The new technical cycle that Formula 1 will officially begin next March in Bahrain has been defined in its guidelines by a technical group of Liberty Media wanted by Ross Brawn who operated under the guidance of Pat Symonds.
A team made up of about ten people, who laid the foundations on which the representatives of teams and FIAs later compared in the meetings of the Strategy Group and the F1 Commission.
On several occasions, and for several years, there are those who have highlighted the presence of a working group engaged in studying the regulations outside the FIA umbrella as an anomaly.
Other insiders have considered the Symonds team as a necessity, a group that has filled a void previously left by the International Federation, which in the past was too slow in its operation.
The Symonds team has streamlined the steps a lot, gaining trust and credibility on the part of the teams and bringing proposals to the table for comparison, obviously subject to the acceptance of the teams and above all to the approval of the FIA.
Within the International Federation there had long been the desire to bring every step aimed at defining new rules under its control. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, at the end of 2021 the FIA succeeded in its aim, convincing Liberty (for years against it) to take a step back. An important change, the one that took place in the London offices, came after years in which the Brawn-Carey tandem considered it strategic to secure an active role at the technical rules table.
Symonds has thus ended his tenure, and according to rumors that have emerged in recent weeks, even Brawn should not extend his stay in Liberty at the end of the current contract.
Everything will pass under the direct control of the FIA technical manager, Nikolas Tombazis, and according to recent rumors collected by Motorsport.com the International Federation is setting up its own offices in England to ensure the possibility of being able to keep the technical group that worked with Symonds.
Above all, the aim is not to dismember the group of six aerodynamic engineers (all with great experience in Formula 1) put together by Symonds, a risk that would become concrete in the event of an obligation to move to the FIA headquarters in Paris or Geneva.
There are also some insiders doubtful about the real will of the FIA to keep (under its own control) operational a structure like the one used by Liberty until the end of 2021, considering a return to the ancient one possible, that is to the discussion of ideas in the usual venues (Strategy Group and F1 Commission) without an advanced preliminary study.
A scenario, the latter, which, however, would go against the trend with the changes that Formula 1 has implemented in recent years, all aimed at streamlining and speeding up decision-making processes.
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