FIA to limit wind tunnel use from 2008

At a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in Monaco on Friday, the FIA announced the dramatic new regulations that it hopes will bring down costs in the sport.

The measures will limit teams to the use of no more than one wind tunnel, and state that devices can only be used for 15 runs per eight-hour day - and only five days per week.

The wind tunnel tests must be with air at atmospheric pressure, the maximum wind speed is limited to 50 metres per second, and the maximum scale of the model will be just 60 percent. Only one car model can be used during each run.

Teams will also be banned from conducting straight-line aerodynamic testing, with the FIA making it clear that full-scale track running can only take place at FIA-approved test venues.

In a bid to prevent teams from simply migrating their workforce away from wind tunnels and into expensive CFD facilities, the FIA has announced that the number of people working in this area will be limited at a level that has yet to be set.

Further restrictions will be placed on rig tests, design and manufacturing, suspension and brakes, hydraulic systems, bodywork, weight distribution, circuit testing and the number of personnel at races.

Details of these restrictions will be given at a team principals' meeting on January 11, 2008, with detailed regulations due to be put to the WMSC in the spring.

The WMSC also confirmed that Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) will be left as 'entirely open technology' when they are introduced from the start of 2009.

The FIA also said that only those engines already homologated by the FIA and delivered by March 31, 2008 will be eligible to take part in F1 from 2008 to 2017.