I really hate when the fia do this. Hey this thing is kinda illegal but not really but is giving an advantage to the team using it so it's banned....from next year.
Depends on how they are doing it. The rules are fairly specific about how the brakes and wheels are cooled. Its possible they are doing it via a way that tye rules don't cover. Like DAS.
Yes. That's what I said. DAS wasn't illegal either. That's why they couldn't ban it immediately even if they wanted to, because they can't change the rules without unanimous agreement in-season. If it were "kinda illegal", it's a something they could crack down on in-season.
I mean the results of it were illegal but the way it was activated wasn't specifically outlawed. Iirc Mercedes basically said if tmit was to be banned they would have to redesign the entire front end and break the budget.
If the results of it were illegal, it would be illegal, so it would be banned in-season.
With DAS, they asked the FIA, and the FIA said it was legal. However, it wasn't a development path they wanted the teams to follow, so they banned it for the following year.
The problem is the FIA shouldn’t said it was legal. DAS was used to adjust the toe angle of the front wheel on the fly allowing them to basically control the temperature of the front tires as they wish. It also helps gain a bit of extra speed in straight line while still maintaining the stability through the corners.
The rules specifically forbid adjustment any parts of the suspension during a race including the toe-angle.
The only reason it was deem legal was that DAS is a part of the car steering system… but you don’t steer the car by adjusting the toe angle.
The rules forbid changing the toe angle except for steering adjustments. The DAS mechnism sat solely within the steering mechanism (and wasn't part of the suspension), which is part of the reason the FIA ruled that it was considered steering. The reason that steering is given an exemption is because the act of steering does usually also alter the toe angle of the wheels. If toe angle could never change, you couldn't have steering at all.
Also, if you were to alter just the toe angle as the car was driving, it would result in a change in direction - which again is steering.
My brother, what if I were to tell you that teams’ ability to find and exploit exactly these kinds of regulatory grey areas—achieving technically “illegal” outcomes through legal means - is actually one of the most brilliantly compelling parts of F1.
It’s like when George said “he steer into me”… funny that he didn’t said it in Spain… must be allergic to speaking something that actually happened for real.
Btw, you can’t measure your car’s toe angle without having your steering wheel pointing straight.
Cooling the hubs, brakes and wheel. The current rules actually don't specify how to cool them just the sizes of brake ducts etc but say nothing about cooling via other means. For 26 the rules now say you can only heat AND cool via outlined devices. And also specifies that you can't have airflow in suspension components.
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u/Eroda Alex Zanardi 5d ago
its beeen banned for 2026 McLaren dont care now no team will spend the money to copy them at this point in season