The plank on the new F1 cars has become an interesting topic of discussion since Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were excluded from the COTA GP due to excessive wear. An incident that has sparked the FIA’s interest in addressing this area of the car, with Nikolas Tombazis proposing a standard plank.
The events of the American weekend caused quite a stir within the paddock. A weekend with a combination of factors that led the cars to enter parc fermé early on a notoriously bumpy circuit.
On that occasion, the FIA was criticized for its targeted approach to technical checks, with Hamilton suggesting that he had heard that other cars were also illegal. However, these other cars escaped disqualification because they were not inspected. A somewhat questionable statement, as the federation has sensors capable of detecting suspicious vertical movements and their impact on the ground.
This tool came into effect with TD39 in 2022, “forcing” cars to stay within a usage window to avoid excessive porpoising and bottoming. As a result, the FIA can accurately predict which cars are closer to the risk of infringement. However, this is an endemic phenomenon in this sport, a kind of cat-and-mouse game between the FIA and the teams, with teams constantly seeking any advantage. A condition that pushes the rules close to their breaking point in the pursuit of performance.
With teams seeking minimum ride heights, not only is the risk of disqualification growing, but there is also the possibility of accidents. Indeed, there are several possibilities for a driver to crash when the car compresses on a bump and bounces, as happened to Lando Norris in Las Vegas.
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“We need to ensure that circuits, in general, avoid features that can cause this problem,” said Nikolas Tombazis, responsible for FIA single-seaters.
“It is a fine line that separates the responsibility of a circuit in resolving some aspects or details from that of the teams in raising the car more. Of course, we will try to address these issues with the circuits. Are the cars too low? Yes, we would prefer them to be a bit higher, but the intrinsic characteristics of a ground-effect car are that it tends to have better performance when it is low. It is something that I don’t think can be easily avoided.” – he pointed out.
With increasingly stringent regulations, it is reasonable to question why the plank was not standard, given that it does not provide any performance, and other areas have been frozen.
“We tried to standardize the regulations regarding the skid. However, one must realize that sometimes we want to do things, and then we still have to go through governance, and the teams have to vote in favor,” explained Nikolas Tombazis. “Sometimes there is not enough support. So, for 2026, we believe that we will simplify that area a lot, which we have not been able to simplify as much as we would have liked with the current regulations.”
Source: f1ingenerale
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