F1 bosses have agreed to bring back refueling in '17 as part of a "range of measures aimed at making the sport more exciting," according to Andrew Benson of the BBC. The FIA said that there will also be "higher revving and louder engines" and changes aimed at making cars "five to six seconds a lap faster." For '16, bosses have approved a plan to "allow teams free choice of the four available tyre compounds for each race." The changes "still need to be approved by two further legislative stages." The engine rules, "which saw the introduction of turbo hybrid engines and a fuel restriction last year, will remain stable." This is to "give clarity for any potential new manufacturers who may be considering entering the sport." But it is the return of refueling that will "attract the most attention" -- the practice was last permitted in '09. Mercedes Exec Dir Toto Wolff said, "We discussed many topics. Refueling was banned because of cost and because the pit stops were taking too long. But we want to re-explore it and see if we can make pit stops for fuel and tires happen in the same time it takes to change the tires now -- two to three seconds. We have agreed to explore this avenue and the cost involved because it could be spectacular. If it's too expensive, we won't do it." There has been "mounting criticism of the spectacle provided by F1 in recent years and the developments are a clear attempt to address that." Drivers have been critical that the cars are "too slow -- in some races they are up to 10 seconds slower" than in '04 (BBC, 5/15). In London, Jonathan McEvoy reported the strategy group -- comprising the FIA, six leading teams and F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone -- said that "they will also look into a 'global reflection on race weekend format' and 'measures to make starts only activated by the driver without any outside assistance,' which sounded welcome" (DAILY MAIL, 5/15). The BBC reported satisfying Ecclestone's "demand for more noise, while retaining the hybrids, which was important to the engine manufacturers" -- and increasing the fuel-flow limit would have meant an "expensive redesign to enable engines to cope with what would have been vastly increased power outputs in qualifying." The fuel-flow limit -- which has driven the engineers to develop F1 engines with thermal efficiency in excess of 40% -- is also "central to the development route of these engines -- raise it, and they become far less relevant to current road car research." On that front, these new engines have been a "conspicuous success." Last weekend at the Spanish Grand Prix, Mercedes engine boss Andy Cowell was talking about "how the device that recovers energy from the turbocharger -- which has been criticised as unnecessary and expensive -- will soon be adopted in road cars on a widespread basis" (BBC, 5/16).
New F1 Rules At A Glance
|
| The change |
The outcome |
Aerodynamic rules evolution,
wider tires, reduction of car weight
|
Faster cars (five to six-second drop in lap times) |
Reintroduction of refueling
(maintaining a maximum race fuel allowance) |
Faster cars and potentially better tire life
|
| Higher-revving engines |
Louder cars |
NO HELP AT HAND: In London, Kevin Eason wrote F1's richest teams "thumbed their noses at their poorer rivals" and started plans for "life without them." At a "crucial meeting" of the F1 strategy group to plot the future of the sport, the four independent teams, Force India, Lotus, Sauber and Manor Grand Prix, were told what they already knew -- "there is no help at hand." F1 majority shareholder CVC Capital Partners Chair Donald Mackenzie "turned up to see for himself how ineffective the tripartite gathering could be when searching for a strategy." He discovered a sport "riven in two, with the haves clinging on to their riches and the have-nots told to make do and mend, or pack up and leave." No longer will the path be open to entrepreneurs, such as Eddie Jordan or Frank Williams, "who launched teams on a shoestring" yet became grand prix winners. Instead, the result is that "at least two leading teams -- thought to be Ferrari and Red Bull -- will be asked to field extra cars to cover any absences if a small squad goes bust." Ecclestone said that small teams "could run two customer cars for a season" for about £15M ($23.6M), instead of as much as £60M ($94.4M) to £100M ($157M) as they do now. McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes "all refused to budge on redistributing prize money" (
LONDON TIMES, 5/15).
