FIA Rules for 2016

[cosworth151]

The Technical and Sporting Regulations for F1 2016 are up on the FIA website:

http://www.fia.com/regulations

I've only had time for a quick scan but a few things stand out.

In the Sporting Regs -

On Page 3:

5.4 The maximum number of Events in the Championship is 20, the minimum is 8.

There are 21 events on the just-released F1 schedule for next year.

On page 46:

Appendix 4, 5) A manufacturer may apply to the FIA during the course of the homologation period to carry out modifications to their homologated power unit for the sole purposes of reliability, safety, cost-saving.

Applications must be made in writing to the FIA Technical Department and must provide all necessary supporting information including, where appropriate, clear evidence of failures. The FIA will circulate the correspondence to all manufacturers for comment. If the FIA is satisfied, in its absolute discretion, that these changes are acceptable, they will confirm to the manufacturer concerned that they may be carried out.

Sounds like they're making sure that if you miss the mark at the start of the year, you're sunk for the season. What a stupid, horrid idea.

[Jericoke]

I'm not really sure why they need to define min/max number of races.

Would solve a lot of problems if they had 5 engines over 8 races though!

So how is this for 'cost savings':
"Hey, FIA, this is Honda.  Look, we got the turbo wrong, and it has cost McLaren $500 million worth of sponsorship.  If we spend $3 million developing this new part, it will save $300 million for McLaren, factoring in the $3millon cost we pass along to them"

[Steve A.]

They are called 'sporting regs' however there isn't much 'sporting' about them. I've said it before the ridiculous cost saving ideas are costing the teams millions and the sport fans. It's the first time in over 25 years that I'm not really bothered if I miss a race.

[Scott]

Minimum 8 races?  What kind of a joke is that?  If there were 8 races in a season I can assure you I would never turn the TV to F1 again.  I really hope this is just a negotiating tool for Bernie - "Ha!  Monza is so special?  I can axe the entire European schedule and still be within the rules"

Not too pleased the maximum is only 20 as well.  Last time I checked it was 22 or so.  F1 could do more if they simply put together a thoughtful schedule, running back to back races in fly-away countries so there wasn't so much travel.  Why they visit Asia and North America more than once per season per is really nuts.  They could go to NA, do Brasil, Mexico, Austin and Canada all in one trip.  Same with Asia - Singapore, Japan, China, Malaysia and even Australia all in one big swing. 

And please don't say weather.   

[Jericoke]

Minimum 8 races?  What kind of a joke is that?  If there were 8 races in a season I can assure you I would never turn the TV to F1 again.  I really hope this is just a negotiating tool for Bernie - "Ha!  Monza is so special?  I can axe the entire European schedule and still be within the rules"

Not too pleased the maximum is only 20 as well.  Last time I checked it was 22 or so.  F1 could do more if they simply put together a thoughtful schedule, running back to back races in fly-away countries so there wasn't so much travel.  Why they visit Asia and North America more than once per season per is really nuts.  They could go to NA, do Brasil, Mexico, Austin and Canada all in one trip.  Same with Asia - Singapore, Japan, China, Malaysia and even Australia all in one big swing. 

And please don't say weather.   

Depending on the 8 races, I'd watch an 8 race season.  Don't get me wrong, I prefer more races, but if you look at the success of the NFL, part of it is the scarcity of games.  If an F1 race is given out to anyone with an oil well, it takes the value out of them, doesn't it?

Also, given how much the teams NEED* a vacation in the middle of the season, I can't see them agreeing to spend months of the season on the road. 

*yeah, I don't understand this 'need' either.  If you want summers off, become a teacher, not an F1 engineer.

[Scott]

I don't follow NFL, so have no idea, but 8 doesn't do it for me.  I would focus on a different sport or different type of motorsports.  I don't think the sponsors would be very pleased with an 8 race season considering the cash they are throwing at the sport, even Bernie's buddies - Rolex, UBS, DHL etc...

They could do the flyaway races in 4-5 week stretches back to back...I'd be ok with that, and then reward them with 3-4 weeks off before and after.  Plenty of time off with the family.  Anyone who works in a work camp (anything in the resource industry) pretty much anywhere in the world has a similar schedule and those families aren't falling apart.

