FIA announce sweeping changes

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From Autosport...

Formula 1 undergoes massive changes to cut costs

The sport's governing body, the FIA, has announced sweeping changes to Formula 1 to ensure it is more affordable to contest. The plans include impounding cars between the end of qualifying and the start of the race, plus a ban on driver aids in 2003.

FIA president Max Mosley, F1 commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone and all 10 team bosses attended the summit at Heathrow's Hilton hotel. Mosley said: "Once the teams got over their initial shock they came round to the ideas."

In a strongly-worded statement, the FIA pointed out that the teams had rejected its cost-cutting proposals over the last 12 months, despite the loss of two F1 teams in Prost and Arrows. Instead, it has decided to "rigorously apply existing rules" for the 2003 season.
They are as follows.

  • Placing cars in parc ferme between final qualifying and the race (teams will be unable to work on them, except under strict supervision)
  • Elimination of traction control, launch control and fully automatic gearboxes (possible derogation for all or part of 2003, to be followed by absolute enforcement in 2004, if necessary by standard ECUs)
  • Elimination of pit to car and car to pit telemetry
  • Elimination of all radio comminucation between car and driver
  • Allowing only two cars per team (ie: no spare cars)
  • The FIA has also allowed the use of common components in 2003, so teams can use parts built by another outfit.

Formula 1 team boss Eddie Jordan, whose squad is understood to be struggling to raise a substantial budget for 2003, declared the meeting: "The most positive between team bosses ever. This is a great day for us."

All I can say is "Wow".
 
Back to the good old pit board, it seems. Although Jean and Ross are probably already discussing which message they'll put on Rubens' to slow him down...
 
Originally posted by PunkRock
Back to the good old pit board, it seems. Although Jean and Ross are probably already discussing which message they'll put on Rubens' to slow him down...
Click to expand...

That's a good point. Perhaps they'll have to resort to the 1999 European GP trick again...
 
You should check out this document. Wow, heady stuff. I particularly like the following:
WASTED MONEY
Much of the money spent in the FIA Formula One World Championship is wasted in the sense that it adds nothing to the enjoyment of the public. Yet it is the public who ultimately pay the bills. Without a world-wide television and media audience, neither team sponsors nor car manufacturers would contribute to the costs of the Championship. The interests of their shareholders require that they only invest in the hope of greater profits. These profits come from the public.

SOME EXAMPLES
But vast sums are being spent on things which do not interest the public. Whether an engine runs to 12,000, 16,000, or 20,000 rpm means nothing to the television audience. Neither do they know, or care, who makes the electronic control unit or the rear wishbone. The army of technicians using sophisticated and very expensive telemetry to follow every quirk of the car on computer screens, are hidden at the back of the pits. They are concealed from a public who neither know nor care that they are there.

RACING SPOILT BY MONEY
And this expenditure is not just wasted. Still worse from a spectator’s point of view, much of it actually detracts from the sporting contest. This is because the purpose of much of the expenditure is to increase the probability that at the end of qualifying, the fastest cars will be at the front of the grid and will run reliably throughout the race. Everything being equal, if the fastest car starts the race at the front, it will not be caught, still
less overtaken by the car behind. Add metronome-like reliability and faultless handling and you have all the ingredients for a thoroughly boring race.
Click to expand...


http://www.fia.com/PRESSE/F1-A/2003/15-01-2003-Note.pdf
 
Originally posted by GilesGuthrie

Elimination of traction control, launch control and fully automatic gearboxes (possible derogation for all or part of 2003, to be followed by absolute enforcement in 2004, if necessary by standard ECUs)
Click to expand...

Thank god for that one. So the drivers will have to work a little harder to ride the car around. A very good change if you ask me.
 
It was pretty full on - a nice touch was at the end, threatening to source a single supply of engines.

Good to see - about time sometime took a black boot to the teams' respective backsides.
 
I think that most of these changes are good as far as they go, they will undoubtedly help the survival of the smaller teams.

But they have done nothing that will improve the actual racing IMO. Cars will still be unable to follow each other closely and overtaking will still be massively difficult.

Thanks Max for removing traction and launch control, but what's all this about radio communication? Do the radios cost that much or is it just to stop naughty teams sending data along the audio channel?
 
Thats good news to hear, I thought that if the F1 technology was developing at its current rate, the drivers were going to sit in the pit lane and controll the cars with PS2 joypads in about 4 years time.

So in all a totaly hoopy result.
 
Sorry cant agree with this

placin cars in parc ferme from the end of qual. to the start of the race? what kind of lunacy is that? have they found a way to keep the track conditions (and weather) the same from qual. to the race? what a joke

with the rest why dont we go back to the stone age then? i thought that F1 was supposed to be the pinnacle of motorsport
if i wanted to watch a race that had generic chassis/engine etc i would watch a CART race instead

feel free (as im sure you will) to have a go at what ive said here
cheers all
clint

the rant has now finished:mad:
 
6 race engines?

joke.

how to enforce

A Fine? What about say Jordan just having a spate of Ford faliures. Why should the team pay when the DNF has already cost them?

Points off? Fine. inconvience for Ferrari. For Minardi it could mean the diff between 8th and 10th in the championship and $5mil lost

Back of grid next race? You are joking. Ferrari fit a 1 race engine and use the 100hp extra to pass everyone. If everyone replaces then we're back to 2002.

The 2003 changes are, for the most part, ok.

Everything after that HAS to be a sick joke.
 
It's about time, what was the next "advancement" to be in F1, have the driver sitting in the pits looking through a TV and using a GT Force wheel .What was the point to have all the tech. in the car, the driver just become's small part of the final results.
 
i was looking at the television coverage this weekend and noticed that speed says there is qualifying on both friday and saturday. i know that the FIA has enforced one car qualifying, but i wasn't sure how it was all going to work. anyone have any answers?
 
Beeman, they're going to do a one-shot run on Friday in championship order. Schumi will go 1st at Adelaide then Barrichello and so on. The results of that have no bearing on the grid, but do affect the running order for Saturday qualifying.

On Saturday the slowest driver from Friday will run 1st and so on and the fastest will run last. Normally in a qualifying session the track 'cleans' and gets faster so it is an advantage to set a quick time on the Friday.
 
Do you know why I watch F1? because they are THE fastest cars in the world. If something makes them faster, its good IMO. If traction control makes a car faster overall, put it in.

Are they saying that traction control makes it too easy for the driver to race around the track? Well so does that crazy wing, the massive tires, the 800hp V10 and the 1,300lb chassis.

The other reason I watch F1 is because its one team vs the other team. As in manufacturer. I like knowing that a certain car has a Mercedes engine or a Honda engine. If they all had 1 engine I would watch F1 for 1 second.

Whos saying the cars need to be restricted. If NASCAR employed traction control, they wouldnt be very far from being MORE advanced than F1 cars.


I dont want to watch something that has been buttered up for the public. I want to see the F1 teams, with the fastest cars possible going around a track. I want to watch and see whats happening. Not negatively effect the sport because some big-wig wants to make more money by attracting more fans. Do you know what I mean?


I kind of wish F1 would just forget about trying to attract American fans to the sport. The sooner they do that, the sooner we can get down to some real racing.
 

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