The FIA has stepped in once again and closed a potential loophole in the regulations for next year.
Photo: Erik Junius
The rules for next season are changing significantly, and with that comes the inevitable effort by hundreds of clever engineers within the teams to push the limits and find grey areas in order to gain even the smallest advantage over their rivals.
Initially, it emerged that Mercedes and Red Bull had identified one such grey area related to compression ratios. However, the power units for next season are already homologated, and implementing additional changes would be extremely difficult. Nevertheless, the FIA has now identified another gap in the regulations and has clarified it to prevent any circumvention of the rules.
This change concerns fuel-flow sensors, as teams could potentially alter the temperature of the fuel-flow sensor, which might have given them a significant performance advantage.
As a result, the FIA has moved away from the 100 kg/h maximum mass-flow limit and introduced a fuel energy-flow limit of 3000 MJ/h.
Originally, the regulations stated that “any intentional heating or chilling of the fuel-flow meter is forbidden.”
The FIA has now clarified this wording to: “Any device, system, or procedure, the purpose of which is to change the temperature of the fuel-flow meter, is forbidden.”
Let’s also remind that from next year, Formula 1 cars will be powered by fully synthetic fuel.