FIA close Mercedes' qualifying loophole

Mercedes' qualifying dominance of recent years may not be a factor in 2018, after the FIA moved to close loopholes the Silver Arrows had exploited to make Saturday gains. Race director Charlie Whiting hopes qualifying sessions will be closer after new regulations were drafted to govern teams' use of oil burn.

Mercedes qualified on pole in 15 of the 20 races last season, Lewis Hamilton eclipsing Michael Schumacher's record in the process.

Ferrari shared the other five between Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, with rivals Red Bull often left vocal critics of their practices on Saturdays.

Burning oil had given Mercedes a huge advantage over one lap and Red Bull team principal Christian Horner voiced concerns that the low volumes involved in those short bursts of running would be difficult to govern.

But Whiting moved to calm those fears, by laying down the FIA's new rules.

"We've closed down all the things that they were able to do last year, mainly via oil spec," explained Whiting.

"Not only was oil being burned a little, but they were putting things in the oil to aid combustion, because there was no real oil spec last year. Now there is.

"Now they have to approve oils. They can only use approved oils, so they give us a sample just like they do with fuel, and that has to be approved and that is the only oil that they can use.

"We've tightened up the engine rules in Article 5 of the Technical Regulations, and we've also routed the breather that can no longer go back into the air intake which was the biggest issue.

"That has to go out the back like virtually every other racing car in the world. And we've told them they can't use more than 0.6 litres per 100 km. All those things combined I think will do the job."