The FIA World Motor Sport Council relayed details of Sporting Regulation changes for F1 2021 season with regards to tyre usage, race time, entry fees and more.
Going by the order it came on the 2021 FIA Sporting Regulations, the first change was the maximum race time being truncated to three hours from four as the calendar moves to 23 races in a season. It was changed to four after the mammoth 2011 Canadian GP.
But now if a race is suspended, the maximum time will be three hours. Under Article 5.3 b), the regs says, ‘Should the race be suspended the length of the suspension will be added to this period up to a maximum total race time of three (3) hours’.
Elsewhere, after the Bahrain GP incident, the FIA has also included a change to have a Deputy Medical Delegate, if required. Also, the governing body has mandated that any appeals made by a F1 team regarding a decision, it should be done with fee of €6000.
The regs also kept the definition of Closed and Open events with slight tweaks, considering the threat of COVID-19 still in play. Moving on to the tyre changes, the FIA will stay on with the current rule of Pirelli providing the set number of compounds to each team.
Before COVID-19, the F1 teams could choose the number of dry weather sets from the 13. However, this year, Pirelli set a standard number, which will continue in 2021 as well. It will be eight of the soft compound, while three of medium and two of hard.
Also, the timing of announcement of tyre compounds, will be static for European and flyaway events with a deadline of two weeks prior to the event, as opposed to nine and 15 weeks, previously. The regs regarding George Russell-type situation has been altered too.
Until this year, there was no exact mention of a F1 driver using a set of a rival but the new FIA regs has it. The rule now states, ‘Any driver who uses a set of tyres of differing specifications or tyres not allocated to him during the race may not cross the Line on the track more than twice before returning to the pits and changing them for a set of tyres of the same specification.
‘A penalty under Article 38.3(d) will be imposed on any driver who does not change tyres as specified above within three laps. For the avoidance of doubt, a set of tyres of differing specifications will not be considered when assessing the number of specifications used during the race’.
Meanwhile, to avoid a situation where F1 cars too close to safety car, the FIA has tweaked the procedure, which states, ‘The race will be resumed behind the safety car when the green lights are illuminated and the safety car leaves the pit lane. Drivers must follow the safety car no more than ten car lengths apart’.
Moving on to the 2021 F1 entry fees, the FIA regulation stated the basic fees which Mercedes – the 2020 champion – will pay $569,308 plus $6,830 for each point gained. At the same time, others will pay $569,308 for basic and $5,691 for each point gained.
The FIA also noted that the entry fees has been subjected to a 2.3% increase – indexed by US CPI – which means that all 10 F1 teams will be required to pay $569,308 before their points totals are added in.
i) The winner of the 2020 World Championship for Constructors will be required to pay a basic fee of US$569,3081 plus US$6,8301 for each point gained in the 2020 World Championship for Constructors.
ii) Every other Competitor will be required to pay a basic fee of US$569,308 plus US$5,691 for each point that the Competitor gained in the 2020 World Championship for Constructors.
In both cases the basic fee is due at the time of the application and the remainder by 10 December of the year prior to the year to which this application relates.
Here’s the full FIA Sporting Regulations: https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/2021_formula_1_sporting_regulations_-_iss_5_-_2020-12-16.pdf
Here’s some other FIA WMSC decisions