Mercedes, Red Bull Ring, 2022

Tougher floor test and revised gearbox regulations in updated 2023 F1 rules

2023 F1 season

Posted on

| Written by

The FIA has published details of the tougher floor tests Formula 1 teams are required to conform to during the 2023 season.

The sport’s governing body has also changed its restrictions on teams’ gearbox designs for next year.

Revised floor deflection tests were introduced through a technical directive at the Belgian Grand Prix in August. The change was provoked by concerns some teams had designed their floors in order to satisfy the existing load tests while allowing flexibility in other areas.

The floor deflection test defined in the 2023 rules specifies a dozen points on the floor where a load will be applied in order to ensure the movement of the floor does not exceed 8mm. The rules empower the FIA to “require load points to be moved if, in their view, the load location or the floor shape has been specifically designed to permit greater levels of outboard floor flexibility in untested regions of the floor.”

In order to accurately measure the extent of any deflection, the floors will be laser scanned when loads are applied to them.

Other changes to the 2023 rules relating to teams’ floors have previously been announced, including an increase in the height of the floor edges, which have been raised by 15mm. The under-floor diffuser throat is also being raised, as part of a package of changes intended to prevent cars ‘porpoising’ next year.

The FIA has also revised the rules restricting how teams may change their homologated gearbox designs in 2023. Previously changes were only allowed “to resolve reliability problems” or “for cost saving” reasons. From next year teams will also be allowed to alter their gearbox designs “in the case of materials, processes or proprietary parts becoming unavailable or having their use restricted for health and safety reasons.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Revised floor deflection test regulation

The revised clause (c) of article 3.15.7 of the 2023 Technical Regulations defines the test which will be applied to the outboard edge of cars floors:

The outboard edge of the Floor Bodywork Group may deflect no more than 8mm in Z at any point between XR = -1260 and XR = -350 when a distributed load of [0, 0, -600]N is applied to each side of the car.

The load will be applied simultaneously at 6 points on each side of the car, nominally at: [XR, Y] = [-480, 652.2], [-635, 686.3], [-790, 714.4], [-945, 736.7], [-1100, 753.3], and [-1255, 764.2]. A 2mm tolerance on position will be permitted for manufacturing reasons.

When viewed from above, and with the Floor Bodywork Group as fully defined in Article 3.5.6 in place, nothing other than the bodywork may be visible within 15mm of any load application point. A load application point that does not meet this requirement may be moved, in X and/or in Y, by the minimum amount necessary to comply. The FIA may require load points to be moved if, in their view, the load location or the floor shape has been specifically designed to permit greater levels of outboard floor flexibility in untested regions of the floor.

Once the load application positions are fully defined, Teams must provide a suitable means of applying the load to the upper surface of the bodywork. The load will be applied through a rod of diameter 2.3mm. Details of this arrangement are provided in the appendix to the Technical and Sporting Regulations. The contact of any load-spreader with the bodywork must lie within a cylinder of diameter 25mm, coaxial with the load application axis. If the Team’s preferred method requires through-holes, these holes must be sealed on either or both of the upper and lower surfaces at all times the car is on the circuit and during any assessment of any visibility from above around load application points.

Loads will be applied to these rods in two stages:

i. [0, 0, -50]N to each load application point to give 300N per side.
ii. [0, 0, -100]100N to each load application point to give 600N per side.

Deflection will be measured by laser scanning of the bodywork at each loading stage.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2023 F1 season

Browse all 2023 F1 season articles

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

10 comments on “Tougher floor test and revised gearbox regulations in updated 2023 F1 rules”

  1. Bad news for Red Bull and their Rolf Harris wobble board inspired floor.

    1. I remember George making the same kind of remarks before Spa and the tests showed there was none of those supposed flex on the Red Bull.
      So you think its a good idea to repeat these unsubstantiated allegations because?

      1. Coventry Climax
        8th December 2022, 20:15

        George suffers from a virus known as Wolff’s Disease: Complain about others as much and as frequently as you can. Keep it up and the FIA will at least rule in a couple of those cases, with a net outcome in your favor.
        But does it help F1 as such? I don’t think so.

