Explained: The new FIA technical directive set to be introduced at the 2023 F1 Singapore GP

The FIA recently decided to release a new technical directive that will take effect at the 2023 F1 Singapore GP this weekend. The governing body keeps updating the rules and regulations to keep the racing fair and as equal as possible among all 10 teams. This new document will once again ensure the above.

Though this technical directive is not as detailed and long as some that massively change the regulations in different departments of the car, the latest one is still quite important as it looks into the aerodynamic aspect of the cars.

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FIA's new technical directive from the 2023 F1 Singapore GP, as explained by Tim Goss

In the latest article posted by the FIA, Single Seater Technical Director Tim Goss spoke about the new TD018 introduced for the 2023 F1 Singapore GP, which would mainly look into the flexibility of an F1 car's bodywork, particularly the front and rear wings.

Furthermore, the directive is to slightly restrict the freedom that team engineers get to find loopholes and sneaky ways for an advantage over other teams. This was addressed by Goss, as he said:

“There are a lot of clever engineers out there looking to get the most out of the regulations and we have to make sure that everyone has a common understanding of where the boundaries are and we have to be fair and balanced across the whole group in how we apply them. And in recent times we have seen a little bit too much freedom being applied to the design details of aerodynamic components.”

Goss dove deep into Article 3.2.2 of the F1 rulebook, which states that aerodynamic parts must be rigidly connected to the car's main frame and mostly be immobile. This clearly targets the amount of flexibility of the front and rear wings when cars zoom past at eye-watering speeds.

The new directive will now consider a breach of Article 3.2.2 if a car part has a relative motion between adjacent components, even if the car complies with Article 3.15, which deals with aerodynamic component flexibility.

Goss further said:

“For us, the important bit of Article 3.2.2 is that ‘all aerodynamic components or bodywork, influencing the car’s aerodynamic performance must be rigidly secured and immobile with respect to their frame of reference and that they must make use a uniform, solid, hard, continuous surface under all circumstances’.”

The FIA's Single Seater Technical Director also mentioned how the governing body has many load deflection tests that can determine the amount of bend and put a reasonable limit on it. He said:

“We have a range of load deflection tests that define how much elements can bend and we've evolved those tests to represent what the teams are trying to achieve on track and to put a sensible limit on them.”

Though the FIA is not targeting a particular F1 team whose car's front and rear wings are flexing too much, they are simply tightening the noose on the freedom to increase the flexibility of these parts.