FIA Plank scrutineering - How fair is it?

[Nitrodaze]

Even if the FIA only tests two or three planks a race, it means that they have tested around 40 cars up to the US GP this season. Apparently, out of these, only Hamilton and Leclerc have failed it. That others may not have complied with the regs, but haven't been found out, doesn't change the fact that those had cars had excessive wear. Once that has been established (and not even Toto doubts it has), there is no leeway, as @airshifter has already pointed out.
As to why the stewards didn't consider what the point of a skid block is: Well, that's quite simply not their job. They have to execute the rules, not question why the rule exists in the first place.

Did you really think that through before you posted it or did it just come to you as an idea to write about? The skid block test is location-specific as the skid block is replaced for each race. The point of the test is to determine whether cars that took part in a race at a specific location, finished that race in compliance with the plank test regulations. What happened at previous races is irrelevant as those skid blocks are rarely reused.

The function of the FIA is to regulate, monitor, and ensure fair racing. It is therefore their duty of care to the teams and the drivers racing to ensure that they find and penalize all non-compliant participants of a race. Penalizing some and letting others go is miles away from proper fair governance of racing.

No one is suggesting that those caught out should not be penalized. What is being questioned is why the FIA is falling short of its responsibility to govern the sport fairly and effectively. There is also the question of what the relevance of the skid block is in this ground effect era. The point of the 2022 regulation was for the cars to be run as low as possible to allow them to harness ground effect. This regulation is a departure from all previous regulations leading up to 2022, where the aim has been to discourage teams from harnessing ground effect. The idea of the plank and skid block was introduced for this very reason l believe.

In a fair and intelligent stewarding, the USGP COTA presented the first opportunity for the stewards to look at this regulation and query its relevance in this ground-effect era. Unfortunately, they failed woefully on all fronts and took the dumb but obvious approach. There was no intelligent and objective analysis of the situation, nor did they carry out a comprehensive scrutineering.

If the current arrangement is cumbersome to scrutinize, then they should be thinking of engineering a solution to allow them to intelligently scrutinize all cars at the end of the race. Such as what was suggested above, like easily removable skid-block. The cars should queue up to have their skid blocks removed for later testing.

In a season where every point matters so much, where a single point can translate to tens of millions, there is no excuse for shoddy scrutinizing.