A former F1 designer: 'Nobody in the Federation has a broader vision'

Have you ever wondered what those who worked in Formula 1 in the last century think about the current regulations? GPblog spoke about it with engineer Giorgio Stirano, who was active in Formula 1 between the 1970s and 1990s with Osella, Alfa Romeo and Forti Corse, as well as an expert witness for Williams in the investigation following Senna's accident.

Regulations too complex

Giorgio Stirano is currently, among other things, one of the commissioners of the Automobile Club of Monaco. So today's regulations are also Stirano's business. "The regulations have become complicated out of all proportion," he said. "You have to understand the direction to take when making regulations. I totally disagree with the current philosophies of handling regulations. I would go in exactly the opposite direction, that is, I would work on solutions that simplify instead of complicate." The former Osella designer believes that these complications are too much of a burden for the teams.

In particular, Stirano has a lot to say about the regulations approved last season. "We spent years making a regulation with ground effect. They said 'It will help to overcome'. But where? They always had to pull the wing down if they wanted to overtake." Then, about porpoising, he said: "I used to call it pumping in the 1980s, but we had that with wing cars too. We solved our own problems, nobody made us a regulation to avoid what they call porpoising today."

Stirano also dislikes some of the stewards' decisions. He refers above all to the US GP: "Haas complain about Alonso's non-penalty 23 minutes after the deadline for the complaint has expired and the Formula One stewards don't notice. Then you find out that there is a new thing - which I didn't know existed - which is the reform of the stewards' decision. Why reform? If you are wrong I make a complaint and I win the complaint. It seems to me that we are complicating things."

A vision is missing

Stirano has a rather harsh judgement on the direction taken by the FIA, although he is not nostalgic for his time. "It's not true that it was better in my time, because there were a lot of problems then too. It is right that there is evolution, the point is how you achieve performance in a broader logic. No one in the Federation in my opinion has a broader vision". Then he added: "The cars are all the same as performance more or less and then we don't play this kind of game so well anymore. The regulations must have some free zones on which we do some reasoning".

For the Italian engineer, there is a problem with the restrictiveness of the regulations then, but he also criticises the fact that the lower categories are no longer a 'gym' for F1. "I am totally against having the cars all the same [in the lower categories] because these engineers here, who then arrive in Formula One, have raised the spring 3 mm, pulled it down 3 mm and they only know how to do that. I remember the Formula 2 that we did, there was everything [as a team] and they were little centres of culture, so there was already a training that you did going up".

He continued: "The cars are all the same in Formula 2, Formula 3, in Formula 4 and then they don't know how to do it. They do the starts with the reverse grid and these things here." For Stirano, even similar solutions only complicate things and bring nothing positive. 'In my opinion, the simplification of the regulations if it was done well would be a positive thing," he explained, believing that all these stakes also reduce innovation in the sport.