George Russell, Williams, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 2019

F1 teams agree unanimously to 2021 rule delay

2019 F1 Season

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Following a meeting called by the FIA on Thursday to discuss delaying the 2021 regulatory process beyond the deadline of 30 June, all Formula 1 teams are understood by RaceFans to have agreed unanimously to the move.

The regulations were due to be presented to the FIA World Motorsport Council meeting on Friday for ratification – the last such opportunity before the cut-off – but the FIA requested a delay to finalise various aspects, in particular the post-2020 technical regulations.

The regulations are now due to be tabled at the next WMSC meeting, currently scheduled for 4 October.

In the absence of an overriding covenant such as the Concorde Agreement, the FIA International Sporting Code dictates the regulatory process, and specifies a timeframe of not less than 18 months before effective date for regulation changes that are ‘likely to have a substantial impact on the technical design of the automobile and/or the balance of performance between automobiles’.

According to this timeframe, the deadline would be 30 June 2019 for 1 January 2021.

However, ISC Article 18.2.4 provides for shorter notice periods ‘provided the unanimous agreement of all competitors properly entered for the championship, cup, trophy, challenge or series concerned is obtained.’

Although the letter has now been signed by all teams, a number of teams signed on condition that the provisions of the Financial Regulations (cost cap) were not amended substantially as they feared the major teams would use the delay to lobby for additional exclusions and/or increased spend levels.

There were also concerns that the delay would grant the major teams an advantage as they have the resources to experiment with various concepts ahead of the regulations being published.

McLaren in particular is believed to have requested clarifications, while Williams, Red Bull and Racing Point are said to have sought legal advice.

Pirelli, as the series’ tyre supplier as well as Nico Hulkenberg, Lewis Hamilton and Alex Wurz were also in attendance.

Updated details –

According to sources familiar with the Implementation Agreement that was signed by the FIA, Formula One World Championship (Liberty) and the teams in Paris on Thursday ahead of Friday’s scheduled WMSC meeting, all parties waived their rights to challenge any provisions of the Financial Regulations as presented to the teams.

However, minor amendments were made ahead of signature: an increase/decrease of $1m per race should the sporting calendar go above/fall below the current 21 rounds per annum.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

For more on the 2021 regulations, read Dieter Rencken’s latest column:

Why F1 teams are divided over the next step in Liberty’s 2021 masterplan

14 comments on “F1 teams agree unanimously to 2021 rule delay”

  1. Nico Hulkenberg, Lewis Hamilton and Alex Wurz

    I know Alex represents the GPDA, do the Hulk and Lewis do so likewise?

    1. @phylyp
      Worth noting that Romain is the GPDA director. has been for a couple of years i think.

  2. @phylyp the FIA did not specifically say what capacity their attendance was in except as ‘a number of drivers.’

  3. I am skeptical about F1 2021 now. Why am I still following all this? What’s the point?

    1. Because a new regime is trying to fix what is wrong with F1 as best as possible and it is a difficult task, but the teams are unanimous in working towards that. 2021 will bring a new chapter that will have better racing and much better thought out costs and money distribution. The whole point is that this is no longer the BE era that brought upon us all the problems they are having to now sort through. I’d have patience if I were you because this is all about a new chapter once the old contracts run out and Liberty and Brawn can affect changes that will improve the entitiy.

      1. The problem with this is that it is the same regime with a different name. It’s like after the Berlin wall fell and you still had the same apparatchiks running the show. The corruption is still there since it is the same people running it. If you think guys like Brawn and Todt are suddenly clean and care about anything but lining there pockets then you are crazy. Nothing will change as long as they have their cash cow. Liberty is going to be conservative because at this point they can only lose. Nothing will change when you have the same guys like Brawn calling for the same change they have been calling for for 25 years and not delivering.

        1. @darryn nobody should be under any illusion that these people want to make money. Sport is business. They bought it as a investment.

          The difference is that Bernie was happy just slicing meat off the cash cow for as long as it would last. These guys want to give the cow a better pasture so they can milk it well into the future.

          That second scenario has the potential to benefit us as fans. Whether they care about that or not is irrelevant.

  4. Once Liberty knew there were no new engine manufacturers entering the sport, they should have stuck with the current technical regulations through to 2022 at least, and made a point of sorting out the financial side first. Then it wouldn’t matter about manufacturers vs independents as they would all have the same resource levels, and could focus on nutting out the technical side with less politics.

    Let’s hope there’s still time for them to realize that…

    1. @scottie – very true. I too had mentioned some months ago that the financial regulations need to kick in before the new tech regulations to ensure that the rich teams can’t front-load their development prior to the budget caps kicking in.

      Put the budget caps in for 2021 as planned, and roll out new technical regs for 2023.

      Sadly, this will likely remain a pipe dream for the most part, since the wheels are anyway growing to 18″ for 2021, with the associated chassis changes that’ll bring about (not to mention wheel covers giving another aero surface to play with).

      1. This regulation delay until October, trick or treat?

        The concept of fairness and parity in F1 is so foreign to the sport’s heritage that we can only hope that Ferrari uses its veto to keep F1 unfair and insanely expensive.

        (not to mention wheel covers giving another aero surface to play with)

        @phylyp: I’m mentioning it too. Pimp my ride – Spinners for F1. (generating energy for the MGU-K, of course)

        1. @jimmi-cynic – 18″ rims, so spinners seem appropriate, don’t they? 🙂 I’m just waiting to see which teams use shiny gold rims!

  5. Following a meeting called by the FIA on Thursday to discuss delaying the 2021 regulatory process beyond the deadline of 30 June, all Formula 1 teams are understood by RaceFans to have agreed unanimously to the move. … The regulations are now due to be tabled at the next WMSC meeting, currently scheduled for 4 October.

    I guess this means barring some sort of really draconian clauses in the contracts that will be handed out in October all the teams will agree to the terms of the contract. Presumably they will also agree to turning up at the 2021 Pre-season Practice with a car that is almost completely compliant with the then current regulations.

  6. I hope you are right.

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