[MHordecki]

> they have yearly CPU instruction limits

This sounded too ridiculous to me, so I started digging. Lo and behold, [1]. Appendix 8, sections 2 and 3.

The entire thing is a fun read, with pearls such as:

    in the case of an Intel CPU with either the Sandybridge or Ivybridge
    chipset where the competitor chooses not to exploit the AVX feature; the
    competitor must explicitly declare and be able to demonstrate that they are
    not using the AVX feature in the CFD solve process. If the non‐usage of the
    AVX feature is proven to the auditor, the Intel Sandybridge and Ivybridge
    chipset cores can be rated as 4 FLOP/cycle/core rather than as 8
    FLOP/cycle/core.

[1]: https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/2019_sporting_regula...

[Al-Khwarizmi]

What stops them from just running simulations at CPUs outside the organization's control? It's not like an engineer can't go to their home computer, open a terminal and SSH to a server, which could be in the opposite corner of the world. Even if all official simulations must be logged, which I suppose will also appear in the rules, running a few rogue simulations and looking at the output will give big hints about which official simulations one should choose to run...

I have connected to supercomputers and ran expensive experiments (not for F1 :)) from all kinds of devices, from phones to borrowed crappy netbooks, and from all kinds of places, like bars, the beach, etc... so I don't understand how that kind of regulations could be enforced unless they physically lock the engineers up for the season.

[remus]

Same thing that stops them breaking any of the other rules I guess. Fines, race bans, points deductions etc. if it's found out.

[ZephyrBlu]

Wow. The level of detail there is crazy.

They even have an equation governing the supply of car power units.

See Appendix 9, section b.

[mhh__]

If you think the level of detail is crazy you need to understand how crazily some teams will cheat.

The details still aren't out yet but Ferrari literally managed to cheat the fuel flow sensor last year - this is probably the most important rule in the sport, for the cars at least.

[walshemj]

CPU? wouldn't f1 teams be using GPU for their CFD work

[ladberg]

That would be more efficient, but GPUs were banned to level the playing field between extremely rich and slightly less extremely rich teams.

Of course, the people who made that rule probably just looked at the cost of a GPU vs the cost of a CPU without realizing that per operation GPUs are much cheaper to run.

EDIT: I originally heard this on Reddit and after looking I can't find any real sources, so this could be inaccurate.

[ll931110]

The limit was on TFLOPs, so you don't get to compute more just by using better hardware.

[ZephyrBlu]

You should have a quick read through the document, that's just one rule.

The rules seem mostly focused on computations rather than hardware.

I'm not that familiar with the hardware-level stuff they're talking about, but it seems likely that there are situations where a CPU is preferable to a GPU under these rules.