Today the Formula 1 Commission met for the fourth and final time during the 2023 season and did so in Yas Marina, home of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the last act of the World Championship before the winter break.
The commission, chaired by Nikolas Tombazis (director of the FIA single-seater sector) and Stefano Domenicali, president and CEO of Formula 1, took decisions on several important aspects linked to the future of the world championship Circus. Let’s go and discover them.
Sprint format for 2024
The commission worked hard to find a better rationalization of the format that was used again this year, trying to better divide the day dedicated to the Sprint shifts compared to the rest of the ordinary weekend.
The calendar linked to the races that will host the format in 2024, however, has not been made official or released. This will arrive over the next few weeks. The regulation that regulates the Parc Fermé has come under the magnifying glass of the commission. The final proposal in this regard will be presented at the first F1 Commission meeting scheduled for 2024.
One of the ideas for changing the format is to bring the Sprint Shootout to Friday afternoon, instead introducing Qualifying for the Sunday race to Saturday morning. The concern, however, is that an accident could greatly damage a driver for the rest of the weekend.
The idea suggested on several occasions by Christian Horner, i.e. the reversed grid in the Sprint Race, was also considered, especially if this were to stop providing valid points for world titles. There are two versions taken into consideration: the inversion of the Top 10 and the inversion of the entire starting grid.
Tyres: goodbye to tyrewarmers, but not only
The F1 Commission also agreed to abandon the ban on tyrewarmers for 2025. A decision that the commission justified with the following words.
“The Commission agreed that the direction of development for future tires should be focused on reducing overheating problems and improving tire handling, so it was decided to maintain tire warmers for the 2025 season.”
Goodbye to ATA from 2024
Alternative Tire Allocation will also disappear next year, which we were able to observe on a couple of occasions in qualifying this year. The commission decided to continue with 13 sets of dry tyres, the standard used for most of the current season, thus making the format proposed and implemented only on two occasions disappear.
Test to improve visibility in the rain
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Another very important chapter of the meeting was linked to the project to improve visibility in wet sessions and races. The next tests to test solutions that can improve things are scheduled for spring 2024.
In this test, components will be used that will cover the wheels, so as to reduce the misting effect which is so annoying to those following. The test will serve to better understand the type of design needed to have a good result and which path to follow in the future.
It will improve cooling for riders
As you will remember, the Qatar Grand Prix, held in Losail, was perhaps one of the toughest of the last decade for the drivers from a physical point of view due to the extreme weather conditions.
For this reason the commission agreed to push to improve the conditions of the cockpits, in order to provide greater refreshment for drivers in races in extremely hot temperatures.
From 2024 the regulation will be amended to allow the introduction of a duct that can improve cooling for riders, while other options will be considered for extreme conditions.
It should be underlined that the idea of the ventilation duct had already been proposed for the current season, but as far as we know, a team opposed it and the proposal was therefore rejected.
Other safety rules
Cooling, of course, but not only. The commission also made changes to the regulations to reduce the risk that metal components on the bottom of the single-seaters could cause damage to other cars in the event of detachment.
Development of the 2026 single-seaters
In this case, the F1 Commission’s statement was more dry. Just a line and a half, but significant.
“The commission agreed that work on the development of the 2026 single-seaters cannot begin before the beginning of 2025”, therefore in just over a year.
Everything the F1 Commission decided at today’s meeting in Yas Marina is subject to approval by the World Motorsport Council. The next one – i.e. the last one of 2023 – will be held on December 6th in Baku.
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