Ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola, the FIA issued several new technical directives regulating the Formula 1 field.
PlanetF1.com can confirm that the technical directives were revealed during the week of Imola and are related to tyre treatment and the design of wheel bodywork and skids.
FIA introduces new technical directives before Imola
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
It has been confirmed that the FIA, the organizing body in charge of setting rules and regulation for the Formula 1 World Championship, introduced multiple technical directives in the build-up to the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola.
The TDs at Imola are believed to have had no impact on the finishing order of the race.
Technical directives, or TDs, are effectively instructions designed to clarify rules in the FIA’s hefty technical regulations.
Because F1 is a sport where milliseconds matter, every team is looking for unique interpretations of what can be very prescriptive rules. TDs are introduced in order to address loopholes or otherwise ambiguous regulations.
More on the FIA’s recent technical directives:
👉 Explained: The FIA clampdown on F1’s ‘flexible wings’ saga
👉 Explained: Why the FIA has introduced even more flexi-wing directives
Explicit details about these Imola week technical directives are not available.
However, we can look to recent Formula 1 technical directives in order to better understand how they have been implemented.
The biggest TD this season has been TD018, which reduces the permitted level of flexibility across the front wing. This TD will come into effect in Barcelona, two weeks from now, after several months of investigation regarding the flexi-wings used by teams.
McLaren’s wing has been under particular scrutiny, but team principal Andrea Stella told Sky Sports News that the revised front wing TD has not been as destabilizing as some may expect.
““No headache at all,” he said of the TD at the start of the season.
“We don’t have to make many adjustments at all for the start of the season.”
But, he continued, “there will be a small adjustment required from race nine.
“I know it’s become a big talking point, but in terms of what makes us busy and what gives us headaches, actually there are completely different topics which have much more to do with gaining those tenths of a second, that I might have made look simple.
“I don’t want to look disrespectful to all the men and women at McLaren who work so hard and competently to actually make a faster car off what was already a very fast car in 2024.”
More recently, in Miami, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur shared his own perspective.
“For sure everybody will have a new front wing in Barcelona, by definition and by regulation. I think it will be perhaps a reset of the performance of everybody,” he told media, including PlanetF1.com.
Over at Red Bull, team boss Christian Horner noted that the TD will “for sure” have an effect.
“Now how much it affects your competitors’ [performance] versus your own, it’s difficult to predict,” Horner said.
“But for sure it’s a significant change. It’s not just a tweak. So it will affect all of the cars, it’s just to what quantum.”
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