Sidepodcast

FIA Confirm 2010 Calendar, Overhauls Stewarding Process, Announces Ambassadors

The FIA held a meeting of the World Motorsport Council today who came up with several changes for the 2010 season, and confirmed the final version of the calendar for 2010.

Calendar

*Subject to the homologation of the circuit.

Stewards

The F1 stewarding process will be altered next season. The changes include, selecting two stewards from a permanent group, plus an experienced former F1 driver, to oversee to each race. A nominated member representing the National Sporting Authority will also be present.

The position of non-voting Chairman has been removed, a role Alan Donnelly previously filled, instead stewards will elect a Chairman from amongst themselves for each event. The changes have been brought in to enable decisions to be made more efficiently.

Ambassadors

An FIA F1 Ambassador will be appointed for each race. Their role will include liaising with national sporting authorities, event organisers, VIP guests, FOM, teams and other stakeholders. Individuals will be come from the membership of the World Council.

Points

Yesterday's proposed points system revisions have been accepted and will come into practice for next season. This awards points to the top ten finishing positions instead of the top eight and has been introduced due to the expanded grid of 13 teams.

Working Groups

As requested by the F1 Commission, the F1 Sporting Working Group has been tasked with developing proposals to improve "the show". The Working Group has until January to make recommendations for the WMSC to consider in advance of the 2010 F1 season.

F1 Commission Proposes New Points System for 2010 Season

The FIA has put out a press release detailing a number of decisions made by the F1 Commission when they met in Monaco today. Amongst those is the suggestion that Formula 1 reconsiders the distribution of points for the 2010 season, due to an expanded grid of 13 teams.

The release notes that:

The F1 Commission also proposed a number of amendments to the sporting and technical regulations, which will be put to the FIA World Motor Sport Council for final approval tomorrow morning.

The proposed system would see points awarded as follows:

Additionally it's noted that the Brawn team will be allowed to change its chassis name from Brawn to Mercedes while the FIA and FOM will collaborate to enhance the communication and promotion of the championship. Further proposals are being considered to improve the show too:

A strong mandate has been given to the Sporting Working Group, a sub-committee of the F1 Commission made up of the FIA and F1 teams, to develop detailed proposals to improve the show. These will take effect from the 2010 championship.

More information will no doubt be forthcoming after tomorrow morning's WMSC meeting.

Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds leave Renault F1

Today, Renault F1 sent out the following press release confirming the immediate departure of both its managing director and executive director of engineering:

The ING Renault F1 Team will not dispute the recent allegations made by the FIA concerning the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

It also wishes to state that its managing director, Flavio Briatore and its executive director of engineering, Pat Symonds, have left the team.

Before attending the hearing before the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris on 21 September 2009, the team will not make any further comment.

More to follow...

FIA Call Extraordinary Meeting of the WMSC

The ING Renault F1 team have been summoned to appear before the World Motor Sport Council in Paris on the 21st September. This afternoon the FIA put out the following statement:

Representatives of ING Renault F1 have been requested to appear before an extraordinary meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris on Monday, 21 September 2009.

The team representatives have been called to answer charges, including a breach of Article 151c of the International Sporting Code, that the team conspired with its driver, Nelson Piquet Jr, to cause a deliberate crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix with the aim of causing the deployment of the safety car to the advantage of its other driver, Fernando Alonso.

The hearing will take place the Monday prior to this year's Singapore Grand Prix.

Updated: Renault have responded to the FIA's request to appear before the WMSC:

The ING Renault F1 Team acknowledges the FIA's request for representatives of the team to appear before the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris on the 21st of September 2009.

Before attending the hearing, the team will not make any further comment.

Daily: 24th June 2009

We're in the middle of the week now, and I promise not to mention Wimbledon once. Oops, I just did. Never mind, today is supposed to be the next big thing in the journey to the end of Formula 1, so perhaps I should focus on F1 for a bit:

• The WMSC are meeting today in Paris with Max Mosley and Luca di Montezemolo going head to head over... well, everything, I guess. Max has already said he will restand for election in October which will come as no surprise to anyone. What other revelations are in store?
• Shaun was at Silverstone over the weekend in his usual guise, checking tickets at the gate. He's written about some of the famous people he spotted, and get this - Legard has a fan!
• Dank has found some more excellent Red Bull video, this time a tour of the factory in Milton Keynes. It's always good to get a look behind the scenes of how the cars get made, even if they are fugly.

That'll do it for now. If there is some news coming out of today, I'll have to designate this daily post as a happy place again, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I'll see you in the comments.

New Championship Deciding System Retracted

This article was originally written for BellaOnline, but is republished here for posterity.

