The technical and sporting regulations for 2007
As is customary in Formula One, the Technical and Sporting Regulations have been amended for the new season. Here’s a summary of what’s been changed from 2006 Formula One season to the upcoming 2007 F1 season. F1Technical puts the new regulations in a row for you:
Single tyre supplier
Bridgestone will be the sole tyre supplier in Formula 1 from 2007 to 2010. For the 2007 season, they will supply each team with identical specifications and quantities during the season. At a Grand Prix weekend, this translates to a ‘hard’ and a ‘soft’ compound. Tyres will be supplied in accordance with the revised Sporting Regulations, which provide for a total of 14 sets of dry weather tyres per driver over the race weekend: four sets for Friday only, and 10 for the rest of the weekend.
Voluntary Testing Agreement
The Formula 1 teams have unanimously agreed to the voluntary early introduction of the testing agreement scheduled for 2008. This limits each team to an annual limit of 30,000 km.
Homologated Engines
From 2007, Formula 1 will enter an era of minimal engine development activity. The engines used will be limited to a maximum of 19,000 rpm, and will have as their basis the V8 units that had completed the two-race cycle of China/Japan or Japan/Brazil according to engine usage cycles. These engines can be re-tuned to a limit of 19,000 rpm according to a list of modifications that must be submitted to, and approved by the FIA, by mid-December. All competitors will use V8 engines in 2007.
Engine Usage
The two weekends per engine formula will continue to pertain in 2007, but its application will be different. The ‘race weekend’ in terms of engine use will now only begin on Saturday, not Friday, thus excluding the newly-extended Friday free practice sessions.
Grand Prix Friday Format
The format for the Friday of Grand Prix weekends has been altered in a bid to encourage increased on-track action during this part of the race weekend. The two free practice sessions will now last for 90 minutes each rather than one hour, with race weekend timings still to be confirmed. Each team is allowed to run a maximum of two cars during these sessions, but these cars can be driven by either the race drivers or the nominated third driver.
Sporting Regulations
Other detail changes have been made to the Sporting Regulations concerning Safety Car protocol and the imposition of penalties by the Stewards of the Meeting (they can now impose grid position penalties in addition to time penalties).
Technical Regulations
As is customary, the safety regulations have been further refined for 2007. These include an improved frontal crash test, the introduction of a cockpit GPS marshalling system which will alert drivers to on-track dangers and a new ‘accident severity indicator’ to indicate the severity of an accident to medical rescue crews.