      2. I remember George making the same kind of remarks before Spa and the tests showed there was none of those supposed flex on the Red Bull.

        The revised testing, post Spa, was with regard to flexing of the floor in the region of the central plank where, allegedly, a car or two had been designed with a floor that flexed but clever modification of the skid blocks ensured that the previous test could not detect the flexing because of the limitations of the test (single test point only)
        The modified test addressed that by increasing the number of test locations. Modification of the Ferrari floor at that time had nothing to do with the revised test of course. Honest, you can believe us, we’re Ferrari and never do anything dodgy…

        This test is for flexure of “… the outboard edge of cars floors”

        Central plank (new test post Spa)
        Floor edge (new test for 2023)

        For some teams that might mean a new floor design to comply, and obviously only RBR have the catering budget to cover that expense, so introducing it mid-season might have everyone else complaining as much as Hans Christian Horner.

        1. Another toxic theory . RBR did not changed the floor. They even stopped using a new floor they had designed because the old floor performed better.
          Stop inventing things.

          1. RBR did not changed the floor. They even stopped using a new floor they had designed because the old floor performed better.

            You manage to change your story in the course of two sentences. They “did not” and “even stopped using”..
            Ferrari did have to make a change, CH said they (RBR) did not, but then who believes what CH says?
            CH, did complain, vociferously, about mid-season changes and then later said they didn’t need to in order to meet the new test requirements. Although, as you point out:

            They even stopped using a new floor they had designed because the old floor performed better.

            Could that be that it performed better with regard to compliance with the mid-season testing change, because the new one flexed more than the old one?

            No invention for the past RBR multithreaded storyline, nor for the possible effects of the new testing.
            My last comment was with regard to this post 2022 season, pre-2023, change in the testing. If they’d introduced this testing change mid-season more teams might have been affected. Who knows if any of the teams had a floor in 2022 that meets this new testing regime?
            Certainly, with RBR legendary catering budget size, shifting a small fraction to a floor redesign would be no issue.

    2. Coventry Climax
      8th December 2022, 20:07

      Bad news for F1 in general. The FIA is again limiting design options, inching ever closer to spec cars.
      Everytime there’s an article here which deals with technical solutions differing between teams, it is hailed by all.
      This way, before long, that’s a thing completely of the past.
      And it’s not what F1 should be about.

  2. 600N per side is only 60kg, or 120kg overall. 260 odd lbs to our imperial friends and it’s uniformly distributed in 10kg points.

    like the rear wing tests, once the downforce load hits about 150kg, the floor will move differently, guarantee. The cars weigh 800kg or so and they’re supposed to make near enough as much downforce as they weigh so it’s not going to be just 1200N from the floor.

    Another useless test

    1. I see your point, but you can not simply compare total downforce of a car to point loads. Don’t get me wrong, I agree that these types of tests are flawed. But downforce is the result of air pressure acting over an area. In the case of a floor the area is very large, so it would produce a lot of downforce even with relatively modest pressures. (Or to be more specific, pressure differences between top and bottom surfaces.) So applying 10kg on a single spot of the floor might actually be a larger load than what that part of the floor is experiencing from aerodynamics. My point being, the tests are not flawed because of the amount of load they test with. They are flawed because the loads are applied mechanically as opposed to aerodynamically.

  3. The cars weigh 800kg or so and they’re supposed to make near enough as much downforce as they weigh so it’s not going to be just 1200N from the floor.

    Maybe, maybe not. Possibilities abound:
    1. The FIA know that this test fails to even reproduce aero load at low speeds, and it merely serves to silence those who complain about flexing.
    2. The FIA have checked and aero load at even moderate speeds exceeds the test limits and teams with non-compliant floors will need changes.
    3. The FIA intend to increase test loads in subsequent seasons, but are allowing development time for affected teams.
    and more, I’m sure.

    @ “Coventry Climax” Since flexure of the floor was already in the limitations, adding a test to ensure people have complied with the spirit of existing regulations hardly pushes things along the road to a spec series.
    BTW. Cov Climax has been closed how long now? Pre-Schumacher Snr…

Comments are closed.