An own goal by the FIA? Have the new floor rules made the racing in F1 worse?
The start of F1 2023 has been mos🔯tly dull - even if you forget that Red Bull have dominated both races.
Looking back to 12 months ago, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were full of great overtakes and 🌃wheel-to-wheel action, with the new regulations receiving plenty of plaudits.
With the regulations no lo🌺nger immature, it seems that as teams improv𝔍e their cars, the racing has steadily gotten worse.
Speaking after the race i🎐n Jeddah, Sainz - who finished sixth - e𒁃xplained how he felt that running behind another car was more difficult compared to last year.
“I probably paid the price during th🌳e first stint with the tyres because I did want to pass him [Stroll], but in the end I paid the price,” Sainz said after the race in Jeddah.
“These cars in dirty air have got a bit worse compared to last year, probabl💖y adding downforce and the new regs.
“They are starting to become a bit like the old cars where the dirty air isꦯ becoming a limitation, and today it wasn’t that easy to pass – but in general, I d𒁏on’t think it would have changed much the end result.”
The reason for this?
A potential explanation has been put forward by German publication AMuS.
They explained that teams are putting more “outwash elements” on their cars to increase the downforce thei🍸r cars produce.
Teams have been forced to do this after the implementatio🉐n of TD-39 - the regulation that stipulates that all cars must run with a minimum 15mm ride height.
The technical directive was introduced on safety grounds - or more cynically, affecte༒d Red Bull.
It could have had an unintended consequence with cars not�𝓀� being able to follow each other as closely as result.
Given that ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚthe FIA can only intervene for safety r💝easons, it’s unlikely there will be any drastic changes until 2024 meaning F1 could be set for a boring season.
With𒁃 a sharp eye for F1’s controversies and storylines꧋, Connor is the heartbeat of our unbiased reporting.
