F1’s wheel cover tests to resume next year after teams seek delay

The FIA has been evaluating ways of adding covers to wheels in rainy conditions to help minimise spray being thrown up, which can severely restrict visibility. 

Trials of an early design tested at Silverstone earlier this year did not deliver the results hoped for, with the conclusion being that the first iteration concept failed to cover enough of the wheel. 

A second bigger design has been in development since then and was originally hoped to be tested on cars last month. 

However, amid the logistical challenge of the intense end of the season, allied to cost implications, teams that have been offering to help out felt that it would be better to hold fire and wait until next May to plan the next run. 

FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis said that the governing body was happy to listen to the teams over how best to approach the next stage. 

“Obviously for these tests, we get support from the teams who do the work, we don’t have cars ourselves,” he said. 

“The work that had been planned was going to happen around about early November, but parts availability and production capacity of the teams involved meant they would have had to get everything supplied externally – and that would have been very expensive.

“So, they asked whether they could delay the test until the spring in order to cut the cost out of it. We thought that was sensible.  

“From a technical point of view would have preferred to have done it already, of course, if it wasn’t too expensive.” 

Diffuser question

Tombazis said that the FIA understands that it will be a nigh-on impossible target to produce covers that eliminate spray totally, but it feels that significant improvements can be found. 

However, critical to the situation was gaining a better understanding of just how much spray is thrown up by the diffuser of the current ground effect cars. 

“The [original] covers were too small, and they didn’t really cover enough of the wheels,” he said. 

“We felt that they therefore didn’t really answer the question of whether that’s a cure or not.  

“What we still have a doubt about is what proportion is due to the overall diffuser and sucking the water from the track, which is something clearly this thing won’t fix, and how much of it is because of the wheels.

“We know both factors are quite significant, and clearly we’re not here aiming to solve everything.  

“We know there will still be visibility issues, but…