The FIA is warning some upgrades expected to be introduced by Formula 1 teams in Bahrain are “sailing close to the wind” in terms of legality.
In the process of developing the new 2022 regulations, F1 chief Ross Brawn revealed efforts had been made to try and prevent any kind of legal loopholes teams could exploit.
While some radical concepts have been shown off so far, notably the sidepods on both the Ferrari and Red Bull, the FIA, while admitting a few surprises, said there had been no “alarm bells” with the designs so far.
But the early conservatism is set to end for the upcoming second test and opening race in Bahrain, where many teams are planning big changes, with Mercedes and Red Bull, in particular, tipped to bring very different cars than was seen in Barcelona.
The FIA knows this because teams present CAD data for all upgrades to ensure they abide by the regulations, and according to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, what they’ve seen is causing worry.
A source from the governing body claims some teams are “sailing close to the wind and bringing solutions that do not quite correspond to the spirit of the regulations”.
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Sky Sports reporter Ted Kravitz also notes teams won’t be shy to quickly act on anything they see which might be in the grey area of the rules.
“They’ve already started!” he said in a Q&A this week.
“There are already lots of teams looking at various bits on other cars and going, ‘hang on, I didn’t think we were allowed to do that!’
“Every single thing is going to be objected or even protested. That’s the problem for these new race directors – these two guys are coming in at a particularly red-hot time for inter-team protests.”
After a rather subdued first three days of running last month then, the fireworks might start to fly once F1 arrives in the desert…