Why F1 has introduced new secret car checks in 2021

after the bahrain grand prix valtteri bottas's mercedes became the first car to be randomly selected for the faa's newly introduced deeper technical checks this new procedure was established by the issuing of a technical directive on march the 20th for what the fia described as deeper disassembly conformity checks and checks of software and systems while such procedures are not unusual in motorsports series it is new to f1 and has been introduced to augment the fia's existing processes previously the fia selecting a specific car or cars for detailed inspection would indicate suspicions of wrongdoing but this is a random choice bottas's car was found to be in compliance with the regulations if you haven't already done so do subscribe to the race to ensure you don't miss any of our f1 coverage and to know as soon as there's something new to watch chime the notifications bell [Music] formula one has always been rife with rumour and suspicion but the complexity of cars today means significant resources are required to conduct checks to this level of detail this is why the fia has formalised the process as well as ensuring it has both the time and the personnel available to execute it while post-race checks are carried out on every car to ensure legality adding this new layer of scrutiny will make the fia's monitoring of legality even more rigorous it augments rather than replaces the established monitoring of legality which also includes detailed performance monitoring to detect any potential irregularities for example every car is weighed after the race although the last car found to be underweight and disqualified was robert kobits as bmw sauber for his f1 debut in the 2006 hungarian grand prix the fia also takes a closer look at various details that can vary from race to race leading to cases such as sauber in the 2011 australian grand prix when sergio perez and kumari kobayashi were excluded from 7th and 8th place for an illegal rear wing shape as fia head of single-seater technical matters nicholas tombasis explained introducing this extra level of checks for one car per event is good practice previously the foa relied either on pre-existing suspicions whistleblowers or protests by rival teams to flag potential wrongdoing hence a random check which could hit any team after the race is the best way to tackle this while ideally the fa will be able to subject every car to this level of scrutiny it is not practical given the available time and personnel the draw for the car selected to be checked is random as tombasis explained in bahrain the car number was drawn out of a hat after the race in bahrain the decision was made to make the random selection from among the top 10 finishers but this will vary throughout the year as the fia is already able to perform extra checks on cars it has suspicions about there's no reason for it to make this selection non-random teams had been warned of the possibility they might be selected for consecutive races given it is a genuine random choice should a team evade the random selection for an extended period say 15 races the fia might decide to check their car anyway there's also the possibility the process could be extended to a second car in the future the random selection takes place at the conclusion of the race the cars then fast track through the usual post-race checks and taken to the team in questions garage there it will remain under the fia's care while the inspection process is completed initially two or three fia personnel will begin the inspection process with that number doubling once other members of the technical department become available after completing post race checks on other cars given the specialized nature of the cars and the tools required personnel from the f1 team whose car is selected will perform the work under the direction of the fia technical department which is increased in size by three people this year there's no set time limit for the inspection although the fia is conscious of the need not to disrupt the team's schedule for packing up in order to meet freight schedules the fia now requests logistics information from each team so it knows what is reasonable in terms of the time scale a common sense approach as tombassis called it in the case of bottas mercedes the bulletin giving the car the all clear was issued at 10 38 three hours after the chequered flag as stripping down the entire car is a lengthy process the fia has come up with 20 different areas that can be checked according to tombasis two or three of these aspects will be focused on each time although this could be increased in the future the fia decided before the race which aspects of the car selected after the bahrain grand prix would be scrutinized although teams were not aware in advance the front and rear inboard suspension components all attached sensors their loom routing and connection to the standard ecu and other units were all checked and cleared on bottus's mercedes the areas of the cars being inspected will fall outside of the regular checks on aspects such as front wing flexibility the inspection will be thorough will not necessarily be stripped down to the last nut and bolt as part of the process teams will have to make available any required support of their headquarters for example if the cad drawings of certain components need to be accessed the team in question will also have to confirm if its other car is running in the same specification in the areas being checked this means if there are any irregularities then any case that is presented to the stewards could apply to both cars tombassis describes this as a stronger deterrent the team's other car can also be inspected if required while the intention is for the full inspection to be done on-site if there are parts that need to be disassembled that cannot be done at the track they will be checked outside of the events much of the car is accessible by personnel at the track but some components are sealed units that there would usually be no need to access at the circuit if specialized tools and personnel are required this can be done elsewhere under the fia supervision with the components in question sealed in a container for later inspection [Music] given the cost cap has been introduced this year as well as regulations preventing so-called copycat cars the extra scrutiny could also assist in policing these while the fia stresses that the rule changes are not the reason for introducing these new checks which would have been adopted regardless it does allow for the cross-checking of components from the cost cap inventory that teams must declare the extra scrutiny should also mean even greater familiarity with the cars which could help the fi to detect any cases of copying that are prevented under the new regulations which you can find out more about in another video we made about the rules preventing copycat cars if an irregularity is discovered technical delegate joe bauer will submit a report to the stewards which could trigger an official investigation if the stewards then find the car to be illegal then the appropriate penalty will be issued as part of this process any relevant evidence can be impounded and sealed to facilitate the investigation in bahrain bottas's mercedes was found to be legal but these technical checks have now made the fi's monitoring of legality more rigorous let us know in the comments below if you think the fia is doing enough to monitor the legality of cars and if you enjoyed learning more about this new procedure don't forget to like and subscribe you

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Keywords: F1, formula 1, formula one, f1 2021, f1 rules, f1 cheating, f1 technical, scrutineering, f1 illegal, FIA, F1 news, Mercedes, Valtteri Bottas, stewards, F1 analysis, F1 insight, F1 explained, F1 explainer, The Race, the-race.com, @wearetherace, Edd Straw

Id: QVw8CDwHugc

Length: 8min 14sec (494 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 31 2021