FIA releases directive without defining anything

Announcement from the FIA

Following round eight of this year's FIA Formula One World Championship, during which the phenomenon of aerodynamic oscillations (pitching) of the new generation of Formula One cars and the effect of this during and after the race on the drivers' fitness was again visible.As the sport's governing body, the FIA has decided that, in the interests of safety, it is necessary to intervene to require teams to make the necessary adjustments to reduce or eliminate this phenomenon.

A Technical Directive has been issued to guide the teams on the measures that the FIA intends to take to address the problem. It includes:

1. more thorough scrutiny of the floorboard, both in terms of design and observed wear2
. The definition of a metric based on the vertical acceleration of the car, which will give a quantitative limit to the acceptable level of vertical oscillations. The exact mathematical formula for this metric is still being analyzed by the FIA, and Formula One teams have been invited to contribute to this process.

In addition to these short-term measures, the FIA will convene a technical meeting with the teams to define measures to reduce the propensity of cars to exhibit such phenomena in the medium term.

The FIA decided to intervene after consulting with its doctors in the interests of driver safety. In a sport where competitors routinely drive at speeds of more than 300 km/h, it is considered that a driver's entire concentration needs to be on that task and that excessive fatigue or pain experienced by a driver can have significant consequences if it results in a loss of concentration. In addition, the FIA has concerns regarding the immediate physical impact on the health of the drivers, several of whom have reported back pain following recent events.