Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFIA

F1 cars to be louder in 2016

The FIA has moved to make Formula One cars louder via a technical regulation tweak.

Since the switch from V8 engines to V6 turbo power units at the start of the 2014 season, opinion has been split on the sound of the current generation of cars and efforts made to try and increase the volume. Following a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) in Paris on Wednesday, a change to the technical regulations has been approved in order to make the cars louder.

The plan is to introduce a separate exhaust wastegate tailpipe, as explained by the FIA:

"For 2016, all cars must have a separate exhaust wastegate tailpipe through which all and only wastegate exhaust gases must pass. This measure has been undertaken to increase the noise of the cars and will not have any significant effect on power or emissions."

Other regulation changes made by the FIA include changes to start procedures when a driver causes the original race start to be aborted. Even if the driver can then complete the next formation lap to start the race - for example as when Felipe Massa was short of his grid slot in Hungary - from now on they will have to start from the pit lane.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.