Formula 1

F1 News: FIA Investigating Ferrari After Potential Rule Break Before Miami Grand Prix

After the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Ferrari and four other lucky teams had the opportunity to test out Pirelli’s new 2023 tyres over a couple of day’s testing. But now, Ferrari has been called into question as to whether or not they followed regulations following the testing.

Ferrari ran with two different floors during the testing with current leader Charles Leclerc driving on the Wednesday morning, and teammate Carlos Sainz the following afternoon, both with different designs. The regulations that surround the tyre testing are, like most rules in F1, rather strict. So with Sainz running a potentially different floor, this could result in some form of punishment for the team.

The rules read:

“Cars at these tests must only use components of a specification that have been used in at least one (1) race or TCC [testing of current cars] during the current Championship year. These cars must fully comply with the provisions of the Technical Regulations.

“No test parts, component changes or set-up changes will be permitted which give any sort of information to the Competitor that is unrelated to the tyre test.

“Mechanical set-up changes, driver control changes and component changes are permitted if agreed in advance with the tyre supplier that they are necessary for the correct evaluation of the tyres or to complete the tyre test.”

According to photos (which we can’t use due to copyright), Leclerc’s floor has been reported to be the same floor he ran at the Bahrain Grand Prix. It’s currently undecided as to which floor Sainz was running and Ferrari has declined to give away any information while assuring the FIA that they have fully complied with the regulations surrounding the event.

Two teams, including McLaren, have complained about the change, and the FIA are now looking into this. If they were running a different floor, it’s likely that they’re trying to further limit the porpoising that a lot of teams are struggling with this season.

More to come as we know it.

Alex Harrington

Alex started racing at a young age so certainly knows his way around a car and a track. He can just about put a sentence together too, which helps. He has a great interest in the latest models, but would throw all of his money at a rusty old French classic and a 300ZX. Contact: [email protected]

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