The FIA's rule plans. 2003, 2004 & 2005

[Snrub]

I really don't see the point of banning radio communication and telemetry (atleast 1 way).

Standard parts is a great change. It will make the cars closer and make the driver a more important part. There might even be passing. (gasp!) The standard wing would allow F1 to prevent terbulance issue from keeping passing from happening.

[Super Tourer]

F1 Chariot racing - I like it. Ben Hur for 2003 WDC then....LOL

[neilap]

I agree with getting rid of driver aids. However I think there should be communication between the cars and the pits. Maybe the only way to police it is to completely eliminate it. So in other words if a problem occurs again like what happened to DC in Monaco. He will be out of the race. Just what we need... more cars retiring. An engine for six races?? What the...? Well expect hp to be back to around 650 700 hp. What is considered an exotic material. Is carbon Fiber exotic? If so will be reduced to some heavy slow cars that get lost somewhere on the track and the pits not be able to find them, until a TV camera figures it out. Yeah smoke signals may be a good idea, that is one area Honda rules in

[Super Tourer]

"Two Formula One teams have disappeared in the past twelve months. Now that only ten teams are left, those remaining are obliged by the Concorde Agreement to finance and run two extra cars for each additional team which fails to attend an Event. By no means all of the teams would be able to do this. There is an obvious danger that unless something is done, the FIA Formula One World Championship will start to collapse during the next twelve months into a spiral of law suits and recrimination."

In my mind this is the significant quote from the FIA's statement. It's the final recognition from those in ivory towers that F1 is reaching game over in it's current form.

[PoweredByHonda]

I don't agree with some of the FIA's recommendations.

Standard Componants? Hello? This is Formula1 not Cart or F3000. The WHOLE point of this racing series is to be a construtor and create a car of your own design. That's one of the draws for me anyways, is to see the different innovative solutions these engineers come up with.

Having just one standard wing with "Monza" downforce conditions at a "Brazil" top speed is utter BULL-****! I quite enjoy aerodynamically efficient cars compared to an inefficient lemon. This takes away the spectacle of the most technologically advanced racing series in the world and makes it just another kit car series.

Standard brakes? Again, this detracts from the very spirit of F1, where you design and build your own components. With standard brakes, we would have never seen Ferrari's revolutionary brake system introduced two years ago.

The one engine rule maybe the worst of them all, I just can't fathom an engine going six races, and last time I checked, none of the engine suppliers were having financial trouble...

There are good bits to this new regulation banning traction control and all electronic gizmos. But Max Mosley et al have gone overboard with this whole "cost cutting" scheme. It's quite reminiscent of some of the useless safety measures that crept up after the death of Senna, ie grooved tires. I suppose when they figure it out, it will be too late as always... Sometime or other, it may dawn on some of these FIA brass that it wasn't the regulations that were killing F1, but the idiots in charge.

[Don K]

Originally posted by AdamAshmore
2003 Summary:
[5] place cars in parc fermé between final qualifying and the race (teams will be unable to work on them, except under strict supervision)

Does this mean that we won't have sunday morning warm up in 2003?

[Adam43]

Don I thought that. I'm sure the details will be made clear.

[M Coupe]

Don,

I hadn't though of it from that POV, but at least the mechanics will get an early night for once

[Ej10]

I am so happy. This guareentees that my favorite team Jordan are here to stay with its founder Eddie jordan at the helm. Looks like team redbull is extinct before it even started. Thank God the front wing is not to be standard. There will be so many anti jordan fans out there dissapointed with these new rules

[Inigo Montoya]

I'm with PoweredByHonda. This is F1, not NASCAR - and this should be the pinnacle of technology. This is nothing but a knee-jerk reaction by the FIA to lowered tv ratings due to an era of dominance by one team.

If you can't survive in F1, then get the hell out and go to CART or IRL or one of those series...

