Sauber C29 – Inboard mirrors since Spain

since Spain

Outboard mirrors ban rule  forced Sauber also to revert its mirrors close to the cockpit zone since Spain  .

pre-Spain

Red Bull RB6 – Inboard mirrors since Spain

  pre- Spain

  

     Red Bull was one of the many 2010  teams  to revert to inboard mirrors since Spain due to FIA mirror outboard ban regulation .

 

  since Spain

Ferrari’s innovative front wheel rims

   F10  front wheel rims

      Wheel rim Carbon fairings, which were extensively used during last years were banned since 2010 season in an attempt by FIA to make pit stops safer  . So in theory all teams had to reverse back to simple rims but Ferrari instead moved a step forward and merged the fairing idea into the rim producing an interesting crown wheel rim design . The double concentric rings of different diameter  may be attached on  the wheel but  are considered to be part of the rim ,  so they are made of the same homogeneous metallic material to the wheel according to FIA regulation article 12.3.

      Rival teams couldn’t copy the design due to new 2010 homologated rules ( rims , fuel cell and crash structure are homologated to low down the cost )   as they already run simple rims at the first 2010 race at Bahrain and Ferrari cleverly kept it secret till the start of the 2010 season.

    Ferrari’s innovative rim design extracts hot air coming from brake components in such a way that effects less the outer cooler airflow towards  the rear  , decreasing vortexes and improving aero performance of the car . Rival teams had to deal wheel fairing ban by developing sophisticated front wing endplates  to clean airflow around  front wheels profile .

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Availlable tyre sets for each driver per racing weekend

Each driver per racing weekend can use :

11  sets of dry tyres  : six of the harder ‘prime’ compound and five of the softer ‘option’ compound .

4   sets of intermediate tyres

3   sets of wet tyres

Bridgestone tyre specifications

 

type of tyre	Max complete wheel diameter
Dry	660 mm
Intermediate	670 mm
Wet	670 mm

 

type of tyre	Max complete wheel width		Min complete wheel width
	Front tyre	Rear tyre	Front tyre	Rear tyre
Dry	355 mm	380 mm	305 mm	365 mm
Intermediate	355 mm	380 mm	305 mm	365 mm
Wet	355 mm	380 mm	305 mm	365 mm

 

type of tyre	Groove depth
	Front tyre	Rear tyre
Intermediate	Over 2.5 mm	Over 2.5 mm
Wet	Over 5 mm	Over 5 mm

 

type of tyre	Max contact area
	Front tyre	Rear tyre
Intermediate	280 cm2	440 cm2
Wet	240 cm2	375 cm2

 

FIA  regulations on tyres

12.6 Specification of tyres :

12.6.1 An intermediate tyre is one which has been designed for use on a wet or damp track.

All intermediate tyres must, when new, have a contact area which does not exceed 280cm² when fitted to the front of the car and 440cm² when fitted to the rear. Contact areas will be measured over any square section of the tyre which is normal to and symmetrical about the tyre centre line and which measures 200mm x 200mm when fitted to the front of the car and 250mm x 250mm when fitted to the rear. For the purposes of establishing conformity, void areas which are less than 2.5mm in depth will be deemed to be contact areas.

12.6.2 A wet-weather tyre is one which has been designed for use on a wet track.

All wet-weather tyres must, when new, have a contact area which does not exceed 240cm² when fitted to the front of the car and 375cm² when fitted to the rear. Contact areas will be measured over any square section of the tyre which is normal to and symmetrical about the tyre centre line and which measures 200mm x 200mm when fitted to the front of the car and 250mm x 250mm when fitted to the rear. For the purposes of establishing conformity, void areas which are less than 5.0mm in depth will be deemed to be contact areas.

12.6.3 Tyre specifications will be determined by the FIA no later than 1 September of the previous season. Once determined in this way, the specification of the tyres will not be changed during the Championship season without the agreement of all competing teams.

12.7 Tyre Gases :

Tyres may only be inflated with air or nitrogen.

 source : Bridgestone  , FIA

HRT F110 – Inboard mirrors since Spain

  pre- Spain

    HRT was another team to reposition its rearview mirrors inboard since Spain to comply with the new FIA mirror outboard ban regulation .

 Spain

MP4/25 – diffuser revision at Melbourne due to FIA request

 

 

       Following a rule ( article 3.12.7. ) clarification from FIA stewards at Bahrain  Mc Laren  at Melbourne had to decrease the motor access hole ( apart from the front wing’s sharp endplates  ) , located at the central zone    .

