siko

Longer Friday practice among 2007 changes
18 October 2006

The FIA’s World Motorsport Council met in Barcelona on Wednesday and subsequently confirmed a number of changes to Formula One racing’s sporting regulations for 2007 and beyond.

Among the key changes for next season are alterations to the Grand Prix weekend format. Fridays will now feature two 90-minute sessions, with teams allowed to use a third driver, but only two cars. The two-race engine rule will no longer apply on Friday, so anyone experiencing an early failure will not be penalised with a grid penalty.

Under next year's move to a single tyre supplier, each team will receive only two specifications of tyre per event. However, they will get more sets - four per driver on the Friday and ten for the remainder of the weekend.

Safety car regulations have also been modified to prevent drivers diving for the pits the minute the safety car comes onto the circuit, and to stop backmarkers interfering with the leaders during a race restart.

And in a move to further improve safety in the sport, a GPS marshalling system, involving a cockpit light display of flag signals, will be introduced for next season.


The FIA release in full:
The following sporting regulations were approved for the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship.

Practice
Teams may only use two cars in any one practice session. A nominated third driver or either race driver can use these cars in the session.
The two free practice sessions on the first day of practice have been extended from one hour to ninety minutes each.

Tyres
The single tyre supplier is required to provide identical quantities and specifications of tyres to all teams over a calendar year.
It may only provide two specifications of tyre at each Event.
The quantity of dry-weather tyres each driver may use at an Event has been increased from seven sets to 14. A maximum of four sets will be available to each driver for the first day of practice and 10 for the remainder of the Event.

Engines
The two-race engine regulations will now only apply to the second day of practice and the day of the race.
Engines homologated and used during the last two Events of 2006 must now be used during the 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 seasons.

Safety Car
When the Safety Car is deployed no car is permitted to enter the pits until all are bunched up behind the Safety Car. This is to remove all incentive for cars to be driven quickly back to the pits for refuelling when the Safety Car is deployed.
Before the Safety Car returns to the pits any lapped car between cars running on the lead lap must pass those cars and the safety car. It may then proceed around the track to take up position at the back of the line of cars behind the safety car.
Before a race is resumed any lapped car between cars running on the lead lap must pass those cars and the safety car and then proceed around the track to take up position at the back of the line of cars behind the safety car.

Stewards
The stewards may now impose grid place penalties.


The following sporting regulations were approved for the 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship:

• FIA ECU to be fitted for all testing in addition to races.
• A 10 place grid penalty will be issued for an engine change, as opposed to a weight penalty.
• A five place grid penalty will be issued for a gearbox change, as opposed to a weight penalty.
• Gear ratios may be changed once per race under supervision.
• Damaged gear ratios and dog rings may be changed without penalty provided it is evident physical damage has not been made deliberately.
• Ferrari’s request to supply two teams with engines in the 2008 championship has been accepted.

A number of technical regulations were also approved for the 2007 and 2008 championships.

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Matt530i

If someone finishes a race with a new engine and has an engine failure in the next Friday practice, does this mean that they can use a new engine without penalty for qualifying and the next race?

If that's the case, what's to stop teams from "accidentally" having an engine failure every Friday and having a new engine for every race?

The Emperor

siko

I know Tyc... sounds bad doesn't it!?



Good point!?

The Emperor

Very!

bmwownage

I think what happens is practice engines and race engines are separated... like you only put your race engine in in the race..

Imhotep Evil

2007 tyre rules explained!


We have had plenty of questions in recent days about one of the hot topics for 2007, namely tyres. Here's a run-down of the tyre rules for 2007, and what they mean...

Tyres, tyres, tyres... I think that once we had seen the end of the tyre war, we had expected to stop talking about tyres. But clearly nobody told the F1 world, because it seems to be more of a hot topic than ever before!

So let's take a look at the basics.

There is a single tyre supplier for 2007 - Bridgestone. This is a different situation from that which will be in force in 2008 when a sole tyre supplier (also Bridgestone) will supply a control tyre to all teams. This tyre will be an identical tyre for all races.

For 2007, the regulations say that the tyre supplier must "make available identical quantities and specifications of tyres to all teams during a calendar year" (Article 73b of the Sporting Regs). This means that all the teams must have the same tyres available at all times.

Bridgestone have decided to tackle this in a very specific way, as they explained last week. They have developed four types of dry tyre, as their Head of Track Engineering Operations Kees Van de Grint explained after last week's test: "The current plan is to produce four specifications of dry weather tyre which will be known as: Hard, Medium, Soft and Super Soft. From these four specifications two will be chosen for use at each Grand Prix."

So every team will have the same two specifications of tyre available at each race - a choice that will be made from among those four types of tyre. For example, you can fairly safely predict that the selection for Monaco will be super soft and soft, while at Silverstone, a tough track for the tyres, we will probably see the hard and medium used - the same will probably be true somewhere like Sepang or Barcelona.

When the drivers get to the track, the rules will be as follows:

73 b) During the Event no driver may use more than fourteen sets of dry-weather tyres, four sets of wet weather tyres and three sets of extreme-weather tyres. However, no driver may use more than a total of four sets of dry-weather tyres during P1 and P2, no more than two sets being of one specification.

77 a) Each team will be allocated eight sets of dry-weather tyres, four of each specification, for use during P1 and P2. These are the only dry-weather tyres which may be used during these sessions and must be returned to the tyre supplier before the start of P3.

There is a subtlety worth noticing in here. It is not four sets of tyres per driver on Friday, it is eight per team. So if you use two race drivers, then they will probably be able to compare the harder and softer of the tyre compounds, and get one set each. if you use three drivers (as you are allowed to), then you have to divide those eight sets between the three drivers. And remember, those eight sets go back after P2.


77 b) Each driver will be allocated ten further sets of dry-weather tyres, five of each specification, for use during the remainder of the Event. However, one set of each specification must be returned to the tyre supplier before the start of the qualifying practice session and may not be used during the remainder of the Event.

Now we get to Saturday, and the allocations are now per driver - not per team. Each driver essentially has ten sets of tyres for these two days. You can use as many sets of tyres as you want to during P3, but one of each specification must be given back to Bridgestone at the end of the hour. So realistically, teams will use only two sets of tyres, because they won't have any old used tyres available.

After this the teams have eight sets of tyres available - four of each specification. Now remember, in 2006 a team like Renault used four sets of new tyres in qualifying - one in Q1, one in Q2, and two in Q3. Sometimes, you would use old tyres in Q1 - but in 2007, the 8 sets of tyres will probably all be new because you give back your two sets of tyres after P3. Now logically, you would use your soft tyres for qualifying because they give the best performance over a single lap - meaning you probably won't have any new soft tyres when you go into the race. Will that affect your strategy? It's too early to know, but it's interesting to try and work it out...!


77 d) Unless he has used wet or extreme-weather tyres during the race, each driver must use at least one set of each specification of dry-weather tyres during the race.

This is why we no longer make a tyre choice - because we have to use both types of tyre in the race! Both the harder and softer compound must be run on the car at some point. Will that bring strategical variation? Well, it's clear that the car that's kindest on its tyres will have an advantage, because it should be able to run the soft tyres, and enjoy their performance advantage, for longest...


So there's a summary of what the tyre rules mean for the race weekends in 2007.


Source: Renault F1 blog

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