F1 to introduce technical 'pre-event displays' of car upgrades for each race weekend

F1 will be introducing a new “pre-event automobile display” session from the 2022 season onwards, where teams are required to reveal and explain any new upgrades that they bring to the race weekend.

The new session is intended to give fans a clearer understanding of the technical side of the sport, especially following the introduction of new aerodynamic regulations and allow them to follow team’s progress more closely.

Originally proposed by F1 motorsport boss Ross Brawn late last year, the new “show-and-tell” requirement expands on the original sporting regulations. The FIA had earlier required each team to declare a “reference specification” of their cars ahead of each and every race weekend, in an effort to bring in more transparency and allow for better policing of the rules.

Following F1’s intent to introduce new sessions, the FIA has expanded the original requirements. According to the latest draft of the sporting regulations for the 2022 season, all teams are required to submit an affidavit that includes the “name and brief description of all major aerodynamic and bodywork components and assemblies” that are new and which the teams intend to run during the upcoming race weekend.

F1 plans to conduct two media pre-event displays. The first of the two displays will take place no later than 90 minutes before first practice on Friday, while the second session will be conducted 30 minutes after the conclusion of qualifying on Saturday.

For the second session, five select teams will provide one of their cars for display, while all teams are expected to send a senior technical figure to explain the upgrades during both sessions.

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Ross Brawn confident F1 teams won’t deliberately make new cars harder to follow

Ross Brawn believes teams wouldn’t deliberately design their 2022 cars to generate more aerodynamic wake, in an effort to make it harder for rivals to follow them closely.

He believes that any aerodynamic wake that a 2022-gen car might produce would be an unintended consequence rather than a deliberate design choice. Speaking in an interview with Motorsport.com, the former F1 team boss said:

“I don’t think any team ever set out to purposely damage the wake so a car can’t follow it. There’s not enough time, there’s not enough resource. You’ve just got to pursue lap time the whole time. So that would never happen in my view. As a consequence of pursuing performance, we may see that we don’t quite hit a bullseye in terms of following. But I think it will still be so massively ahead of where we were, because the cars were dreadful.”

Brawn led the team at FOM that developed the new regulations, with an aim to improve on-track overtaking. For nearly a decade, F1 cars have been unable to overtake each other without either a tremendous pace advantage or external aids such as DRS (Drag Reduction System).

The new regulations, combined with other significant measures such as the cost cap, are expected to solve the sport’s long standing issues, and create more entertaining races in the future.