F1, new FIA ban on engine mapping

Formula 1 teams will face a further ban ahead of the European GP in Valencia. According to rumours, the FIA ​​wants to ban ad hoc settings of engine maps for qualifying.

In view of the ban on blower exhausts scheduled for next month's British GP, the FIA ​​has shown itself determined to avoid any form of intelligent use of the engines aimed at obtaining an aerodynamic advantage.

In a note sent by the FIA's technical delegate, Charlie Whiting, the Federation informed the teams that it will no longer be allowed to change engine maps between qualifying and the race.

A measure that will prevent teams from using more extreme mappings for qualifying, such as those that produce more exhaust gases or burn more fuel, and which then allow more conservative settings to be adopted in the race.

One of the theories on Red Bull's dominance in qualifying, compared to repeated drops in performance in the race, concerns the adoption of extreme engine mapping in qualifying to improve single lap performance.

Phil Prew, McLaren's race engineer, expressed his theory on Red Bull's performance at the beginning of the year: “I think one area is the optimization of the tyres, on the other hand the use of elaborate engine modes also plays a role very important, with the generation of aerodynamic load strongly influenced by the flow of the exhaust".

With the new FIA directive every mapping setting used in qualifying will now have to be used at the start of the race, and the first opportunity to change the mappings will be the first pitstop with a computer connected to the car. A difficult maneuver to execute considering the speed of the current pitstops.

The extreme mappings used by some teams in qualifying would be unusable in the race due to risks to engine reliability over long distances and excessive fuel consumption.

Although the regulatory changes expected for the next two races will affect more or less all teams, for many the greatest impact will be suffered by Red Bull Racing.