Formula 1 sporting director Ross Brawn revealed last November that the series bosses were planning an open session for the media , in which teams would have to show and explain improvements to their cars each weekend. of competition.
The first drafts of the sporting regulations for the 2022 season only mentioned that teams would have to show a “reference specification” at the start of the weekend to the FIA. F1 saw no reason why these technical developments should not be made public and explained, especially considering that we are at the start of a new technical era.
Finally, the FIA has explained the operation of the process that the teams will be obliged to do so that the updates and new components are explained to the media each weekend before the cars take to the track.
According to the sporting regulations, all teams must submit to the FIA a document that includes “the name and a brief description of all components and major changes affecting aerodynamics and bodywork” that were not used in the previous race and intended to be used in the following days.
This information will be received by the FIA on Thursday afternoon and will not be revealed to the media until the “pre-event car show” which will take place no later than 90 minutes before the start of the first free practice session. .
The teams must put the two cars outside the garage , available to the media, for a maximum of one hour. These will have to be fitted with “all major aerodynamic and bodywork components that will be used when the car leaves the pit lane for the first time” at the start of free practice.
A second exhibition session will take place half an hour after qualifying, when the car’s specifications are already under parc fermé regulations, meaning they cannot be changed. On this occasion not all the teams will be obliged to do so, but it will be the race director who will select five teams that will present one car each.
During this session, each team will have to make one of their senior officials available to the media, whose job it will be to explain all the changes that have been made to the aerodynamics and bodywork since Friday morning’s exhibition session.
This measure is part of a wide reorganization of the competition weekend that aims to reduce the time that drivers spend on the circuit.
The “media day”, which until now was held on Thursdays, has moved to Friday morning. To accommodate this change, the first free practices have been scheduled in the early afternoon so that everything can take place on the same day.
Ross Brawn already discussed these ‘show and tell’ plans for the cars to the press last year, saying they would “create another nuance and interest in the series” for fans who are interested in technical advances.
But naturally, there will be a certain level of secrecy that teams will want to maintain throughout the sessions so as not to give away too much information to their rivals.
