Formula 1 is to discuss postponing the introduction of new regulations, originally planned for next season, in light of the disruption caused by the Coronavirus.
The 2021 rules include radical changes to the design of cars in order to improve the quality of racing, plus new financial regulations to impose a spending limit on teams.The new rules package is a key part of commercial rights holder Liberty Media’s plan to make the sport more affordable, competitive and popular. They have been under discussion for years and were set for implementation after agreement on the proposals was reached in 2019.
However in the face of the unprecedented disruption to the start of this year caused by the Coronavirus, discussions are being held today between F1, the FIA and the teams on delaying the introduction of the new rules package.
Speaking to the official F1 website, Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said the decision requires careful consideration.
“We will have a conference call with all the other teams, F1 and FIA to discuss the situation and the impact it has not only on this season but also on the next one,” he said.
“We must carefully evaluate every aspect and see if it is not really the case to think about possibly postponing the introduction of the new 2021 technical rules. In any case, Ferrari is ready to take responsibility for a choice that must be made in the ultimate interest of this sport, it is certainly not the time for selfishness and tactics.”
Formula 1 has cancelled its first four race dates of 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic and further disruption to the calendar is expected.
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Dan Rooke (@geekzilla9000)
19th March 2020, 9:55
Completely understandable.
Although I am desperate to see the new regulation cars, an extra season under current spec could be spectacular with the gaps between teams coming down each season (massive presumption I know – but generally after a change in regs you see a convergence of performance between teams after a few years of a team (or two) dominating).
Green Flag (@greenflag)
19th March 2020, 14:47
The pandemic will take at least 6 months from now to eradicate, maybe longer (3 to 4 months to bring it under control, 3 to 4 months to ensure it won’t restart), so we’ll be lucky to get 6 or 7 races in this year, which is not really enough to decide a championship. Using the 2020 cars for the 2021 season makes total sense.
Andy Townsend
19th March 2020, 9:55
I think it’s enviable and I think it will save the teams a lot of money as why bin a car you may not race this year?
I think if we will be lucky to have half a season this year and if so, carry the cars over for the 2021 season. Maybe even freeze development on they after a certain point to save even money and more importantly jobs.
Teams can’t spend money pointlessly as let’s face it, we are all this together and wondering if we will have a job the other side of this.
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
19th March 2020, 9:59
Again, I stand behind my words that this wouldn’t be the best solution. If something can be done, make FIA severely restrict budgets of those who spend 200m plus for 2021, for example give them a fixed sum of what they can spend for the reminder of this year. If the rules get postponed for 2022, bigger teams will pump unbelievable sums into the new rules not only now, but will also find ways of how to avoid the budget cap next year (Red Bull-Alpha Tauri and Mercedes-Racing Point are crystal clear examples). And then what – smaller teams will be 3s off come 2022 season and they will pull ou of the sport either way.
Don’t postpone anything.
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
19th March 2020, 11:10
Of course the FIA has to make sure, that the “Big-3” don’t spend huge amounts of money to get a technical advantage over the rest of the field, if the regs would get postpone and stay within the budget cap. There is no doubt about that.
But the problem is this year! The teams pumped a lot of money into development for this year’s cars and now we don’t know when or if they are to race at all.
There are scenarios for the end of the pandemic which go from mid-May to mid-July. If the latter one is the case, we could end up with as little as 13 races (that’s 9 lost races!) – starting in late July with Hungaroring-Zandvoort-Silverstone-Spa-Monza-Singapore-Sochi-Suzuka-Austin-Mexico-Interlagos-Bahrain-Abu Dhabi (possibly China can get also a spot in between, wich would make it 14 at most).
That would be a huge loss for all teams and especially the small ones! They might not make to 2021!
kuvemar
19th March 2020, 12:29
Should they just recycle this years’ cars? There won’t be any racing in 2020, that much is clear.
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
19th March 2020, 13:05
I wouldn’t immediately jump to such catastrophic conclusions. We still don’t know how the virus reacts to the warmer weather and the start of the season in early June is in my opinion a perfectly realistic option.
SteveR
19th March 2020, 14:20
Predictions are virus case numbers will peak in late May to early June, so not realistic at all. It’s time to bite the bullet and cancel the season.
ColdFly (@)
19th March 2020, 14:36
Just check the current spread on the Southern Hemisphere, and what F1’s reaction was.
David
19th March 2020, 10:00
There may be a bunch of low mileage chassis at the end of the year so makes sense to use them again for next year and look at it again for ’22. With races being postponed will F1 and the FIA look after the teams? Prize money is a big deal for their survival.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
19th March 2020, 10:46
While I agree there are teams at risk, I’m not sure either Liberty or the FIA can do much to help here.
The FIA is a governing body for motorsport and aspects of the automotive industry (e.g. road safety). They are defined as a non-profit organizaation, and I don’t think they have a significant revenue stream, definitely not one large enough to be giving bailouts.
I agree that Liberty manage significant revenue streams, but that is again contingent on them keeping the show going – something that they are not able to do at present, and there is doubt over when they can resume. If they can’t conduct races, it is likely they’ll have to refund race hosting fees to specific venues, and based on how TV contracts are written there might be a need to return licensing fees paid by broadcasters (I’ve read that some TV contracts expect 15 or more races in a season in exchange for the payment broadcasters make). With the situation as fluid as it is, Liberty cannot be confidently predict how many races would take place (and when), so they might want to keep what money they have at hand “in the bank” so as to be able to make such repayments in case such a need arises. Insurance might cover them for last-minute situations like Australia, but advance cancellations like that of Vietnam and others might not benefit from insurance cover.
