FIA reveals reason for camera monitoring action in new technical directive

Charles Leclerc leads the field into Turn 1 at the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix.

The technical directive that will come into effect for the Belgian Grand Prix will see the FIA monitoring select front wings.

A new technical directive, TD034G, will come into effect at next week’s Belgian Grand Prix, and will see the governing body fit high-resolution 4K cameras to the front wings of several ‘selected’ F1 teams in order to monitor the amount of flexing visible.

FIA outlines decision to introduce technical directive

The directive will allow the governing body to evaluate whether or not the existing static load tests remain sufficient for the testing of front wing flex on the selected cars, with the FIA not confirming which teams will run with the cameras.

Explaining the situation in a statement to PlanetF1.com, an FIA spokesperson said: “The FIA has decided, starting from Belgium onward for an indefinite period of time, to measure the overall front wing deformation on track. The FOM forward-facing cameras are unfortunately not capable of capturing the complete front wing as a large outboard part is not covered by the angle.

“The intent will therefore be to measure across several events all front wings with a camera provided by the FIA which will be installed on the nose (in place of current camera housings) offering a sideways view. The collected data will be used to enhance the overall understanding of bodywork flexibility when defining future regulations.

“It is also reiterated that all front wings checked so far this season have passed the existing deflection tests and are deemed legal. This new technical directive is the result of a long-standing desire to better capture front wing behavior under aerodynamic load.”

With all existing front wings fully legal under the existing load tests, the purpose of the data-gathering exercise is to see whether some teams have figured out how to use secondary parameters (such as temperature or aerodynamic load) to create additional flex.

The camera positioning has been outlined by the FIA’s single-seat director Nikolas Tombazis, and will focus on “the inboard facing nominally vertical surfaces to track the translation and rotation of target dots”.

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The painted dots will be coloured in contrast to the bodywork of each car, in order to monitor the rotation of the front wing through various speeds. Teams may also be requested to supply additional dimensional information to the FIA, including parameters like front wing flap settings, in order to enable further analysis.

Technical directives are not part of the regulation rulebooks and are usually not made public. These are instructions or clarifications issued by the FIA in order to help tighten up grey areas in the rules, and can lead to rules becoming set in stone for the following year’s regulations.

On this occasion, the use of a directive is merely to help the FIA better understand what is going on with the front wings and, if the need for a change in how static load tests are conducted is identified, could allow for that process to start.

Following Friday’s data-gathering, the selected teams will be permitted to remove the additional cameras and run with cameras in their usual positions.

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