Red Bull forced to change floor design...

[pino]

Red Bull will be forced to modify the controversial holes in the floor of its RB8 after the FIA clarified its position and deemed the design was not permissible.


F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com

[Dave B]

So they won in Monaco with an illegal car yet the result still stands. Madness. We've been here before, with Ferrari, so at least the FIA's stupidity is consistent.

[Bagwan]

An exerpt from a letter to the teams :
"Following on from a number of discussionsin Monaco , during which it became clear that certain misunderstandings existed , we feel it would be helpful to make our position clear with respect to the presence of a fully enclosed hole in any surface lying on the step plane .
It has been argued that , as it is not explicitly stated that fully enclosed holes cannot be located in a surface lying on the step plane rearward of a line 450mm forward from the rear face of the cockpit template , then they may be located in such areas .
We disagree with this view and consider it implicit that fully enclosed holes may not be located there ."


It's now clear that it's not legal , Dave .
So , perhaps it's more of a clever Newey than a stupid FIA this time .

[ShiftingGears]

So they won in Monaco with an illegal car yet the result still stands. Madness. We've been here before, with Ferrari, so at least the FIA's stupidity is consistent.

It was deemed legal at the time, and there weren't protests. This has happened throughout F1 history, so it isn't much of a surprise.

[CNR]

how can you have a hole that is fully enclosed ?

fully enclosed holes may not be located in the bodywork just ahead of the rear
wheels.

[mstillhere]

My feeling is that since RB got the green light from C. Whiting - that's why their "victory" still stands - Charlie should be removed from taking such decisions anymore.

My suggestion is that from now on these kind of decisions would be made directly by the FIA. I don't beleive in case of an appeal the FIA would be contradicting the................FIA. Although I could be wrong.

In response to Dave, I find it interesting that when it's not Ferrari caught in some wrong doing people seem to be more accepting of the same done by some different team.

[kfzmeister]

...Because the FIA likes teams to run ideas past them first before implementation and then is open to reviewing their decision if other teams have an argument which proves illegality, the team is allowed to keep its results during the period the idea is on the car.

Has pretty much happened to all teams...

[Tazio]

how can you have a hole that is fully enclosed ?

What they are saying is a bit of a double positive. A hole by definition is fully enclosed as opposed to a slot, and allows air to be directed very precisely. A slot or a hole that is open-ended is the distinction that they are making, as nebulous a definition as it is.

[gloomyDAY]

Good decision. Stops the teams from spending an absurd amount of money to copy the design. Also, now the teams cannot protest since the FIA made a firm stance. Kudos! Let's go racing.

[jens]

So they won in Monaco with an illegal car yet the result still stands. Madness.

If they were disqualified in retrospect, that would be even a bigger madness as the car was deemed legal at the race weekend. Had FIA reacted quickly and banned it on Thu/Fri, RBR would have had time to modify the car for the race.

In any case, reminds a bit of Brabham's fan-car sole race win in 1978. One race for the car, subsequently banned. Although I'm sure the effect or benefit of current innovation isn't nearly as significant as it was the case back then.