Finally, as a publicly traded organization, they also have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders, and handing out money to teams might be questioned – it might be argued that there is a long-term benefit to Liberty by ensuring their participating teams are kept solvent and afloat (to safeguard the value of F1 in its entirety), but shareholders might expect something in exchange for such a bailout, which commonly takes the form of picking up a stake in the teams being bailed out. And that opens up another can of worms, because it would look decidedly unusual to have the commercial rights holder of a sport owning a stake in some of the teams.
So while teams might struggle, I don’t think it would be a good idea for them to go looking at Liberty or the FIA for financial assistance. It might come down to teams looking at the local government for assistance, seeing as how teams (and their associated suppliers) going under will spike unemployment, which is something governments try to manage.
JC
19th March 2020, 11:24
F1 is so unique as a sport where you race what you’ve designed and built. It makes total sense to postpone the regulation change and I’d be all for mandating the 2020 season car designs are used for 2021, so development just ticks on over a short winter break.
Let’s face it, we just want to see racing. We don’t really care about radically different cars in the short term.
AliceD (@aliced)
19th March 2020, 11:57
There is not too much racing with the current cars, you need to be two seconds faster to be able to overtake with the current cars, they are rubbish at racing closely behind each other.
Kurik
19th March 2020, 13:04
Agreed. Seems ppl are forgetting the whole reason behind the new regulations for next year is to provide better racing than we are currently getting. It’s very shortsighted to think otherwise. Humans are a funny lot. No delays in regulation please! Though that will fall on deaf ears I am sure. Sigh.
JC
19th March 2020, 14:33
There has been some great racing, and the cars were only getting closer towards the end of last season!
Maybe the podium places are only contested by a handful right now, but the battle for 4th down has been entertaining. Some real battles both on track and via strategy in the 2019 season.
Chris Robinson
19th March 2020, 11:50
If the regulation change gets postponed until 2022, will that mean DAS will still be legal next year as the banning was written into the 2021 regulations?
vjanik (@vjanik)
19th March 2020, 11:55
The first half of the season will most likely not happen. So they could run the cancelled races next year (Melbourne, Bahrain, China, Vitenam etc). A 2020/2021 season.
Then start the new rules in 2022.
glynh (@glynh)
19th March 2020, 13:08
Keeping the rules the same for next season is probably the most sensible decision at this point. Even as the virus subsides in some countries it will be in others so travels going to be hard for a long time.
The only issue is if there are new teams who have invested in the new regulations.
ColdFly (@)
19th March 2020, 14:50
I vaguely recall Brawn stating that no new team would enter in 2021, @glynh.
Cristiano Ferreira
19th March 2020, 15:01
One way to make everyone start more or less the same in terms of pace was if FIA made mandatory that the teams must race with spec chassis. The same for everyone. “Here, we have this spec chassis for every one of you to race with for one year. After that one year each one of you are free to develop it the way you like”
With that in mind every team has the chance to study the spec chassis for one year and see where it could evolve and each one will bring solutions of their own.
Another question is… what is going to happen with the DAS once they homologate the 2020 cars to race in 2021? I read somewhere that if things goes this way they (FIA, Liberty) would block new chassis and only aerodinamics upgrades were going to be allowed.
Thing is, this would suits Mercedes even more, because i think that not every chassis can install DAS that easily, when the Mercedes one was designed around it. Am I wrong?
Cristiano Ferreira
19th March 2020, 15:06
Note: When i said about spec chassis, i was referring to the new one planned to launch in 2021.
With that FIA would make the teams race with the spec chassis that has low costs compared to the ones the teams are currently developing, thus providing an equal pace among them, while they study it to bring forward their own designs for 2022.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
19th March 2020, 15:59
Man, you totally left out the most important bit! :-)
Yeah, building a spec chassis on the 2021/22 regs is a good idea, and will help to give teams some manner of a baseline to start with, something that the poorer midfield teams would appreciate. They can then evolve that either in 2021 itself, or in 2022.
Cristiano Ferreira
19th March 2020, 17:10
All that while reducing costs to poorer teams like Williams, and annuling the risks of “copies” like that pink mercedes, thus boosting the creativity of all teams to come up with their own designs.
I really don’t know why they don’t implement something like this.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
19th March 2020, 16:41
Firstly, delaying the new rules would mean delaying the introduction of the budget and staff caps, which is essential. I don’t see any reason why this should be delayed. Secondly, considering we are looking at a reduced TV rights payout for all teams, it is essential that those Special Bonuses and such like be scrapped.
Thirdly, it may already be too late to not go ahead with the 2021 rules for technical reasons. For example, say Pirelli have already signed contracts that mean they won’t be able to make the 13 inch tyres next year, what then? So yes, I agree with Mattia, this needs to be looked into carefully.
I’m not sure why he says “Ferrari is ready to take responsibility for a choice that must be made in the ultimate interest of this sport”. This is absolutely the time to step back from invoking their right of veto, not that it applies here. As I understand it, this is a case where every team has to agree to the change in the rules, so every team has the right of veto. Even if for some reason Ferrari did have some special right in regards to carrying over the current technical regulations to next season, I think they’d be fools to do something other than what the majority of teams want.