The FIA rule changes finalised to be effective from 2012 – Formula 1 news
The FIA reveals the changes to Formula 1 regulations effective from the 2012 season.
The 2011 season has been marked by some bizarre decisions taken by the FIA. Most prominently, the banning of off-throttle blown diffuser for only the British GP has been the target of the most criticism. Peter Sauber principal of Sauber just a fortnight
ago blamed the FIA for his teams 7th place standing instead of the 6thbecause of confusion created from the ban.
So a tweak to this rule was more than expected, other changes included races to not be longer than a period of 4 hours. During the 2011 season, the rain-affected Canadian GP ran for four hours and five minutes.
During a safety car period, lapped cars will be allowed to un-lap at the end of the safety car period to ensure the order remains unchanged during the race. Cutting corner during in-laps in qualifying and weaving during races have also been looked into,
after several incidents during the 2011 season led to some drivers criticizing the lack of safety aspect in such situations.
The changes to 2012 Sporting Regulations are:
Cars will no longer be allowed to do any pre-season testing without passing all crash tests.
Maximum race time of four hours will be applied to ensure any lengthy suspension of a race.
In case of a safety car period, cars that are lapped will be allowed to unlap after the safety car period.
Cars which are in the pit lane during a suspended period will now be allowed to re-join the cars on the grid in the position they were in when the race was initially suspended.
Driver are no longer allowed to leave the track during races without a justifiable reason, i.e cutting a chicane on reconnaissance laps or ‘in’ laps to save time and fuel.
Drivers may no longer move back onto the racing line having moved off it to defend a position.
One three-day test will be carried out during the season, formerly there were none.
All stewards' decisions which are not subject to appeal are now in one place instead of being in various places within the regulations.
All tyres allocated to a driver may now be used on the first day of practice; formerly only three sets were permitted.
Changes to the 2012 Technical Regulations
All engine standard ECU set up and control parameters, which were formerly contained only within a Technical Directive, are now contained within the relevant parts of the Technical Regulations.
The exhaust tailpipes are now strictly regulated in order to ensure that the aerodynamic effect exhaust gases have on the car is kept to an absolute minimum.
Better marking of in-car emergency switches operated by marshals are now stipulated.
The side impact structures will now have to be subjected to a further (upward) push-off test.
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