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FIA Technical Regulations

Chassis:

Every Formula One team's chassis must adhere to a strict set of regulations regarding its dimensions.

The overall width of the car, including complete wheels, must not exceed 180 cm with the steered wheels in the straight ahead position. Overall width will be measured when the car is fitted with tyres inflated to 1.4 bar.

The car's front end must not be more than 120 cm from the centre of the front wheel hub, while the rear of the car may not end further than 50 cm behind the centre of the rear wheel hub. No part of the bodywork may be more than 95 cm above the reference plane.

The weight of the car must not be less than 605 kg during each qualifying practice session and no less than 600 kg at all other times during the event. Ballast can be used provided it is secured in such a way that tools are required for its removal. It must be possible to fix seals if deemed necessary by the FIA technical delegate.

Undertray:

The undertray of the car must be absolutely flat from between the rear of the front wheels to the rear axis. This regulation was introduced to cut the car's cornering speeds and prevent a return of the ground-effect' or wing' cars of the late 1970s and early 80s. These cars had a lower panel shaped like the profile of a reversed wing of an aeroplane, producing additional downforce.

To improve this effect, the side pods of the cars were extended down to touch the track surface, thus creating a vortex that virtually sucked the car down on to the track.

Today, designers use another area to add to the downforce generated by the wings, the diffuser. Sitting beneath the engine and behind the rear wheels, it channels the airflow below the lower panel to the rear of the car.

Tyres:

During a Grand Prix weekend no driver may use more than forty dry-weather tyres and twenty eight wet-weather tyres. From the forty dry-weather tyres each driver will be allocated twelve (six front and six rear) for use on the first day of practice, these tyres may not be used at any other time during the event. No more than eight (four front and four rear) of the twelve tyres allocated for the first day of practice may be of one specification. From the 2004 season onwards, teams must make their choice of which compounds available they will use for the remainder of the weekend as early as Saturday, 09.00 am.

Each front dry-weather tyre, when new, must incorporate four grooves which are arranged symmetrically about the centre of the tyre tread, at least 14 mm wide at the contact surface and which taper uniformly to a minimum of 10mm at the lower surface, at least 2.5 mm deep across the whole lower surface and 50mm (+/- 1 mm) between centres. Furthermore, the tread width of the front tyres must not exceed 270 mm. The measurements above will be taken when the tyre is fitted to a wheel and inflated to 1.4 bar.

A wet-weather tyre is one which has been designed for use on a wet or damp track. All wet-weather tyres must, when new, have a contact area which does not exceed 280 cm when fitted to the front of the car and 440 cm when fitted to the rear. Contact areas will be measured over any square section of the tyre which is normal to and symmetrical about the tyre centre line and which measures 200 mm x 200 mm when fitted to the front of the car and 250 mm x 250 mm when fitted to the rear. For the purposes of establishing conformity, only void areas which are greater than 2.5 mm in depth will be considered. Prior to use at an Event, each tyre manufacturer must provide the technical delegate with a full scale drawing of each type of wet-weather tyre intended for use. With the exception of race day, wet-weather tyres may only be used after the track has been declared wet by the race director and, during the remainder of the relevant session, the choice of tyres is free.

Engine:

Only 4-stroke engines with reciprocating pistons are permitted. Engine capacity must not exceed 3000 cc. Supercharging is forbidden. All engines must have ten cylinders and the normal section of each cylinder must be circular. Engines may have no more than five valves per cylinder.

The V10 configuration offers the best performance graph, in other words, the best power output throughout its rev range. The typical power output of a state-of-the-art F1 engine will be around 900 bhp, revving to 19,000 rpm.

In 2004, for the very first time in F1 history, an engine must last the whole weekend. Before the new regulation, engines were usually exchanged before the second qualifying session. This new cost cutting measure may now have consequences regarding a car's grid position. If an engine has to be changed during the course of a weekend, the car will have to start the race ten places behind its qualifying position.

Gearbox:

All teams use semi-automatic gearboxes, so the drivers needn't operate a clutch pedal before changing gear. Instead, drivers flick paddles mounted behind the steering wheel, with the paddle on one side being used for changing up and the paddle on the other side being used for changing down.

Nevertheless, most drivers rely completely on automatic shifting, while some let the computer do the up shifting before shifting down manually. The message triggered by operating the paddle is signalled to the gearbox electronically, enabling gear changes to take just 0.02 seconds, considerably faster than through a conventional gear lever.

State-of-the-art F1 cars are usually equipped with the maximum allowed seven gears, while four gears are the minimum permissible by the regulations. A further regulation determines that all cars must be equipped with a reverse gear, which may not be used in the pit lane while it is open.

Suspension:

Formula One cars must be fitted with spring suspension. Only the wheels and their reaction to the track surface may cause the suspension and all its components to travel. Computer-operated active suspension is banned.

To protect the driver's legs, no part of the suspension may intrude too much into the cockpit. The FIA has developed a test to make sure that all cars adhere to this regulation.

Brakes:

For many years, brake discs have been a standard specification. Nevertheless, there was a major change in the early 1990s with the introduction of carbon fibre brakes.

These brakes were developed because of their ability to resist far higher temperatures. The steel discs and pads they replaced. Furthermore, carbon fibre discs and pads are considerably lighter and are far less prone to fade', while the callipers are made from alloy.

Formula One cars must be equipped with a dual-circuit brake system, operated by one pedal. This ensures a driver has the chance of decelerating even in the event of a brake circuit failure. One circuit operates on the front wheels, the other operates the rear wheels.

Regulations ban the use of brake support systems such as anti lock system (ABS) or a dynamic brake force distribution that may distribute a certain amount of brake power to each wheel to stabilise the car. A driver may, however, change the break balance from front to rear axle and vice versa.

Fuel:

F1 teams must use unleaded fuel of a similar chemical mixture to the petrol available at petrol stations. The use of additives is strictly limited, but the additives allowed offer the opportunity of minor increase in performance.

Teams must supply the FIA with a ten litre sample of fuel at the start of the season. After this sample has been analysed, a fuel "fingerprint" is established and that team's fuel must conform to this fingerprint' whenever spot checks are carried out throughout the year. Even minor discrepancies will lead to disqualification.

Safety:

Modern F1 drivers rely on the protection of a survival cell'. This cell is a kind of a capsule, extending from 30 cm in front of the drivers' feet to a point behind the fuel tank, sitting behind the cockpit.

Access is via the cockpit opening, which is now larger than previous F1 cars to make driver extraction easier in the event of an accident. Thanks to this change, drivers can now be rescued whilst still strapped to their seat. High cockpit sides protect the driver's head from side impact, with the roll bar protecting the driver in the unlikely event of a somersault.

At the beginning of each season and each time a driver has been injured, the FIA tests if a driver is able to climb from his car within five seconds. If he is unable to do so, he isn't allowed to drive.

One of the worst fears of any driver is to be enveloped by fire after an accident. Although the risk of such a fire has been seriously decreased by the introduction of flexible tanks in F1, the regulations stipulate that all drivers must protect themselves against this threat by wearing FIA-approved fireproof clothing. This includes fireproof underwear, a balaclava, overalls, gloves and boots. They all made from Nomex, a registered material that is able to resist even the strongest flames for a period of 12 seconds.

Furthermore, the FIA regularly checks that drivers' crash helmets adhere to strict safety regulations. One of these regulations requests that each helmet must be equipped with an emergency air supply in case of a fire accident.

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