After a major rules overhaul last season, aimed at improving the race ability of the cars, a few changes have been made ahead of this year to tweak the regulations for safety reasons and to clamp down on any clever innovations.
And with car launches upon us, what better time to talk about the changes.
Floor Regulations
With the return of ground effect aerodynamics last season, many teams suffered from the phenomenon of porpoising. Put very simply, this is caused by airflow in the underbody separating at low ride heights, causing a loss of downforce and therefore the car to prop back up on its suspension and the cycle repeats itself.
With the worry about the impacts of porpoising on driver safety, the FIA introduced a metric to give a ‘quantitative limit for acceptable level of oscillations’ for the Belgium Grand Prix and onwards.
But for 2023, the FIA are making adjustments to limit the effects of porpoising by making the floor slightly less sensitive to the ground effect. These changes include raising the floor edges by 15mm, with no more than a 5mm vertical deflection when a 250N load is applied and raising the diffuser throat by 10mm.
A change to the diffuser kick line has also been made with it being higher and further forward, which could alter the balance of the car and alleviate some understeer, as the downforce will move forward.
Changes to the geometry of the floor’s edge have also been made along with a reduction in the number of holes required to measure plank conformity, from six to four and another sensor has been added to monitor the vertical acceleration of the cars.
Teams that ran very low ride heights last season, like Mercedes, who suffered heavily from porpoising should get a benefit, as their car will be less sensitive to the ground clearance because they will be at a higher ride height.
Last summer, when the changes were being talked about, Red Bull boss Christian Horner had been the most vocal about the regulations favouring Mercedes, as his team had a car that didn’t suffer from porpoising and could retain strong downforce figures at a higher rear ride height range.
However, The Silver Arrows said that their push for change was for safety reasons only and not for any performance gain.
Overall, teams are expected to lose around 0.5s a lap, according to FIA single seater director Nicolas Tombazis, although many expect with winter development that such a loss can be made up fairly quickly.
Roll hoop safety improvements
Following Zhou Guanyu’s horrific crash at Silverstone, where the roll hoop broke away when the car hit the ground after flipping over, changes to the load tests have been made as well as geometrical adjustments.
The FIA confirmed after the crash that the roll hoop technically didn’t fail, however the loads placed upon it exceeded the threshold they are tested for.
The regulations now say that the roll hoop must have a rounded top to reduce the risk of it digging into the ground and any parts constructed above the 935mm reference plane, must be able to withstand a 15g impact with the ground and be made from an abrasion resistant material.
Furthermore, the roll hoop must be able to sustain forces in a forward’s direction, as well as a rearward direction.
Clamping down on clever ideas and innovations
As always in F1, the quest for performance is never ending, and often it’s the governing body’s job to clamp down on any clever ideas engineers and designers come up with.
Mercedes and Aston Martin used certain loopholes within the rules to their advantage last season.
The Silver Arrows front wing solution introduced at the Miami Grand Prix with the detached endplate from the flaps, was aimed at inducing outwash to better manage the front tyre wake.
Aston Martins rear wing endplate solution introduced at the Hungarian Grand Prix was designed to retain a higher pressure on top of the wing for longer by minimising airflow spillage over the sides.
Both ideas, along with Mercedes out washing slot gap separator design introduced at the US Grand Prix but never raced, have all been banned.
The regulations are aimed at reducing the amount of wake the cars produce and therefore these solutions are not within the best interests of the sport, despite their performance benefits.
Other changes
Wing Mirrors
To give better rearward visibility, the mirrors are being increased in size from 150mm in length to 200mm. The mirror position is also fixed for 2023.
As they are a larger diameter, the drag penalty will be increased, however teams will have more scope to manage the airflow for further downstream.
Cockpit devoid of unessential items
Packaging of items such as suspension systems, nitrogen cylinders and electronic boxes must be placed elsewhere.
Weight limit
The minimum weight limit has been decreased from 798 kg to 796 kg
Front wing flaps
The front wing flaps can now be adjusted by up to 40mm as opposed to 35mm last season.