The FIA has confirmed a further extension to Formula 1’s mandatory factory shutdowns for both chassis and engine constructors.
A shutdown period of 63 consecutive days must now be observed by teams, running through “March, April, May and/or June”. The original shutdown period was due to last for two weeks in August, but has been brought forwards and extended due to the global pandemic.The new shutdown period for power unit manufacturers has also been extended, to 49 days. Both changes have been formally approved by the FIA World Motor Sport Council.
Both chassis and power unit manufacturers may apply to the FIA to “use the services of a maximum of 10 personnel to work remotely on long lead-time projects” towards the end of the shutdown periods. Chassis manufacturers can notify the FIA 50 days after the start of their shutdown periods, and engine manufacturers may do the same after 36 days.
Formula 1 teams closed their factories in March and early April following the disruption to the start of the 2020 season, and several have put staff members on furlough or similar programmes.
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ColdFly (@)
28th April 2020, 22:43
Great factual story.
But based on the amount of comments after 6 hours not as interesting as Ferrari leaving or musing to use its veto, who is the cleanest driver, how many races we will have this year, or if we can race in the opposite direction.
TK (@oeuribe)
29th April 2020, 1:31
The problem about facts is that they don’t spur discussion. What is there to argue or comment about this? It is almost a logical consequence from the world we live now.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
29th April 2020, 3:55
I find it interesting that the FIA is extending shutdowns of factories and PU plant while Liberty is busily talking up a fantastic revised new season.
With shut downs in place, will some teams struggle to have sufficient spare parts if indeed Liberty manage to get two sets of double header races kicked off right from their planned start.
BasCB (@bascb)
29th April 2020, 8:37
I think just about any team needs about 5 weeks to unpack everything from Australia, check things, and prepare for the next event – since they didn’t actually race in Australia, they wouldn’t need new parts made for the first race @dbradock!
But if they are going into double headers, then i presume the teams would have been able to manufacture those, since they would have already counted on having to have parts ready for the second and third races.