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Originally Posted by Richard Casto
Given that Mercedes seems to have unlocked some performance, I can't help but to think this takes some wind out of the sails of the recently floated significant technical regulation changes. All to be pushed through via the "safety" catch all.
I haven't followed this heavily, but I believe they were looking to raise the floor edges by 25mm, adjust the underfloor diffuser throat dimensions, new/additional (more rigorous) measurement/process to detect floor deflection as well as the quantifying and setting a safe limit for impact of repetitive chassis oscillation on the drivers.
I can get behind the oscillation limits and the tougher measurement to stop "flexible floors", but the rest really seems to be focused on helping one team become more competitive (Mercedes?) as it would likely invalidate optimizations and R&D from Red Bull and Ferrari. I think teams such as Red Bull have been advocating for less changes. And an argument has been made that it seems teams are getting a handle on workable solutions within the current regulations.
Would this past weekend (Mercedes 1-2 on podium) indicate a trend that knee jerk dimensional changes should NOT be made? Protecting the drivers (oscillation measurement) is the only "safety" issue, enforce intent of the rules (more rigorous measurement methods), but lets hold off on taking away performance from the underbody wing just because some teams haven't figure out an optimal solution yet. Let the engineers figure this out. Isn't that the purpose of having a constructors championship?
Richard
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Yes, why do anything on top of the already proposed vertical movement metric? Like you say, let the engineers figure that one out if the core safety problem is fixed by the metric? It did smell like trying to help out a team that was struggling earlier in the season (especially after the second stay saga). Feels a bit like the bone RB was thrown with the rear end changes after the simplified front wing hampered them the year before. Perhaps the FIA felt it needed to return the favour after last year.
I do think some comments about the metric were unfounded. Some team managers saying there were no oscillation problems in recent grand prix. Well then you wouldn't have to fear any restriction from the metric anyway, so what's the concern?