 350mm in the X-direction and 150mm in the Y-direction,” the regulations state. “This adaptor must be supplied by the team. The deflection will be measured relative to the survival cell and along the loading axis.
“When the load is applied symmetrically to both sides of the car the vertical deflection must be no more than 15mm.
“When the load is applied to only one side of the car the vertical deflection must be no more than 20mm.”
Whether the new means of using video evidence to evaluate front-wing flexibility does more than static tests remains to be seen, but if teams are found to be falling foul of the regulations, it could have a dramatic effect on the Formula 1 pecking order.
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