 

FIA REGULATIONS  ABOUT MOTOR ACCESS HOLE

article 3.12.7

No bodywork which is visible from beneath the car and which lies between the rear wheel centre line and a point 350mm rearward of it may be more than 175mm above the reference plane. Any intersection of the surfaces in this area with a lateral or longitudinal vertical plane should form one continuous line which is visible from beneath the car. A single break in the surface is permitted solely to allow the minimum required access for the device referred to in Article 5.15.

         In plain words Mc Laren run a larger than needed hole to access the engine starter  to make its diffuser act partially as a triple decked instead of two-decked , gaining extra downforce .

MP4/25 – Front wing revision at Melbourne due to FIA request

  Melbourne

Mc Laren was forced by FIA to revise the front wing endplates at Australia for safety reasons as their edges ( in yellow color ) were found to be too sharp .

   Sakhir

FW32 – inboard mirrors at Spain

       The mirrors were repositioned inboard because of the  outboard mirror ban taking place from Spain

VJM03 inboard mirrors at China

                 One race before the official ban of the outboard mirrors , Force India repositioned the car mirrors inboards having them now mounted on the tooth edged cockpit fins .The outboard mirrors , a novelty first introduced in 2006 by Ferrari ( 248 F1) , are banned from FIA because they offer poor rear visibility .

Regulation changes for 2010

Refuelling
The biggest change for the 2010 season is the banning of refuelling during races for the first time since 1993. Pit stops will not become a thing of the past, however, as drivers still have to use both dry-weather tyre compounds during a Grand Prix. Of course, those stops will now be much quicker, quite possibly under four seconds.

The change requires cars to possess a much larger fuel tank – up from around 80 litres to something nearer 250 – and has a major effect on race strategy, with drivers having to pay more attention to tyre and brake conservation. To accommodate the bigger tank, the cars are likely to feature wider rear bodywork and a longer wheelbase. As a result, the weight distribution will be quite different to that of a 2009 car. 

Points system
In place of the previous structure, which saw the top eight drivers scoring 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point respectively, from 2010 the top ten finishers in a Grand Prix score points. The change has been introduced as a result of the expanded grid of 13 teams. Under the new system, the race winner takes 25 points, with 20 and 15 being awarded for second and third places respectively. The next seven finishers will score 10, 8, 6, 5, 3, 2 and 1 point respectively. 

Weight
The minimum weight of the car has been raised from 605kg to 620kg. The initial thinking behind this was to offset the disadvantage faced by taller, heavier drivers in KERS-equipped cars (the additional weight of the KERS system meant they were left with less flexibility in terms of weight distribution than their lighter rivals). By mutual agreement, however, teams are now not expected to run KERS in 2010. 

Narrower front tyres
When slick tyres returned to Formula One racing in 2009, the tyre size remained unchanged. In terms of contact area, this meant that the fronts gained proportionally more grip than the rears. This has been addressed for 2010, with front tyre width reduced from 270mm to 245mm, thus helping to bring back a better grip balance. Also, the ban on refuelling means cars will be around 100kg heavier at the start of a race than in 2009, so Bridgestone will use slightly harder tyre compounds to compensate.
 
No wheel fairings
Teams are no longer allowed to use the wheel rim covers that became so commonplace in 2009. Their removal means one less thing to go wrong when pit crews are trying to change of set of tyres in less than four seconds, and could also aid overtaking by making the airflow immediately behind cars less turbulent.
 
More teams
Thirteen teams – 26 cars – will feature on the grid in 2010. This means a slight alteration to the knockout qualifying session, which will now see eight drivers (as opposed to five) eliminated in Q1 and Q2, leaving ten to fight it out for pole in Q3. The ban on refuelling means that cars will qualify on low fuel in all three phases of the session.
 
Testing
If a team declares that one of their current race drivers is to be substituted by a driver who has not participated in an F1 race in the two previous calendar years, one day of track testing will now be permitted, on an approved circuit not being used for a Grand Prix in the current season. This is to avoid scenarios such as that seen in 2009 when Jaime Alguersuari made his Formula One debut with Toro Rosso having only previously driven an F1 car in straight-line testing.

In another minor change, teams will be allowed six rather than eight days of straight-line aero testing per season. They will also have the option of substituting any of these days for four hours of wind tunnel testing with a full-scale (rather than the normal 60 percent-scale) model.
 

   

   

source : http://www.williamsf1.com/