Early last week, the FIA announced some new regulations that would affect the 2009 season. It seemed very late to be changing things, particularly the points system. The World Motorsport Council met and decided that the driver with the most wins would secure the championship, regardless of how many points he had scored. Points would still be calculated in case of a tie, and for the constructor's championship.

There was a general outcry in the paddock, with many past, present and future champions suggesting that although the principal was good - to encourage drivers to fight for wins - this was not the way to go about it.

FOTA issued a press release over the weekend stating that the FIA's actions were actually illegal and they couldn't enforce this points system change on them. The Sporting Regulations do state that a change cannot be introduced so close to the start of the season without the teams unanimous agreement. They argued that they had not agreed to any such thing.

"The amendment to the sporting regulations proposed by the World Motorsport Council was not performed in accordance with the procedure provided for by Appendix 5 of the Sporting Regulations and, as per the provisions of the article 199 of the FIA International Sporting Code, it is too late for FIA to impose a change for the 2009 season that has not obtained the unanimous agreement of all the competitors properly entered into the 2009 Formula 1 Championship."

The FIA then retracted the decision, saying that if the teams weren't in agreement, then the system could be postponed until 2010. Their retaliation was that the WMSC was under the impression the teams were behind Bernie Ecclestone's medals idea, and this was essentially the same thing. FOTA admitted that they had talked to Bernie about the idea but that no firm decisions had been made, and they were definitely not behind the system that the FIA was proposing.

Either way, for now, things will remain as they were, with the winner scoring 10 points, down to the eighth place finisher scoring 1 point. Bernie Ecclestone is confident the "winner takes all" system will be in place for 2010, though, and that it will be in the regulations early enough that teams will know what they're getting into.

FIA Change Points System

This article was originally written for BellaOnline, but is republished here for posterity.

The FIA's World Motor Sport Council met this week to discuss some regulation changes and once they were announced, they caused great surprise.

The biggest change is with the points system. Previously, Bernie Ecclestone has suggested that awarding medals rather than points to only the top three places would encourage drivers to fight for wins, instead of playing a more strategical game during a race. The FIA didn't seem keen for this to go ahead, and FOTA suggested simply raising the points scores, so the gap to first place was larger, and worth going for.

Neither of these options have been taken up, though, and we are presented with a mixture of both.

The driver's championship will now be solely based on wins, although points will still be counted for the constructors championship. So, for instance, Driver A has 7 wins, and Driver B has 6. Driver A wins the championship, regardless of how many points he has scored. If, at the end of the season, more than one driver has the same tally of wins, then it reverts to second place finishes.

There are a few concerns about this system, most of all that it could be confusing for new and existing fans to see a driver scoring points, but that not counting. It could also cause confusion if a driver has more points than his rival but still doesn't win the title.

There is also the problem that if one team is particularly dominant, and win the first 9 races in a row (it's unlikely, but still a possibility), then the season is over by July. It also rewards those who achieve a lucky win, and perhaps achieve nothing else, rather than those who consistantly finish in the points.

The changes have not been received well both in and out of the paddock. It doesn't seem fair that the FIA can change the regulations so close to the start of the season. Both Button and Alonso have registered their dissatisfaction in the changes, both mostly worried about the effect it will have on the fans. Former driver and BBC commentator Martin Brundle suggests that it probably won't have too much effect on the racing, either, as it's overtaking that is the problem and not motivation.

FOTA Announce Future Proposals

This article was originally written for BellaOnline, but is republished here for posterity.

The Formula One Teams Association have been doing a lot of research behind the scenes over how to cut costs and improve the spectacle of F1, thereby securing it's future. After pressure from Max, they have come up with a raft of proposals for the future of F1. These suggestions would have to be agreed by the World Motorsport Council, but could be implemented as soon as that happened.

Development
Williams recently complained that they were losing out on the wind tunnel restrictions, given that they have invested heavily in the infrastructure and do not have the same CFD capabilities. FOTA is now proposing that CFD time could be traded in for wind tunnel time, as long as the maximum limits aren't met.

They have also suggested a restriction on the number of updates allowed each year on specific parts. For example, wings can be updated five times, sidepods only three. This should reduce the cost of replacing parts for every Grand Prix. FOTA have also presented details of a gearbox freeze, similar to the engine freeze, plus standard KERS in 2010.

The Show
To try and make Formula 1 more accessible, and more entertaining to the fans, FOTA have come up with some ideas. Rather than support Bernie's medals idea to replace the current points system, FOTA have suggested changing the top three points to 12-9-7 rather than 10-8-6. The idea behind this is to get drivers fighting for position on track, rather than settling for a points haul, knowing they're only missing out on a single point.

