Tech F1i Monza - Haas' Italian job fails the rules

SCRUTINEERING: THE MANUAL

The battle between Renault and Haas is an opportunity to look at the way in which scrutineering is carried out by the FIA. This is an ongoing process, spread throughout the season (as explained on the F1Technical forum). It is indeed impossible to inspect, at each race, the conformity of all the parts on the twenty cars entered.

In practice, the FIA scrutineers, under the direction of the technical delegate Jo Bauer, therefore examine, at each event, a specific number of elements on some selected single-seaters, and thus spread out the verification of the complete cars of all the teams over the entire season. All F1 cars are verified, even though the top cars are looked at with more attention.

Then, a new more thorough verification is done before and after the qualifying session. In Monza, the FIA checked the following points on different cars: the flexibility of the rear wings, the composition of the fuel, the gear ratios, the thickness of the brake discs, the weight of the car (and its distribution ), the height and design of the wings, the height of the diffuser, the dimensions of the car, the “legality boxes” (the areas of the chassis onto which the bodywork elements can be placed), the torque sensors, the plenum temperature, oil consumption, fuel flow, energy store operation, maximum MGU-K rotation speed, etc. (The full list of FIA and steward reports, very interesting, is available on the FIA website).

After the race, new checks are carried out on a selection of cars. Other verifications, more detailed, can be conducted, particularly following a complaint filed by a competitor, like Renault in this case.