[Alianora La Canta]

The need to define the maximum race count is to stop the calendar from getting overcrowded and losing viewers* (not to mention exhausting teams and forcing them to hire "second race teams" to balance the load). In other words, to stop Bernie from doing what he is attempting to do in 2016. Last time this was breached in 2002, Bernie paid the teams extra money, the FIA quietly re-wrote the rule and nobody except Paul Stoddart complained. How Bernie will do this for 2016, given that CVC now owns F1, is a mystery.

The maximum has never been 22, though occasionally mooted calendars with 22 dates have appeared and 2014's original "definite" calendar had 21 races. There was no limit before 1981, not that one was necessary. After the FISA/FOCA war, the limit was 16 until 1992, when Bernie added a clause allowing him to do 17 races if teams were adequetely compensated (first employed in 1997). The maximum permitted went up to 20 in 2002 (Bernie wanted an 18th race on the 2004 calendar and had the foresight to negotiate up to round figures).

It's been a long time since the minimum race count was tested in F1, but the FIA still insists on its presence because it will not award any series with fewer than 8 actual (not just scheduled) points-scoring rounds a world championship status unless force majuere applies. (You have wondered many a time what the FIA defines as an actual farce. In its eyes, that's exactly what a 7-race championship claiming to be a world championship would be). So every F1 season, as well as every WEC, WTCC, WRC and World Rallycross season, is required to specify the 8-race minimum, even if there is zero chance of the calender being so bare. (Other fun fact: world championships must visit at least 3 continents. So, for example, Bernie can never do a F1 season that is held only in the Middle East, however profitable, since you cannot do 3 countries that way).

This has been a problem for WEC because, when it was obliged to implement a rule for minimum green-flag distance to award points in 2014 following the Fuji 2013 debacle. They realised that another rain-out would mean they would only have 7 points-scoring events (instead of , which forced them to look hastily for a ninth round (it would have happened in 2015 but Brazil was no longer in a position to host a round, so the 9-round version will begin in 2016 with Mexico joining the calendar). I have happily watched 5-round series of ELMS and 8-round series of WEC for several years.

Don't worry about the engine regulation: it only makes the rule the same as in 2014, and in any case some of the engine manufacturers are lobbying to have 2015-style development... ...with more tokens, to boot.

Scott, the teams visit most flyaway areas twice a season because most circuits flat refuse to be scheduled next door to local rivals. Even a gap of six weeks has proven insufficient in some cases to avoid an effect where both races lose ticket sales and therefore are reduced in their capacity to afford Bernie fees. Even now, Malaysia and Singapore are complaining because both deem their races too close to each other. If Bernie loses both races to such actions, or even one, then it is unlikely to matter how big a fine he issues - the headlines would make other circuits realise they have more power than they think, with financial repercussions for F1 down the line. Mexico isn't in a position to negotiate being so close to the USA, but don't be surprised if Austin uses the doubling of its race with Mexico's to exert pressure on Bernie also. (There is also the climate issue: there is no time when you could plausibly do Austin/Mexico without melting when you could guarantee Montreal is even usable as a circuit).

Originally the "Sporting Regulations" were called that to avoid being confused with "Technical Regulations" - in other words, they are meant to determine everything non-car-design related that doesn't have a specialised document (so there's no document on marshalling arrangements, for example, due to that being in Article O of the International Sporting Regulations - that apply to F1 except where overruled by a Technical or Sporting Regulation). Max Mosley saw a loophole that allowed him to put stuff that is really a technical restriction in the sporting section, and that is why we now have a mish-mash of rules on the "sporting" bandwagon. Sportingness never had anything to do with it.

The teams need the mid-season break for a number of reasons; mechanic burnout is the biggest one, and the original reason. Teams have said that 22 races would oblige all of them to have second "race teams" (with concomitant increase in costs), so 20 is pretty marginal for a single "race team".

* - I know several people who would like to follow F1, or to follow all F1 races, but will not do so because they consider the time expenditure too onerous. 60 hours of race coverage including minimal build-up and analysis is too much for some fans.

[cosworth151]

I, too, doubt that the Baku race will happen. Just another money maker for Bernie.

