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Update | FIA clarifies the adjustment of controversial TD

Update | FIA clarifies the adjustment of controversial TD

27-03-2023 10:35 Last update: 30-03-2023 03:11
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GPblog.com

The FIA introduced a technical directive from the Belgian Grand Prix last season to ensure that 'dangerous' porpoising was reduced. Meanwhile, this technical directive seems to have been removed from the rule book again. The Italian branch of Motorsport.com reported.

From the start of 2022, it was a major problem: the bouncing of F1 cars on the straights. The FIA ruled that action had to be taken against it, and so technical directive TD39 was created. Sensors were placed on the cars, allowing the governing body to see how badly the cars were bouncing. If a car bounced too much, the team would be forced to adjust the ride height. The higher, the slower. The directive met with much criticism from the FIA, including from Red Bull.

In 2023, cars are driven under new aerodynamic rules and so the technical directive has apparently become redundant. The floor edges of all cars are already raised and so porpoising is less of an issue. As a result, the FIA would also have seen no reason to continue actively monitoring bouncing. From last year's Singapore Grand Prix onwards, controls were relaxed anyway because rough road surfaces interfered with measurements on several occasions.

The measurements have been a thing of the past since this year. The striking thing is that the FIA has not officially announced that TD39 is no longer in force. Whether that will still happen is unclear.

Update 

The FIA told GPblog that the AOM [Aerodynamic oscillation meter] is still in place and data is still being gathered. "The AOM is still in place and we are still gathering data from this metric - but as the matter seems under control it was stated to teams via a Technical Directive that we will not be applying a limit in the forthcoming period. It has also been communicated to the teams that if the parameter worsened again we would reintroduce it at very short notice. Since everything is already in place, we could restart implementation relatively quickly. This has been the case since Bahrain," the statement said. 

The FIA also confirmed they are aiming to make all TDs public in the future and are currently in the process to remove any confidential and private information.