Three technical directives were issued to the F1 teams in the week prior to the Imola GP, but what impact have they really had?

It’s emerged that, in the week of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, the FIA sent out three technical directives to the teams, outlining some clarifications that the governing body felt needed to be made.

What technical directives were issued to the F1 teams at Imola?

The F1 teams are governed by several rulebooks that fall under the broader colloquialism ‘the regulations’, with the technical regulations being the prescriptive formula dictating what is and isn’t allowed when it comes to an F1 car’s design.

But, occasionally, clarifications of the intent of the rules is needed – perhaps a team has found something innovative that falls outside the oft-quoted but toothless idiom ‘spirit of the regulations’.

Or, as has been the case over the past 18 months or so, the FIA can identify the need to introduce changes in its own testing methods due to the teams being able to find ways to pass scrutineering checks while on-track behaviour differs.

When situations like this occur, and there is a need to give clarification to the teams or tighten up an area that has already been defined under the technical regulations, a technical directive can be issued.

These effectively serve as an addendum to the regulations as an interpretation of how to better enforce existing rules – the upcoming changes to the tests for front-wing flexibility (TD018) being a prime example, following on from the introduction of TD055A, for  stricter rear-wing static load tests) in China.

Last weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix saw a curious swing in car performance between two of the leading cars, with Red Bull’s RB21 winning the race with relative ease in the hands of Max Verstappen.

It was something of a role reversal from what has been a common pattern in recent months. While Verstappen has led several races this year, his Red Bull has typically shown inferior tyre wear to McLaren’s MCL39 – a detail which has usually meant Oscar Piastri and/or Lando Norris have finished ahead of him.

But this didn’t happen at Imola. For the first time this year, it was McLaren who appeared to suffer worse tyre degradation than Red Bull, leading the team to call Piastri in on Lap 13 as he lost over a second over the preceding two laps – Verstappen looked to have an answer for the MCL39s under all conditions during the race, although the picture was clouded somewhat by Piastri coming out in traffic and not having a fresh tyre left for after the Safety Car.

The relative change of performance was eye-opening and, understandably, has led to some mystification of why Red Bull and McLaren effectively swapped roles two weeks on from Piastri and Norris crushing the field in Miami.

The intrigue over McLaren’s ability to keep its rear tyre temperatures low was a major talking point after Miami, with one hypothetical theory put forward by a former McLaren thesis researcher that the team could have been using ‘phase change’ materials in its brake drums.

As part of its random car selection checks after a race, the FIA hauled Piastri’s car aside after Miami in order to examine its brake design.

These checks are ‘random’ in nature but can become more targeted based on the FIA’s own curiosity – whether that be piqued by a rival team’s queries for clarification, or a team making a noticeable step forward in certain areas.

Ahead of Imola, the FIA confirmed that everything it discovered from its forensic checks of the McLaren braking systems was completely above board – meaning it’s back to square one for McLaren’s rivals in trying to figure out just what clever engineering is going on.

It’s since emerged that three separate technical directives were issued to the teams last week, on Monday 12th of May, just a few days before Imola.

TD006A relates to the design of wheel bodywork and tyre treatment, and it’s understood that the correspondence between Red Bull and the FIA regarding its queries about McLaren’s braking system was also shared with all the teams.

Sources have indicated that this TD merely clarified design ideas in the area of tyre treatment, such as those relating to the use of water cooling, would not be allowed – there is no indication that any such systems were in use by any team.

Pre-emptive clarifications and rule changes are nothing new – last year, a mid-season regulation change banned asymmetrical braking systems, with the governing body confirming that there was never any evidence that any team was using such a system.

TD039M pertains to skid block design and is also related to clarifications on how the depth of the plank is measured in scrutineering.

These clarifications pertain to mounting patterns and material usage. Similarly to the wing flexibility tests, these changes are to tighten up the teams’ potential abilities to hit the wear limits of the plank while still passing the minimum thickness checks and, in theory, could have meant some teams needing to raise their cars to not fall foul of the revised checks.

A third technical directive relates to a clarification on how the front floor bodywork flexibility tests are carried out, and is understood to be of particularly minor significance.

Did these technical directives play a part in the outcome of the Imola GP?

With all three technical directives coming into effect immediately for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, the timing coincided with the change in the expected behaviours of the leading teams as Red Bull, in Christian Horner’s words, “out-degged” McLaren for the first time since the wet Brazilian GP at the end of last season.

Several sources have indicated to PlanetF1.com that the extent of the impact of the technical directives would have been minimal – to the point of there being no impact on the competitive outcome of the Grand Prix weekend, with McLaren understood to have not needed to have made any changes to conform with the TDs.

Other factors – such as the impact of Red Bull’s updates that rolled out over the last three Grands Prix – appear to have had a greater effect on how the weekend played out, with the low-abrasion/high-speed corners combination of the Imola circuit also hurting Red Bull less than the high-degradation/low-speed corners combination of Miami.

This, combined with McLaren seeming to have missed out on the sweet spot of its setup at Imola, appears to have been the bigger picture behind the outcome at Imola, rather than any effect of a TD.

“We will have a look at the data and we will like to look at the behaviour of the tyres,” Stella explained to media, including PlanetF1.com, afterwards.

“I think what’s happening today is a combination of Red Bull have improved, they’ve been developing their car over the last couple of races, and I think they have taken a step forward.

“If we look at the speed of the corners and we compare with the speed in Miami, it’s a completely different regime – like the car operates in a completely different part of the aerodynamic maps.

“I think we know that our car is strong in track layouts like Miami or Bahrain or China but, when it comes to high-speed corners like we have here in Imola, I don’t think we enjoy any particular advantage.

“So the track layout, the progress of Red Bull, I think they are the two factors that meant that we didn’t have much advantage.”

The fact McLaren’s rivals are attempting to pinpoint where the MCL39’s inherent tyre performance advantage has stemmed from is something team boss Andrea Stella has welcomed.

“For us,” Stella said, “It’s good news when our rivals get their focus – rather than on themselves – onto some of the aspects that allegedly are present in our car, and that effectively are not even present.

“And certainly, even if they were – let’s say, flexi-wings like a front wing deflection, like everyone else – it has nothing to do with the reason why McLaren is very competitive.

“So, I hope that in the future there will be more of these kinds of sagas because it means that our rivals keep focusing on the wrong things, and this is, for us, just good news. It’s just helping our quest.”

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