cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/1499225
During the Formula E qualifying round in Portland, Oregon, today, the DS Penske team was fined €25,000 after it surreptitiously installed an RFID scanner at the entrance to the pit, which the FIA stewards said could collect data from other race cars and give them an advantage. The team’s racers, Stoffel Vandoorne and Jean-Éric Vergne, were also hit with a pit lane start penalty for today’s race — meaning they will have to wait at the end of the pit lane until all of the other cars have driven past before entering the race.
The FIA Stewards explanation for the penalty was provided to The Verge via email:
The Stewards were advised by the Technical Delegate that the competitor had installed RFID scanning equipment in the pit lane entry this morning that was able to collect live data from all cars. Firstly, it is forbidden in general for competitors to install or place any equipment in the pit lane. Secondly, the collection of data by this method gives the competitor a lot of information, which is a huge and unfair advantage. Taking all the circumstances together, the Stewards feel that the given penalty is appropriate.RFID chips have been used in Formula E tires for the entirety of the still-young motorsport, primarily to track the condition of tires, including temperature and tire pressure, and encourage their efficient use, according to a 2014 article in Tyrepress.
For the 2023 season, Formula E has switched to a new “Gen 3” car design and a new tire manufacturer, going from Michelins to the Hankook iON. A Motorsport.com report from off-season testing discussed how much of a challenge that presented for the teams and a possible reason why attempting to glean data from the entire field was something Penske would even try.
For the 2022-2023 season, the series picked up a sponsorship from Hankook tires, which a report in Motorsport indicated presented challenges for the drivers, who had been used to the same Michelin tires for the previous 8 seasons.
It’s crazy to me how light the sporting penalty is here, one race of pit-lane starts. Unauthorized interception if electronic communications is already just illegal in any reasonable jurisdiction and seems to me to be categorically different from boundary pushing of technical regs… and more like proper “cheating”.
Plus it seems like it should be exceptionally easy to regulate this:
- Enumerate the list of “public” communications/sources (like pit radio messages) that comprise the cases where teams may monitor the communications of other teams.
- Forbid the interception of any radio or electronic communications that aren’t on that list.
- Require self-reporting of any accidental interception, along with the procedures followed to minimize misuse of the info. Proper self-reporting coupled with good processes for purging and minimizing access to the “tainted” info would result in wrist slap penalties.
- Failure to self-report then becomes a serious offense with sporting penalties that potentially include deduction of championship points or other season-impacting penalties.
