FIA trusts teams will report loopholes in 2021 regs

The FIA is hoping F1 teams will report to the governing body any loopholes they may identify in the sport's 2021 technical regulations and forgo any temptations to exploit potential technicalities.

F1's new rulebook will equate to a significant technical makeover for designers with an emphasis on ground-effect downforce.

During the regulation elaboration process, F1's engineering group led by chef technical officer Pat Symonds, simulated possible aerodynamic design approaches destined to manipulate the wake of a car by marginally avoiding restrictions, or 'breaking the rules'.

The process helped F1's chiefs understand how to close potential loopholes in the rules and tighten up the regulations as much as possible.

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But if cracks subsist, the FIA is relying on teams to come forward during their due diligence or development period and divulge their own findings rather than exploit them with a risk down the road that the loophole is then closed.

"We did identify two or three areas that were not well written or well controlled and we wrote better rules in the last few months," the FIA's head of single seater technical matters Nikolas Tombazis told Motorsport.com.

"I don't know what that could turn out to be, and hopefully we've covered most of the ground. I'm not expecting teams to do it out of a charitable cause.

"The reason teams, depending on their attitude or whether they are risk-prone or not, will do that is because they have found some loophole, they know it is against the intention of the rule, and we have up until a certain point in time to adjust the rules and make corrections.

"They don't want to necessarily spend three months on something and have the carpet pulled under their feet and lose three months.

"So sometimes some teams discover [something] and before they start spending resource there, they want to be sure that it won't be somehow banned or whatever."

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