For the first couple of years of the return to Indy, the USGP was in October. It was moved to the summer so that the teams would only have to make one trip to North America.

Back in the early to mid 1960's, F1 had 8-12 races a year. By way of comparison, next year's NASCAR Sprint Cup has 37 scheduled points races & 4 non-points races. Many people watch every one of them that they can. I used to be one of them. In the 1964 season, they had 62 points races. 35 were on paved ovals, 23 on dirt ovals & 4 on road courses.

[Scott]

60 hours of race coverage including minimal build-up and analysis is too much for some fans.

...and too little for others.  NHL Hockey broadcasts 7 nights a week from mid October until April and another couple months of playoffs 5-6 days a week.  Pre-game and post-game shows can draw it out to about 5hrs per game.  I've known people (2, actually) who had 3 TV's in their living room, two for games on different channels and a 3rd to play video games at the same time (yes, thanks for asking, they both are or were single).  Whenever my wife mentions anything critical about F1, I remind her that I could be a hockey fan...she usually stops there.

But seriously, as Jeri has also said, if they want summers off, they should have become school teachers, not F1 mechanics.  I really have no sympathy. 

[Irisado]

Also note that no teachers (be they in schools, further education, adult education, or higher education) actually get summers off.  They spend a lot of the summer preparing for the next academic year or conducting research that they could not do during the term, owing to the amount of work they are required to do.

Getting back to the topic at hand, more than twenty races is saturation and is probably a really strain on the resources of smaller teams too.  Also, I want to see quality not quantity.  In view of the current circuit preferences (both venues and the removal of gravel traps everywhere), excessive reliability, artificial aids (DRS), and inappropriate engine and cost cutting rules (costs need to be kept in check and cut, but the FIA is going about it the wrong way), I do not want to see the calendar expanded.

[Scott]

Also note that no teachers (be they in schools, further education, adult education, or higher education) actually get summers off.  They spend a lot of the summer preparing for the next academic year or conducting research that they could not do during the term, owing to the amount of work they are required to do.

Nice try.  I know a couple of teachers (they are a couple - she elementary school, he high school english).  They spent the past two summers in Dominican Republic.  They are considering buying property there to return every summer.  There is no WiFi where they were. 

They too whine about how much work they do, which is why they need those precious 7 weeks in summer to recuperate.   

My brother-in-law is going back to teachers college because his banking job doesn't give him enough time off (poor boy, only has 6 weeks paid vacation at the moment).

[Irisado]

I'm not going to get into a lengthy debate about this in this thread.  I will just say that having a family of teachers, and having spent the majority of my life in teaching of various different types, the cases you highlight are the exception and not the norm.


In other news, I am still bemused as to why it is that the FIA continues to think that five engines are sufficient.  In view of the ten place grid penalties issues to both Ferrari drivers for this weekend, and it's getting really silly.  I find this the most irritating of a set of very annoying engine rules.  They really do need to increase the number of engines which can be used per season if nothing else, otherwise, one day, I can see a situation where the majority of a grid is formed based on penalties.

[cosworth151]

It became apparent early in the season that it wouldn't be a question of if teams would get engine penalties, it would a matter of when the various teams would serve them.

Looking for any common sense in an FIA rule reminds me of an old Dave Allen joke. It's like a blind man in a dark room searching for a black cat that isn't there.

[Dare]

I don't follow NFL, so have no idea, but 8 doesn't do it for me.  I would focus on a different sport or different type of motorsports.  I don't think the sponsors would be very pleased with an 8 race season considering the cash they are throwing at the sport, even Bernie's buddies - Rolex, UBS, DHL etc...

They could do the flyaway races in 4-5 week stretches back to back...I'd be ok with that, and then reward them with 3-4 weeks off before and after.  Plenty of time off with the family.  Anyone who works in a work camp (anything in the resource industry) pretty much anywhere in the world has a similar schedule and those families aren't falling apart.

NFL has a 16 game regular season which I don't watch.They have
a few preseason exhibition games and if you make the playoffs and
if lucky go to the Super Bowl you have 20 or more games for the football Fans.Used to love football but as I got older I prefer to
watch criminals crime shows and not the NFL.