nico5 wrote: ↑22 Feb 2020, 00:06
turbof1 wrote: ↑21 Feb 2020, 23:43
The argument that it is moveable aero can be countered by saying that turning the wheels (the normal way) does that anyway, therefore in that sense it's no different from regular steering.
Also just because everybody knows what steering entails, does not mean you can not get creative with the wording. At the bottom of this, the regulation do not define it clear enough to exclude turning the wheel on a different axis.
It's almost literally reinventing the wheel. And frankly it's brilliant. Especially regulatory, because how are you going to ban a moveable aero device that has been a moveable aero devices ever since F1 was concepted.
it's not that brilliant, do you only realize now that steering was the one huge exception to the moveable-aero rule?
Well yes, because previously it was assumed that doing this would be a matter of suspension, and there the regulations are much more strict. Mercedes found a regulatory way to leave suspension legality out of the picture.
So it was not a gaping hole. If it was we would have seen it a long time ago and seen it consequently being banned a long time ago.
The FIA can always use a catch all rule with moveable aero, but I think given the nature of a rotating and spinning wheel, it is much more difficult. Which brings me to this:
Same goes for the suspension system when the load is transferred forward under braking (or roll, cornering), and yet RB's passively-obtained active rear suspension, which would get sprang that way to then flatten the rake on the straights, was banned with a TD in late 2017.
A counter example would be the 2011 exhaust blowing, where the FIA tried to ban it, but Renault succesfully argued they needed cold blowing for engine reliability. The FIA was forced to return on its steps then.
And that's the issue: just like the exhausts being purposely meant to expel gasses and trying to stop the cold/hot blowing is troublesome because you can't stop the expulsion of gasses, you also can't stop a wheel of rotating and spinning. it spinning and rotating makes it by nature an aero device.
I think a TD will not cut it in this instance. A rule change will be needed. They did so first in 2012 (which only partially worked and resulted in coanda-exhausts) and then in 2014 (which was much more effective, but up to this day teams still use the smallest bit of exhaust blowing).