Oops! Guilty of posting without reviewing previous posts. The Australian crash was old news, sorry!
Chuckle! I didn't even actually read it because I was thinking I probably already knew whatever news was in it...
For me the tech and sporting reg changes are interesting because the FIA gives a certain number of absolute limitations like cylinders must be round, only reciprocating piston designs are allowed, (Ruled out Honda oval cylinsders and rotary engines years ago), displacement is limited according to the current "formula", currently the motors must be v-6s but in recent history the formula changed from 3.0 ltr V10 to V8 to the current V6 hybrid formula.
Within the limitations of the formula engineers can do whatever they want and this has led to some downright amusing "rules bending".
Occasionally the FIA gets caught out having to admit that while a contested innovation was definitely not within the spirit of the regs it
is "legal" and they have to allow it for the current season at least...
Chassis and aerodynamic regs are every bit as precisely defined as well and sporting regs change for things like whether or not re-fueling is allowed or how many tire changes are allowed or even required in race.
The thrust over the last 5 years has been to drive down costs and speeds.
Ultimately the engineers ALWAYS win the speed contest, they keep going up, but they've been reliiability-challenged as the FiA has limited the number of gearboxes and motors that can be used in a single season now. That was one of the cost-cutting measures.
Last year the limit was 8 motors per car for the entire 22 race season, this included practice day and qualifying day, not just race day. I think it's still the same this year, I know it hasn't
increased.
Think about that, compared to when teams would have a dedicated qualifying motor and a dedicated race motor for
each car for each race (2 cars per team) plus backup, that was like 80 motors per team per year.
The tire war gets changed up too. For a couple of seasons one set had to last for the whole race.
It was pretty disastrous for the spectator enjoyment as it reduced driver aggressiveness and overtaking as they sought to conserve their rubber.
The 2017 technical regs are already published so teams are simultaneously developing next season's engines while trying to perfect this year's.
Knowing these things make for a more enjoyable viewing though, and the commentators are all well-informed and even have direct experience in F1 so they yield good commentary too.