It really looks like it will go the way that David says... Soon, it'll just be hotted up road cars.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[Sato san]

this is just a superb new ruling......Drivers are gonna have to read their pit board agian !......

well done Max

[Asp]

Looks like I'm in a minority here - but what????

1/2 - telemetry. I'm all in favour of banning 2 way telemetry. I wouldn't mind that much banning the "live" telemetry that most teams (all bar Minardi, Sauber bought it this year) have. But what is to be gained by banning to once-a-lap update so you can see how the car is doing? It's also potentially a safety thing - if you can see that the car is going to fail you bring it in, saving further damage and potentially a serious accident if the car fails at speed.
3- radio communication. Again, essential for safety. Pit boards are sparse, limited, and one way. If the car feels funny, you radio into the team so they can check the telemetry and make a decision. You can hardly read your pit board at the speed you're travelling at, people may take their eyes off the battle to try and read it, car in front brakes - oh dear.
4 - No spare car. So when Michael's car fails at the beginning of the weekend, he can just commandeer Rubens' and leave him without a drive. Fine. Will this be banned? It'd be much fairer to impose a NASCAR-style sanction - you change chassis, you go to the back of the grid - sort thing (maybe 10 places as per the F1-tint on things): then grids are not disected because 4 drivers wrote their cars off before the race.
5 - I can see the logic here, it also prevents the super-qualifying cars. That said, there has ALWAYS been a difference between qualifying and race set-up, and by doing this and not giving the teams time to change set up either qualifying times will be slashed (not too bad), or race times will go up as reliabilty drops.
6 - Driver Aids. My, my, my, what a turn-around. They feel they have to unban them because they can't police them, and then they go and ban them again. Has there been a major advance in F1-style detective work in the past 18 months that I missed?
7 - Common components. Like everyone else, I can't comment on this because it is just so vague. Some parts, maybe good. But how many? Which ones? Sorry, I just don't buy it.

And I shall voice my opinion on the possible changes for the next few years shortly

[The Other Chris]

holy sh_t is all i can say. i mean wow.... this is really ganna cause some controversy this season and along with the new points system and qualifying this might be one of the most interesting seasons in a while. Ferrari will still win because they have the best gearbox among other things but whatever...

[Inigo Montoya]

Well, there is always Premier F1.

[Damon]

Asp, they managed without all that stuff for 40 years.

[Super Tourer]

In reality the FIA were backed into a corner on this one. If they'd tinkered with the rules we'd be all be saying 'too little - too late'.

They know that Ferrari, McLaren and Williams will never 'agree' on cost cutting measures, purely on the basis that none trust the other to truly implement them.

Look how McLaren have been rubbing everyone's nose in it by announcing a new, or extension of a 'partnership' almost every week - in other words 'we don't need to cut cost's, we have a full budget and some'

Only this week DC was wheeling out the 'football analogy' to moan about the new qualifying rules. Yet F1 is currently like having Cambridge FC against Liverpool week in week out.......

[Inigo Montoya]

Yeah, but standardized parts? In an F1 car? This is terrible news.

[Damon]

thats one very small part Inigo, you have to admit that F1 has gone too far in its current state. At least this way the difference will be the drivers again and not 600 boffins sitting in some factory thousands of miles away.

[Super Tourer]

Reaction to the regulations.....

www.pitpass.com

Support for new regulations
15-01-2003


Team boss Eddie Jordan was one of the first to give the 'thumbs up' to the FIA's new proposals.
The Irishman's team has been hard hit by the recent cut backs in F1 advertising, losing primary sponsor Deutsche Post while needing to find the money to finance his supply of Ford power-plants.

"This was the most positive day in my Formula One career," he said as he left today's meeting. "There was total unanimity between all parties involved in the sport, the FIA, FOM and all the teams, concerning cost savings which are enormously beneficial to the sport.

"Everyone has come to realise that the show is the most important element," he continued. "And we have restructured Formula One accordingly in a way which is good for everyone, including Jordan.

"I'm really looking forward to going racing again," he added.

