2011 season sporting regulations - 2

In the previous article aerodynamic and bodywork changes for the upcoming season were mentioned. In this article we will see what all changes have been made with regard to the tyres, gearboxes, qualifying rules and other penalties.

The following changes are written based on abstracts from the regulations published by FIA and also by inferences drawn from them.

Suspension Members

Firstly in order to help prevent a wheel becoming separated in the event of all suspension members connecting it to the car failing provision must be made to accommodate flexible tethers, each with a cross sectional area greater than 110mm². The sole purpose of the tethers is to prevent a wheel becoming separated from the car; they should perform no other function.

The tethers and their attachments must also be designed in order to help prevent a wheel making contact with the driver’s head during an accident. Each wheel must be fitted with two tethers according to the specifications provided.

Furthermore, no suspension member may contain more than one tether. Each tether must exceed 450mm in length and must utilize end fittings which result in a tether bend radiusgreater than 7.5mm.

The addition of these suspension members may lead to a little longer pit stop times.

Tyres

Pirelli will be the new supplier of the tyres and are back into the formula one circuit after a gap of 20 years. They have been given the contract for the next three years.

For each race the tyre supplier will be providing the following tyres -

1. Two specifications of dry-weather tyre, each of which must be of one homogenous compound and visibly distinguishable from one another when a car is on the track

2. One specification of intermediate tyre of homogenous compound

3. One specification of wet-weather tyre of homogenous compound.

Quantity of tyres that can be used

During the Event no driver may use more than eleven sets of dry-weather tyres (six of prime specification and five of option specification) instead of fourteen from last year, four sets of intermediate tyres and three sets of wet-weather tyres.

Three sets of dry-weather tyres will be allocated by the FIA technical delegate to each nominateddriver for use during P1 and P2, two of prime specification and one of option specification. Theseare the only dry-weather tyres which may be used during these sessions.

One set of prime specification must be returned to the tyre supplier before the start of P2 and onefurther set of prime specification and one set of option specification before the start of P3.

Eight further sets of dry-weather tyres will be allocated by the FIA technical delegate to each nominated driver, four of each specification, for use during the remainder of the Event. However, one set of each specification must be returned to the tyre supplier before the start of the qualifying practice session and may not be used during the remainder of the Event.

Unless he has used intermediate or wet-weather tyres during the race, each driver must use at leastone set of each specification of dry-weather tyres during the race.

If the race is suspended and cannot be re-started, thirty seconds will be added to the elapsed time ofany driver who was unable to use both specifications of dry-weather tyre during the race. However,any driver who completes the race without using both specifications of dry-weather tyre will beexcluded from the race results.

Gearboxes

Each driver may use no more than one gearbox for five consecutive Events in which his teamcompetes. Should a driver use a replacement gearbox he will drop five places on the starting grid atthat Event and an additional five places each time a further gearbox is used.

This will mean that the car manufactures will have to put in more effort to make the gearboxes last for a race longer. This is a part of Formula One going the greener way and also regulating on the money spent.

But also to spare the teams from punishment for their first errors they introduced a clause.

For 2011 only, except during the last Event of the Championship season, each driver will be permitted to use a replacement gearbox without incurring a penalty the first time this becomes necessary during the season. Under such circumstances the replacement gearbox will only be required to complete the remainder of the Event in question.

Qualification

During Q1, any driver whose best qualifying lap exceeds 107% of the fastest time set during that session will not be allowed to take part in the race. Under exceptional circumstances however, which may include setting a suitable lap time in a free practice session, the stewards may permit the car to start the race. Should there be more than one driver accepted in this manner, the grid order will be determined by the stewards. In either case, a competitor will not be able to appeal against the steward’s decision.

Work Restrictions

No team personnel who are associated in any way with the operation of the cars are permitted within the confines of the circuit during two six hour periods which commence ten hours before the scheduled start times of P1 and P3. However, each team will be permitted four individual exceptions to the above during a Championship season. That is when the session starts at 10 there should not be any one working between 12am to 6am and if the session starts at 11am the time period will be 1am to 7am. This move has been made citing security reasons.

Penalties

The stewards may impose any one of the penalties below on any driver involved in an Incident:1. A drive-through penalty2. A ten second time penalty3. A time penalty4. A drop of any number of grid positions at the driver’s next Event5. A reprimand6. Exclusion from the results7. Suspension from the driver’s next Event

While the stewards were rewarded with more choices to punish the drivers or teams one punishable offence that has caused quite a few uproars in the past has been removed. The clause saying that team orders are banned is now removed. Under the clause teams like Ferrari and even McLaren bore the wrath of the stewards. The famous incident between Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello still lingers in the minds of many. So for now teams will be allowed to give such team orders very freely.

So those were the major changes for the upcoming season as of now regarding the races. From now on we will look into various technical aspects of Formula One.