The FIA believes it has made vital progress in the direction of attaining its aim of bettering F1 from 2022 onwards, however there are some areas it desires to proceed bettering underneath the subsequent set of laws.
2022 noticed the introduction of recent automobiles with ground-effect aerodynamics, aimed toward altering the way in which downforce is generated and permitting the automotive to trace extra exactly. That is a part of wider adjustments designed to make the game extra sustainable, together with price range caps and restrictions on aerodynamic testing, and FIA single-seater director Nicolas Tombazis mentioned controlling prices was an enormous enchancment in comparison with current occasions.
“I feel we have now taken essential steps in the best route in most of those objectives, however I can by no means say that we have now been fully profitable in all of them. I’d not give us an A star,” Tombazis mentioned. “I’d give him a B or C or one thing like that, however I feel we have moved in the best route.
“Let’s take it one after the other. From a sustainable sport perspective, we launched monetary laws. Clearly, as a consequence of delays in technical laws as a consequence of COVID-19, monetary laws have been launched on the very finish of the earlier cycle (2021), however they got here into pressure correctly throughout this cycle.”
“I feel monetary regulation has been a hit total. Monetary regulation has introduced quite a lot of monetary sustainability and profitability to sports activities and groups, contributing to a extra stage enjoying area and turning groups into belongings. Even the underside of the grid, the final groups by way of efficiency, are economically sound and never vulnerable to collapse. Whereas beforehand there have been some groups that have been at all times on the borderline of economic break.”
“So I feel you possibly can argue that financially we’re positively shifting in the best route. Has the monetary regulation been an entire success? No, I feel we have now realized loads. We have now revised it for the 2026 regulation, however after about 5 years of expertise, we realized how complicated it’s to handle the monetary regulation of a staff with such totally different enterprise fashions, methods of working, and so forth.”
“So it is a very complicated challenge, and we have now an excellent staff engaged on it, but it surely’s very complicated and it makes it much more tough to manage the game. However total, I can completely say that I can not think about not having monetary regulation at this level. So I feel it has been a hit.”
Tombazis mentioned among the beneficial properties from the earlier ruleset have been erased by the staff’s aerodynamic improvement. Qian Jun/MB Media/Getty Photos
Forward of the introduction of recent aerodynamic and energy unit laws, Tombazis mentioned the earlier ruleset began from a powerful place however had developed in a manner that the FIA was unable to stop the results of soiled air from turning into an issue once more by the top of the cycle.
“Technically talking, I feel we have now definitely reached a stage the place the automobiles can compete extra intently with one another,” he mentioned. “The place we did not give ourselves full marks is that there have been a number of issues…I would not say loopholes, however definitely some areas of the laws have been a bit of too permissive, and so they allowed groups to undertake options that created outwash and, dynamically talking, undermined among the superb work on overtaking.
“So, very early in 2022, we have been speaking about how intently everybody may comply with, and everybody was actually comfortable, however I’d say that as we speak it is fairly tough. So in that respect, I’d say we did not have as a lot management over that parameter as we might have appreciated.”
“By way of nearer races, I feel the aim of nearer races by way of efficiency variations has been achieved fairly objectively. In case you take the start-to-finish sort of statistics, I feel the efficiency variations have already began to slim because the first yr of the laws, and so they have additional diminished as they converged. So I feel that was an excellent factor.”
“However like I say, if the aerodynamic deterioration hadn’t occurred, I feel the automotive would have been in a position to get into the DRS zone actually rather more simply as we speak. So I feel that is positively one thing we realized.”
“Clearly there have been some technical challenges with these sorts of parameters, such because the stiffness of the automotive. I feel there are issues we have to be taught and I hope we will transfer ahead subsequent yr.”
