Due to the bounce that the cars suffered earlier in the season and which led to complaints from the drivers in reference to safety, the FIA announced before the Canadian Grand Prix that it was going to introduce an aerodynamic oscillation metric that the teams would have to comply with. .
Since that metric came into force, teams must ensure that their car is below the maximum rebound limit in each and every one of their laps, otherwise they could be penalized or even disqualified for safety reasons.
Director of all Formula 1 car issues Nikolas Tombazis said: “Any car whose AOM exceeds the stipulated limit will be reported to the stewards with a recommendation that they be excluded from the sprint or race results. the race”.
After a debate with the teams about everything that this metric implied and after some were against it, it finally came into force at the Belgian Grand Prix.
At this point in the course, the teams had already spent part of their budgets to understand what caused the famous porpoising , one of the keys that has meant that to date, no team has violated this rule.
However, there was some concern among some teams that the last few late-season races, at circuits that are notorious for their potholes, such as Singapore and Austin, might have seen the first exclusions for exceeding the set limit.
Since that metric is an average taken over a total distance – initially 10 J/kg per 100 km – the cars showed that going over some bumps those rebound spikes could have a dramatic impact on the average. general when making the metric.
That would cause some equipment to exceed the AOM limit due to the surface of the circuit and not due to porpoising, which is what actually regulates said metric.
Before the Singapore GP, Tombazis has sent a letter to the teams to inform them that the FIA has modified the metric to help them with the bumpiest circuits.
The governing body has notified the teams that, in order to prevent the oscillation peaks caused by the bumps on the track from distorting the general metric, a new maximum limit will be established that will mean that those impacts that have nothing to do with it will not be taken into account. with porpoising.
From now on, the new maximum limit will be 7G , which means that any hit against the court that exceeds that number will not be counted towards meeting the metric.
That change should help teams avoid any risk of violating the AOM limit set by Formula 1’s governing body.