Meanwhile according to Reuters, FIA President Max Mosley was in no doubt about how the meeting would go: "Once they got over the shock it all went down quite well," he said. "Our position is that we are a little bit like Mayor Giuliani (the former New York Mayor). "We have gone over to zero tolerance. We could have probably been more insistent so now we decided we would impose them (the new regulations) to the letter."

Meanwhile Jordan's director of race and test engineering Gary Anderson told the team's website that he welcomes the changes: "I think they're great," he said. "Giving the car back to the driver is important and a very positive thing. There has been a lot of talk about change recently but we can trust the FIA to make this happen and we can get on with racing."

[Super Tourer]

Standard parts....without wishing to be too rose tinted, back in the early 80's just about every car had a Cosworth DFV engine and a Hewland gearbox - the racing was great....!!!

[CleanTone]

Is it only my but all these appear in a huge haste and IMHO, only about 70% is OK, which is very little given the situation and the time they had to prepare the decision.

[The Other Chris]

Actually now that ive read more i think that the fia needs to review some of their future plans. perhaps they could designate a specific type of brake/manufacturer but keep it carbon. I agree that the manufacturer teams should be willing to supply engines to privateer teams who request them at a reasonable price, say by giving them an older specification much like what is done today. It's good that tc,lc and two way telemetry are banned so that carmakers can concentrate on making good chassis and not just outstanding computers. i do think that car to pit telemetry should be allowed however so that the setup can be found more easily. From 2004 max should reintroduce slicks and put in the one engine per weekend rule and stop there. Having the same engine for more than one race is ridiculous as is standardized parts. That doesnt mean teams cant share parts though. Also i think that the friday morning teams should not be allowed to use telemetry in their cars if the other teams cant because that would give them an unfair advantage come raceday.

[Inigo Montoya]

Originally posted by Damon
thats one very small part Inigo, you have to admit that F1 has gone too far in its current state. At least this way the difference will be the drivers again and not 600 boffins sitting in some factory thousands of miles away.

I know you would like to see the driver be the difference... and I understand that the driver should probably have a bigger role...

But... what the heck is WRONG with the CARS (or at least the driver/car combo)being the difference, rather than just the drivers. We already have lots of series where the cars are all the same, do we really need F1 to go in that direction as well?

What the heck are we going to talk about at this time of the year in 2007? Not the BAR launch, or the Sauber launch, or the Jordan launch - it'll be the launch of the *******' FIA "standard" car...

This is a joke. The real solution would have been to introduce profit sharing (instead of making multi-billionaires out of Bernie and Max) and a spending cap - to keep costs low and help out smaller teams.

[Super Tourer]

The view from www.grandprix.com


But what about the immediate problems?
The FIA's cost-cutting plan for Formula 1 has one obvious flaw: it does nothing to help the teams which are in trouble right now. There are two teams - Jordan and Minardi - which are thought to not have the budget to get through the current season largely because both have to pay huge sums for a supply of engines. This problem should be solved within a year or two because the manufacturers will have to agree to supply all the teams involved but at the moment the engine bills are what is killing the little teams.

None of the cost-cutting measures which have been announced will do a great deal to help that situation, although the ban on spare cars will reduce transportation costs and will also probably reduce the number of staff needed at each race. This will not amount to millions of dollars and so the two small teams are still facing problems - unless the other teams come to their assistance. We hear rumours that this was discussed at the Heathrow meeting but at the moment there are no details of what (if anything) has been agreed.

[Asp]

Originally posted by Damon
Asp, they managed without all that stuff for 40 years.

Exactly - including those common components things...

The thing is that F1 evolves, to be safer and to be the pinnalce of motorsport, both in term of driver ability and technology. These regulations are back-pedalling, and losing the essence of F1 as the best.

They managed without radios for loads of years - and yet, when they came to be used, even if indirectly it made F1 safer. And how the 'best' series in the world can be lacking technology that even some national series posess is just a daft suggestion.