F1 Technical Memo - Design Changes

F1 Technical Memo - Design Changes
Here, as has been discussed in many places in the past few weeks and months, are the FIA's proposed technical and sporting regulations changes for the coming Formula 1 seasons.

Two of the changes involve potentially major design alterations:

first, the elimination of materials likely to leave sharp shards on the circuit in the event of an accident;

and second, a reduction in the weight limit sufficient to eliminate ballast (at least on most of the cars) in order to reduce the energy to be dissipated if control of a car is lost. This would be combined, if necessary, with a change in relative wheel widths front to rear...

The first of these would seem to eliminate the extensive use of composite (carbon or graphite) materials in the cars' construction. We've heard comments that suspensions might be encased in Kevlar or similar materials to keep the carbon composites from shattering and leaving sharp pieces on the track. The other one is even more involved, in reducing the all-up weights of the cars to eliminate ballast. How this new weight limit would be determined is not stated, but implicit in the wording is that the weights of the smaller teams' cars would be used as the basis as they have fewer resources to create ultralight structures.

Combined with the minimum weight increase would be a wheel width change. T