The big change in Formula 1 occurred last year, so now it’s a matter of fine-tuning it little by little until the next one arrives in 2026 that will focus more on power units. For this reason, the novelties in the sports and technical regulations are few. Starting with the first, the main and most important is that the number of grand prizes with sprint races is doubled from three to six. And the races chosen for this are Azerbaijan, Austria, Belgium, Qatar, the United States and Brazil. The distribution of points (eight for first and one for eighth) is maintained, as well as the weekend format: Friday with Free Practice 1 and Qualifying, Saturday with Free Practice 2 and sprint, and the race on Sunday.
Main technical innovations
As for the technical changes, they can also be counted on the fingers of one hand and mainly affect the safety of the single-seaters and put an end to the annoying porposing that gave so much problems last season. We review them below:
-Taller cars. To consolidate the removal of the porposing, the FIA ​​forces the cars to be raised by 15 millimeters and reinforces the ends of the flat bottom in order to avoid these oscillations. They will be stiffer. The measure was announced in the last third of last season and has forced the factories to work with very little time. It also increases the height of the diffuser by 10 millimeters.
-Security. The rollover arch of the single-seaters is reinforced. Guanyu Zhou’s violent accident at Silverstone (with no consequences for the driver) has prompted stricter controls to ensure that F1’s safety structures can withstand a rollover impact. Any appendage to the car above 935mm must withstand a 15G impact.
-The tires. Pirelli slightly modifies the wheels before each season to accommodate the speeds and G-forces that the cars develop. Among the novelties, one more compound is introduced in the range: from C0 to C5 depending on its degree of hardness.
-pontoons. With the current regulations that simplify the design of both wings, the sidepods have gained in importance because it is in that middle area of ​​the car where engineers focus most of the aerodynamic work. Hence, the solutions proposed by the teams are so different from each other, although Red Bull sets the trend by being the most efficient.
-Chassis. After the radical change in the cars that caused the entry of the new regulations last year, this is one of continuity, which is why there are hardly any significant novelties, although the concept continues to evolve. Thus, in the second part of 2023, solutions will be tested to reduce the spray that cars leave in their wake on wet asphalt.