They have also floated the idea of having some points available for the constructor's championship, for the team who complete the fastest pit stop during a Grand Prix. It also looks like the length of time could be reduced, with a proposal for the total distance to be shortened to 250km, or maximum duration of 1 hour 40 minutes.

Apparently, the market research was inconclusive on qualifying, so FOTA have not made any suggestions on how to change Saturdays. They are continuing to evaluate the options though.

FOTA Submit Future Proposals

At a crowded press conference in Geneva today, FOTA presented their idea of the future for F1. There was a raft of possibilities, that will now go to the WMSC to be agreed on, or not as the case may be. Whilst there was nothing extraordinary, there were a couple of surprises.

Wind Tunnel

When Frank Williams first mentioned he was unhappy with some of the FOTA decisions regarding wind tunnel useage, we thought this was the first crack in what was going to be an inevitable break up of the teams. They just aren't capable of all agreeing on things. Except, they are. The association have obviously heard what Frank was saying, and paid attention. They've suggested a limit on wind tunnel and CFD testing, but to make it fair for those who have already invested, you can use either, as long as you don't exceed the maximum. This seems to be an acceptable compromise, but are the two methods comparable?

Points

Completely ignoring Bernie's medal idea, FOTA have proposed the points for the top three finishers is increased, to try and encourage overtaking. From 10-8-6, they suggest it be moved up to 12-9-7, with the rest working from 5 backwards as usual. Is this really enough to get a driver challenging for position? Is the points system really the place to make this happen? Either way, we should really just be grateful that they are numbers and not medals.

One of the most surprising ideas to come from the announcement is the idea of offering points for the fastest pit stop. A constructors point could be on offer for the team with the slickest mechanics. I can understand the idea behind this, but it seems like a bizarre offering. Considering the ban on refuelling seems to be discouraging pit stops, this would make them an integral part of the race weekend.

Accessibility

The teams are starting to realise that we want to know more about what is happening during the race, and get better access to the teams throughout the weekend. For a start, they suggest presenting their race fuel loads, tyre choices and pit stop data to the public as the race is going on. FOTA also want to engage with fans more, referencing tennis and cricket as good examples of informative coverage. They also propose mandatory driver autograph sessions, and a team spokesperson available for the media to contact during a race. We saw this at a couple of races last year, where the TV/radio stations had access to someone on the pit wall. It was definitely an addition to be encouraged.

Of course, these are simply proposals at the moment, and the full statement is available to read here. The FIA have final say on all the above, so who knows what will become fact. However, presenting a commitment to make the sport better for the fans and encourage overtaking, whilst still remaining unanimous and in agreement is a step in the right direction for FOTA.

World Motorsport Council Decisions

This article was originally written for BellaOnline, but is republished here for posterity.

The FIA have been pushing cost cutting as one of the main objectives for Formula 1 for the future. Max Mosley has been introducing radical concepts such as the standard engine, and asking the FOTA for their opinions as well. A meeting between the World Motorsport Council and FOTA saw some of the ideas confirmed and the way Formula 1 is heading is much clearer. Here are some of the regulations we'll see going forward.

Engines
We already knew that engine life was to be lengthened to three races, and this has been confirmed. Teams will also be limited to twenty engines each year. That's eight for each driver and four for testing. For 2010, the standard engine will be introduced as a low cost option for independent teams.

Aerodynamics
There will be no in season testing, which means all on-track improvements will be done during the off season or the Friday of each race weekend. Wind tunnel activity is being limited, and there is the possiblity of a standard chassis in 2010. This all depends on whether teams consider the chassis a performance differentiator, so this is something that will be discussed nearer the time.

Factories and Personnel
Factories will have to close for six weeks per year where that is the local law. They will also be reviewed in a couple of years to see whether any more cost-cutting can be done. Personnel attending races is to be reduced by teams sharing information about tyres and fuel.

Race Weekend
In 2010, the ban on tyre warmers will be in place, along with a ban on refuelling. That is quite significant, as although pit stops will still take place for tyre changes, this eliminates the strategy aspect of fuel loads. Team radio will also have to be a standard system, which means as fans, we should get radio from all the teams, rather than some keeping their radio communications secret. The FIA are also going to conduct market research to investigate the public reaction to a change to the qualifying format, and also to Bernie's medal idea that would replace the current points system.

Some of these are progressions of things we already know about, others are quite radical changes. The idea of a standard chassis is not something I'm happy about, but it is still quite a long way off, and things change so quickly in F1, there's nothing to worry about just yet.