F1 Team Race to Stay Back of the Rules

The 2013 Formula 1 season kicked off in Melbourne on 15 March, ending a winter's appeal of rumor about which team has found the biggest ambiguity in the annual update of the rulebook. For the past numerous decades those who write the policy for the world's most admired form of motorsport and those who really do the racing have engaged in an complicated dance to find out how far the rules can be extended and prodded.

In years past, just one or two teams would find the wonderful permutation of car and driver, making it a landslide for those who nail the magic but a repetitive series of victories for fans. In recent years the rule makers have tried to level the playing field, and 2012 saw one of the most aggressive seasons in current reminiscence with seven different drivers from five different teams winning the first seven races.

Like other forms of motorsport, without new rules and regulations the ever growing speed of Formula 1 cars would reach tremendously unsafe levels. So every year the rule makers come out with new limitations and the teams then search for stylish, and often extremely imaginative, engineering solutions that will minimize the effect those new system will have on their cars.

The rules can be tremendously limiting for the engines, transmissions and other interior parts, so aerodynamics are where engineers look to utilize anything the rule makers did not specially ban. The most important rule changes for 2013 are related to the aero, and in exacting closing some loopholes that facilitate some of the most imaginative tricks last season.