F1 "postpone" 2022 sporting changes by 12 months

Formula 1

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F1 "postpone" 2022 sporting changes by 12 months

Masi relayed a consensus among teams to delay the changes

Sam Hall

Wednesday 20 October 2021 05:00

FIA race director Michael Masi has confirmed Formula 1 will postpone making wholesale changes to the sporting regulations until 2023 giving teams time to focus on the technical changes of next season.

F1 will race to an entirely new set of technical regulations in 2022 with cars set to look radically different in a bid to improve the spectacle and allow for closer racing.

In a bid to allow teams more time to fully understand the new regulations, Masi revealed the rewritten sporting rules will be placed on hold for a year although some necessary changes will still filter through.

“It was a consensus with the teams actually," explained Masi.

"I knew I had a lot of work ahead of me but a number of them said straight out that with all of the other things that we have going on with new cars etcetera, let’s do ourselves all a favour with finetuning what we have.

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"Grab all the elements that have changed in ’22, put them in the known format that we have because with everything else happening next year with the new car, let’s go for something known rather than something completely unknown where we’re all just going to be flying a bit blind and not as used to it."

“Let’s do that. Postpone it until 2023, get all of the relevant elements that were changed in the ’22 regulations will be brought into the current format.”

Changes that will be made include the reduction of a weekend from four days to three days through the removal of the traditional Thursday media day as well as various aspects related to the sprint qualifying format. Asked if the FIA will definitely introduce the full, updated sporting regulations in 2023, Masi added: “Yes, we will. For ’23 is the aim.

"The sporting directors have all clearly acknowledged together with all of that, with all of the various management of Covid requirements and so forth that everyone’s time to get their head around that is something that they would prefer just to put off for 12 months.”