F1 teams vote against radical rule changes

Formula 1 teams have voted against the planned undertray rule changes for the 2013 season, with the FIA announcing the idea as part of a series of substantial regulation tweaks last December. Alongside more fuel efficient 1.6-litre turbo engines, ground-effect underbodies were initially outlined, but Williams Team Principal Sam Michael believes making less dramatic modifications would be a better option.

"The only point of contention between FOTA and the FIA has been on the tunneled floor having a shaped undertray," Michael explained to BBC Sport. "Everything else is pretty much the FIA proposal, or pretty close to it with just some tweaks. The biggest concern was that it's a massive amount of investment for the teams. It's quite a big departure.

"If you were going to go down that route and have a very different set of drag and lift coefficients that you couldn't achieve with the current rules, fine, that's different. But the teams saw it as a massive amount of investment and work for something we don't really understand.

"We're not scared of that but if you do spend all that money, why do that and not something you can get to very quickly and cheaply with the current floor. The FIA understood that in the end. There's the budget effect of doing the tunneled floor, a shaped undertray, but there's also the fact that it's unknown.

"So you could predict the downforce you'll get from it, but you could easily achieve double. Whereas if we stay with the current floor, you can be controlled where the downforce and drag are going to be."

The FIA can still push ahead with its plans to introduce the full set of new regulations for 2013 without the consent of all 12 teams currently on the grid, but it has to make a decision by the end of June.