2023 FIA Formula One World Championship Formula 1 Commission Meeting 21.02.23
The Formula 1 Commission held its first meeting of 2023 in London today, February 21, ahead of the start of the new season. With teams and drivers soon to travel to Bahrain for the official pre-season test and inaugural Grand Prix, the Commission discussed and approved the key regulatory changes to be implemented in the coming year, with the meeting of Formula 1 Presidents and CEO Stefano Domenicali and newly appointed FIA Single Seater Director Nikolas Tombazis.
Below is an overview of the most important discussion points and decisions.
Rain tires and rain weather package
After successful testing by Pirelli, Pirelli, with the support of teams, has developed a rain tire that performs much better than the previous specification – this tire does not require any tire casings.
The tire construction will be available from the 2023 FIA Formula 1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
The F1 Commission approved this tire specification change.
In addition, the FIA is grateful for the teams’ offers of support for the wet weather package project as presented at the last F1 Commission meeting. A technical guideline is being prepared to allow teams to carry out such work outside of the aerodynamic testing (ATR) constraints and cost cap. Track tests are planned for the second or third quarter of 2023.
Radio messages between teams and drivers
The Commission approved the proposal to relax regulation of radio communications to and from drivers at any time during a competition.
Parc Fermé for events that include a sprint session
In the context of reducing the current excessive workload of the FIA’s technical staff and scrutineers at events involving a sprint session, the Commission approved a revised parc fermé policy for accepting applications, where the sprint weekend includes a parc fermé Greater scope for replacing vulnerable components allows for damage and increased use of self-declared parc fermé forms. This applies to the entire parc fermé period from the car leaving for qualifying on Friday until the car starts the race. This is implemented via a technical guideline.
circuit changes
The FIA confirmed various updates and changes to tracks for the upcoming season:
- Saudi Arabia – Major changes are to improve corner entry visibility wherever possible
- Azerbaijan – the route will be completely resurfaced
- Miami – the route will be completely repaved
- Zandvoort – The distance between the pit stop positions has increased by 1.5 m
- Qatar – A new pit building and paddock infrastructure will be built
The FIA analyzed the DRS zones for 2022 and made some changes for 2023 to either make overtaking easier or make it more difficult at certain tracks where it was deemed not enough of a challenge. These changes will be implemented in Bahrain, Jeddah, Melbourne, Baku and Miami and will include the adjustment of the detection and activation zones and the addition of the 4th Activation Zone is restored.
Sporting, technical and financial regulations
Minor changes to the Sporting, Technical and Financial Regulations 2023 were approved unanimously. These included the introduction of a winter shutdown for both competitors and PU manufacturers, wording to ensure shorter races receive fewer points even if they don’t end in a suspended race, and wording to give the FIA testing team easier access to enable factories to monitor teams’ and PU manufacturers’ compliance with financial regulations and operational constraints of technical and sporting regulations.
An increase in the cost cap adjustment for additional races over 21 was agreed from $1.2M to $1.8M per race as the trend in additional races being added to the calendar is towards fly-aways, which are more expensive.
Note that all regulatory changes are subject to approval by the World Motor Sport Council.