FIA has closed a loophole in the regulations that teams used during qualifying sessions to gain an additional speed advantage before the final straight. What was the trick? According to the rules, at the end of a lap, the hybrid power of the car must gradually decrease by 50 kW per second to avoid a sudden loss of energy. However, Mercedes and Red Bull learned to circumvent this by artificially disabling the MGU-K system, simulating a technical necessity. This allowed them to maintain maximum power right up to the straight, gaining an advantage of 50-100 kW over a short distance, which translated into winning hundredths of a second.
Why was this banned? Disabling the MGU-K caused it to lock for 60 seconds. Teams did not mind since the fast lap was already completed, but due to the lack of power on the in-lap, their cars barely crawled around the track. This created dangerous situations: for example, Max Verstappen, Kimi Antonelli, and Alex Albon experienced serious problems during the Australian and Japanese Grands Prix. After Ferrari raised these safety concerns with the FIA, the federation updated the technical directives. Now, manual disabling of the MGU-K is only permitted in genuine emergency situations, not as a systematic tool to improve performance. Telemetry data will be strictly monitored.
What do you think, will teams find a new grey area in the rules?
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