Following the reintroduction of ground effect as Formula 1’s main aerodynamic rule in 2022, the governing body created a new technical verification process to help decipher whether or not teams’ designs comply with current regulations.
During the current season, the teams will be obliged to share with the FIA their CAD data related to their developments, so these laser scans will be used to verify that the real car matches that information that they had already obtained from the data.
Said laser tool, which was evaluated during pre-season testing, is necessary because the methods previously used by the FIA to check whether aerodynamic parts complied with the limits of the regulations are no longer suitable for these new cars.
As has been customary in Formula 1 since 2020, teams share with the FIA pre-event data on their cars indicating that they do comply with the rules, however, they then have to be verified over the weekend to ensure that the Data matches physical reality.
Therefore, the FIA will now use a laser tool that will do random scans during race weekends as an additional method of ensuring that teams comply with the rules at all times.
Physical tests to ensure legal wing and ground flex will still be carried out on the platforms that are set up in the FIA garage during each race, as will other checks such as measuring the DRS opening.
“The aerodynamic regulations have become much more complex, there are many more rules that determine the geometry allowed by the regulations,” FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis said of the new laser scanning system.
“Because of that, we needed to improve our checks and opted for a fully electronic state-of-the-art scanning system.”
“We check the cars through a computer to make sure they meet the geometric constraints. We do it with all the teams, and then we compare the physical car with the car we have scanned, that’s the process we’re doing now.”
“We scan the surface of the car by placing a sensor on the surface and verify specific points on the car which are then compared to the CAD data, and based on those measurements we will be able to draw the final conclusions.”
“We do two checks: a quick one where we look at the basic parameters (width, height, making sure the car isn’t running too low etc) and then we have a more detailed check where we scan the entire surface of the car. , which obviously takes a little longer,” he added.
Tombazis also said the FIA ‘s aim is to do “rapid scans on all the cars during a race weekend”, but added that “we are still learning about the process, especially in a race weekend environment”.
“The more detailed scans will be done more randomly, probably a couple of cars at each race and obviously the team or teams that are selected won’t know they were going to be scanned.
“If a driver receives any protests from his rivals or if we have serious doubts about the legality of any, then we can deliberately choose a car to scan in order to obtain the necessary information to make a decision on it.”
“So far the system has been working quite well. There is still a lot to learn, but it is a step in the right direction to further improve our ability to check track legality.”
