F1 Testing 2020: Week 1 Barcelona (19th - 21st)

Here's the entire section on steering from the current 202 F1 Technical Regulations.

10.4 Steering :

10.4.1 Any steering system which permits the re-alignment of more than two wheels is not permitted.

10.4.2 Power assisted steering systems may not be electronically controlled or electrically powered. No such system may carry out any function other than reduce the physical effort required to steer the car.

10.4.3 No part of the steering wheel or column, nor any part fitted to them, may be closer to the driver than a plane formed by the entire rear edge of the steering wheel rim. All parts fixed to the steering wheel must be fitted in such a way as to minimise the risk of injury in the event of a driver’s head making contact with any part of the wheel assembly.

10.4.4 The steering wheel, steering column and steering rack assembly must pass an impact test, details of the test procedure may be found in Article 16.5.
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Aaaaand that it. As far as I can see, it passes all of those (as long as it has passed the impact test, which in order to go testing, it needs to have done now.)

Seriously clever, surprisingly simple and massively irritating to all the other teams.
 
Very well-played Mercedes. Now let's see if it does indeed work. If it does then presumably that have a whole lot more strategic options on pit stops, especially if they qualify high and race high up the field.

The rake on the 2020 cars is incredible.

The Alpha Tauri livery is stunning. Can't wait to see it in the flesh next week :)
 
Mr Jack said:
It looks like the kind of system you'd want to get test data on, not least proper driver feedback on how it feels in use. Even if the other teams manage their own implementation, Hamilton and Bottas will have the benefit of time on track experimenting with what this new system can do for them.
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It will take the other team months to develop their own solutions. As I've said it's not just designing and implementing the system itself, most teams will almost certainly need a new chassis to accommodate the extra size and the presumed hydraulics. When you take into account the numerous crash tests they will probably be half a season away and end up with a solution which is shoe-horned into a car that wasn't designed for it.

Without rear-facing camera we don't even know the extent of what it does yet. Does it also affect the rear wheels? Is it for tyre warm up, to reduce tyre surface heat or wear on straights or to reduce rolling resistance? Potentially it could be all of them with different settings (notice buttons were pressed at the same time as the wheel moved - just to lock/unlock the steering wheel or control something else?). So many questions.


BuffetSlayer said:
On the graphics the William's and Toro Rosso have changed colours.

Blagging my head that is!! :p
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It's not just me then!
 
The_Abyss said:
Very well-played Mercedes. Now let's see if it does indeed work. If it does then presumably that have a whole lot more strategic options on pit stops, especially if they qualify high and race high up the field.
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Better tyre operating window, less tyre wear, quicker on corners and straights. Even small gains in any of these areas will be huge. This is without considering their innovative rear suspension and updated PU.
 
CaptainRAVE said:
Better tyre operating window, less tyre wear, quicker on corners and straights. Even small gains in any of these areas will be huge. This is without considering their innovative rear suspension and updated PU.
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Indeed. Out of all of those, tyre wear is the real big advantage for me, if it delivers as much as it promises. The ability to go longer, or to go 0.5 second a lap faster for the same time, will be massive. Hamilton has been a master of these Pirelli tyres - he should take full advantage.
 
The_Abyss said:
Indeed. Out of all of those, tyre wear is the real big advantage for me, if it delivers as much as it promises. The ability to go longer, or to go 0.5 second a lap faster for the same time, will be massive. Hamilton has been a master of these Pirelli tyres - he should take full advantage.
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Exactly. Even if they are down on the straights still and during quali, having pace over a longer race stint giving them over/under cut options and the possibility of quicker compounds is huge.
 
It was already outlawed in the 2021 regulations, so this will be the only season we see it. Whether the FIA closed that loophole from existing discussions with Mercedes about the legality of this or whether they were intent on closing existing loopholes anyway is anyone's guess.

I suspect that will be enough to stop most teams from exploring development of it for this season.
 
this_is_gav said:
It was already outlawed in the 2021 regulations, so this will be the only season we see it. Whether the FIA closed that loophole from existing discussions with Mercedes about the legality of this or whether they were intent on closing existing loopholes anyway is anyone's guess.
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The FIA's aggressive approach to banning innovation is a problem for the sport. I can't think of a single good reason that this should be disallowed.
 
Because it adds nothing to the sport other than driving up costs unnecessarily.

It is great to see such innovation, but if that innovation forces everyone to spend probably 10s of millions to develop such a feature themselves then it's hard to argue against it being banned.

If it was only a minor thing which was relatively cheap to install, then fair enough, but at the moment they're, quite rightly, trying to stop teams from spending a half billion dollars per year.
 
this_is_gav said:
Without rear-facing camera we don't even know the extent of what it does yet. Does it also affect the rear wheels?
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Merc seem to be saying that it is part of the steering rather than suspension. So I don't think it will affect the rear wheels too else surely it would contravene;

10.4.1 Any steering system which permits the re-alignment of more than two wheels is not permitted.

But yeah, still lots to learn about it and precisely what it does and the benefits it offers.

Mr Jack said:
The FIA's aggressive approach to banning innovation is a problem for the sport. I can't think of a single good reason that this should be disallowed.
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Yup, there's been numerous innovations that get banned for seemingly arbitrary reasons. Though with the major rule change for next year I think it’s less of an issue than banning innovation during statis rules.
 
this_is_gav said:
Because it adds nothing to the sport other than driving up costs unnecessarily.

It is great to see such innovation, but if that innovation forces everyone to spend probably 10s of millions to develop such a feature themselves then it's hard to argue against it being banned.
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If you're going to dismiss a system that helps manage tyre lifetimes and requires driver skill to do so as adding "nothing to the sport", I'm really not sure what kind of innovation you think should be allowed. However much it costs other teams to add, it should be less than it cost Mercedes to develop. That's the nature of innovation.
 
Mr Jack said:
If you're going to dismiss a system that helps manage tyre lifetimes and requires driver skill to do so as adding "nothing to the sport", I'm really not sure what kind of innovation you think should be allowed. However much it costs other teams to add, it should be less than it cost Mercedes to develop. That's the nature of innovation.
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It hardly challenges the drivers! It's not like it makes the car hard to drive on the limit or anything. Like I say, it's not relevant to road use and it doesn't make the sport any more enjoyable to watch.

It's an utterly brilliant technical innovation that's made testing far more interesting from a technical stand point, but there's zero benefit to keeping it in the sport long term.

Things like CVT gearboxes had a long term relevance and are used everyday now outside of the sport, so that's an example of a technical innovation which could and maybe should have had a long-term future, but things like fan cars, active suspension, F-ducts or exhaust blown diffusers don't. As brilliant as they were and relatively simple in the F-ducts case, in my opinion it was right that were ultimately banned as they added nothing other than spreading the field out.
 
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