The F1 Strategy Group met this week to put forth several changes that the World Motor Sport Council will vote on soon. The FIA’s Jean Todt as well as F1’s CEO, Chase Carey, were present at the meeting with the representative teams.
Most fans haven’t been too keen with the Shark Fin or T-Wings on the cars but as is typical for F1, they address it quickly and ban it for next year. This means they’ve taken action but not this year so you’ll have to suffer through T-Wing flotsam on the track and the odd, over-sized fins on the back of the cars all year long. If asked, they can say we’ve addressed it for next year. Point is, if they are worth 3-4 points of aero, they aren’t going anywhere this year even if they start falling off cars and doing $70,000 worth of damage to Max Verstappen’s Red Bull. I guess I would just ask…”What??!! Are you against SAFETY??!!”
The old, “yeah, we don’t like them either and we’ve taken immediate action…and banned them for next year”.
Here are the changes that the F1 Strategy Group and F1 Commission came up with.
Sporting and technical changes
There have been some corrections and additions to the technical and sporting regulations for 2018, which will now be passed to the World Motor Sport Council for approval:
- A number of more integrated solutions for additional frontal protection have been studied, and the decision has been taken to give priority to the transparent ‘shield’ family of systems. The FIA aims to carry out track tests of this system during this season in preparation for implementation in 2018
- Changes in the regulation boxes around the engine cover have been made so that designs incorporating the ‘t-wing’ and ‘shark fin’ will be strictly limited
- Measures will be taken to ensure that oil will not be used as fuel. In addition, only one specification of oil may be used for any given power unit during an event
- Pirelli will be allowed to develop 2018 wet weather tyre compounds using previous specifications of cars and wheel dimensions
- In the event of a red flag period during a race, the race will be resumed from a standing start
Driver names and numbers
Information was given to the teams that, from Barcelona (12-14 May 2017) onwards, the sporting regulations will be strictly enforced to ensure that visibility of drivers’ names and numbers on the cars will be clearer.
Strategy Group
Representatives from the non-member teams will now be invited to meetings of the F1 Strategy Group to have access to the discussions, demonstrating the effective commitment of both the FIA and the Commercial Rights Holder to improve transparency in the sport.
Ugh! Enough is enough! Talk about fickle. Constant adjustments to the rules from a ruling body that won’t deal with the sport’s real problems or agree on the flavor of water.
“measures will be taken to make sure that oil will not be used as fuel”. That bit from yesterdays strategy group meeting was the first time this comes-up more than just a rumor. And pronto I hardly had finished reading that and dropped right onto another interesting “rumor” being pushed around, which goes. “Mercedes fuel tank vent feed air into compressor during qualifying Q3, fuel tank is filled with hydrocarbon gasses most likely derived from the same race fuel, volume is 120litres”. So now we expect the following after the next strategy group meeting “measures will be taken to make… Read more »
Pity about the fins and t-wings, I thought they were a nifty innovation. I’m glad they weren’t banned immediately, F1 needs to avoid knee jerk changes that cost the teams time and money. Progressing screens instead of the toilet seat for implementation next season is a big call. Getting to a standard design, or defining a spec that can’t be gamed, in time to be implemented next season is going to keep the teams, strategy group and FIA pretty busy, and will make for many posts on the fan sites. The oil burning issue is an interesting one. I guess… Read more »
“progress screens instead of the TOILET SEATS”.
JAKO, That a real good one and I gave you a much deserved up-vote for a splendid Comparison, who the hell wants a TOILET SEAT around his head?.