MOTORSPORT: F1 in state of suspense

The world governing body of four-wheel motor racing has deemed the best suspensions in Formula One this season illegal. Along with the power advantage they enjoy, the most refined of the front-and-rear interconnected suspension (FRIC) systems is largely credited with creating the dominance of the two Mercedes factory team cars.

The FRIC systems link the front and rear suspension to keep a car’s ride height constant and help control its pitch and roll.

They could be outlawed as soon as next week’s German Grand Prix (July 18-20) at Hockenheim. Alternatively, the results of the remaining 10 races in this year’s world championship could remain provisional until the hot issue is clarified.

The Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) advised the 11 F1 teams yesterday (Tuesday) that it believed the FRIC systems most of them use to be illegal.

Britain’s long-established 'bible' of motorsport, Autosport, has reported overnight that it has seen the correspondence to the teams from the FIA’s F1 race director Charlie Whiting and it has quoted from it on its website.

“Having now seen and studied nearly every current design of front to rear linked suspension system we, the FIA, are formally of the view that the legality of all such systems could be called into question,” Whiting wrote.

He referred to article 3.15 of F1's technical regulations – a catch-all clause relating to moveable aerodynamic devices. The rule outlaws any part that influences the aerodynamics that is not “rigidly secured to the entirely sprung part of the car [rigidly secured means not having any degree of freedom]”.

The first system linking front and rear suspensions was introduced to F1 in 2008 by the former Renault works team, which subsequently has become Lotus and in the latter years of the previous V8 era was one of the frontrunners in the sport.

Coinciding with the new hybrid power rules in F1, Mercedes this year has refined FRICs further.

Mercedes has won eight of the nine GPs so far this season and its drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton are separated by only four points at the top of the championship table.

Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo is the only other driver to have won a GP this season, notching his maiden victory in Canada last month for Renault-powered Red Bull Racing and now standing third in the championship.

The FIA has indicated that it is open to postponing a ban on FRIC systems until next season if there is full agreement among the teams – something history says is extremely difficult to achieve.

Whiting has told the teams that, without that total agreement among them, those running FRICs in Germany and beyond could be reported to GP stewards for not complying with the regulations.

It also could lead to protests by less successful teams against any succeeding with FRICs.

The FIA’s move against the systems has left no time for track testing of cars without FRICs before the Hockenheim event, unless teams can suddenly remove the systems for tonight’s second and last day of an official F1 test at Silverstone in Britain, where Hamilton won on Sunday.

The Mercedes-powered Williams car of Brazilian veteran Felipe Massa topped the timesheet on the first day of the test ahead of Ricciardo’s Red Bull and Rosberg’s Mercedes.

F1’s monopoly tyre supplier Pirelli will trial 18-inch tyres tonight on a Lotus.

The sport uses 13-inch tyres this season but Pirelli has said that larger wheels and tyres would lead to greater technology transfer between the sport and road car rubber but that it will only proceed with development if there is overwhelming agreement for it to do so.