FIA invites teams to suggest 2011 rules

[Dave B]

The FIA have released a document suggesting that from 2011 costs should be reduced, and that teams should make their complete drivetrains (complete with KERS) avaiable to independent teams at a "reasonable" cost. Funny how they don't want customer cars, but...

Also they propose a 20% increase in fuel efficience, increasing to 50% by 2015. Sounds expensive...

They would "not exclude the possibility of flexible aerodynamics".

The document can be found here: http://www.fia.com/public/new_2011_rules.pdf

The accompanying letter basically gives the teams three months to come up with proposals, otherwise the FIA will impose its own rules.

Discuss, as they say.

[Mark]

I wonder if we will see a return to limited fuel. That was widely discredited at the time.

[DezinerPaul]

The FIA have released a document suggesting that from 2011 costs should be reduced, and that teams should make their complete drivetrains (complete with KERS) avaiable to independent teams at a "reasonable" cost. Funny how they don't want customer cars, but...

Also they propose a 20% increase in fuel efficience, increasing to 50% by 2015. Sounds expensive...

They would "not exclude the possibility of flexible aerodynamics".

The document can be found here: http://www.fia.com/public/new_2011_rules.pdf

The accompanying letter basically gives the teams three months to come up with proposals, otherwise the FIA will impose its own rules.

Discuss, as they say.

90 days, that means they are not interested in what the teams say, otherwise they would have given them enough time to present some proper proposals!

[cosmicpanda]

90 days, that means they are not interested in what the teams say, otherwise they would have given them enough time to present some proper proposals!

I doubt that the teams haven't been considering such ideas in advance. If they haven't given some thought to the future they're fools.

[Robinho]

at least they are offering the teams an opportunity to shape the rules, even if they won't remotely agree with each other and probably won't have time to put a full proposal together -that said the teams must have plenty of ideas where things should be headed, and if they have half a brain between them, it would make sense for them to lock themselves in a room together and see if they can come up with a few ideas they all like.

i think fuel limits could work well, the sport needs to be seen to be promoting efficiency and it could lead to some different approaches to a common goal, plus IMO it has added a certain something to Moto GP.

[ioan]

90 days, that means they are not interested in what the teams say, otherwise they would have given them enough time to present some proper proposals!

90 days is more than enough time to come up with good proposals.

However the teams have a history of not being able to agree on anything, this is the real problem they have. The stubbornness of some teams to always pull against the main stream is well known.

So let's not start criticizing the FIA for giving them, again, the chance to have the rules they would like to have.

[ArrowsFA1]

This is slightly different to Max's normal tactic, which is to suggest something deliberately controversial/impractical (i.e. F2), challenge those involved to come up with their own ideas, and we normally end up with something completely different to any of the suggestions in the end!

Is F1 really unsustainable? Is the number of people employed by the teams any of the FIA's concern? Isn't it for the manufacturers to decide whether their spend on F1 is acceptable or not? Has KERS really led sponsors to stay in the sport?

[Mark]

Tjhe FIA *does* need to worry about sustainability. There has been situations many times in other motorsports such as BTCC and WRC where costs have escalated to such an extent that the majority of manufacturers decide to quit the sport as its no longer value for money. This leaves the sport all the weaker for the lack of competition and makes the remaining manufacturers even less likely to stick around.

[ioan]

Is F1 really unsustainable? Is the number of people employed by the teams any of the FIA's concern? Isn't it for the manufacturers to decide whether their spend on F1 is acceptable or not?

Yes it's the FIA's concern. Let's face it world's economy is going through a rough patch, a very rough one. Manufacturers will ditch their F1 efforts in a fraction of a second if it will please their shareholders. Having costs down to about half of the current level would help a lot in keeping the existing teams and improving the chances for new teams to join.

Has KERS really led sponsors to stay in the sport?

Sponsors wouldn't care if the cars were powered with the Flinstones method as long as the TV exposure is at the highest level.

[ArrowsFA1]

Manufacturers will ditch their F1 efforts in a fraction of a second if it will please their shareholders.

But that's always been the case. Nothing new there.