No I think you’re trying to hang your argument on the omission of the word ‘entire’. I was merely trying to explain how these things evolve into the ruleset & how discrepancies find their way in. Irrespective, I actually believe the rules are robust enough here. It does say 2mm is the limit and specifies the location (the rearmost hole in the plank). The prob is simply testing of this limit occurs (due to legacy reasons) at the front of the plank. Nowhere is a flex greater than 2mm permitted.DChemTech wrote: ↑06 Jul 2022, 14:37Why it wouldn't apply to the entire plank is simple: because the rules do not describe it doing so. They describe it applying to a section under a given test condition. How to floor should behave outside of those conditions, the teams should seemingly guess (or find out via mindreading?).214270 wrote: ↑06 Jul 2022, 13:48Yeah if you’re looking for the word ‘entire’ it doesn’t exist, but I think the genesis needs to be considered. It was always intended to be the entire plank body, then with evolution of the cars the requirements, tolerances & measurements have been revised to suit. Fast forward to present and we a ruleset which is biased towards the plank front for no good reason given the behaviour of the new cars.DChemTech wrote: ↑06 Jul 2022, 13:06
But where is it stated that 2mm is the plank flex limit for the entire plank? To my knowledge, that is not stated anywhere. All that is stated is that 2mm is the flex limit for that particular location under those particular conditions. It is not at all clear that that would also put the limit for the entire plank at 2mm. In fact, if the limit for a section of the plank is 2mm, it would seem very odd if the limit for the entire plank is also 2mm - it essentially means the rest of the plank cannot flex at all.
I guess the question to ask is why wouldn’t it apply to the entire plank?
Clear rules have clear wording. The current rules lack that. And we're in a sport where details matter: if one team 'supposes' it applies to the entire plank while it does not,then that team is on the back foot. If a team 'supposes' it does not apply to the entire plank based on the wording, than that team may suddenly find itself penalized (with all due resources spent) because they misinterpreted (or simply guessed wrong) 'the spirit of the rules'. That's not how sporting regulations should work; spirits belong in the liquor cabinet, not in technical regulations. If the 2mm applies to the entire plank, the rules should state that quantitatively and indisputably.