This season's Imola Grand Prix has long since come to an end, and although there is a two-week interval with the Miami Grand Prix, officials have a full schedule during the period. Recently, the F1 Committee held its second meeting in London in 2022, with FIA Chairman Ben Sulayam presiding over the meeting, and various parties discussed various topics.
The meeting focused on the number of sprint races next season, the power unit for the 2026 season, the camera settings for the rider's helmet, and the number of tire formulas.
Regarding the helmet camera, all riders will have to be equipped with helmet cameras from next season through the unanimous approval of the F1 Committee, a technology that has been implemented at the end of last season in some riders wearing fixed brand helmets, aiming to allow audiences to participate in the race from a "first perspective".
In terms of the number of tire formulations, the committee agreed to try to reduce the total number of tire formulas from the original 13 to 11 in two race weekends next season as part of the promotion of sustainable tires. However, according to the latest news from the relevant media, the FIA will implement a new F1 tire rule next season, and the drivers are required to use hard tires, neutral tires and soft tires in the three qualifying rounds from Q1 to Q3, and the 11 sets of tires per race weekend are 4 sets of soft tires, 4 sets of neutral tires and 3 sets of hard tires.
This undoubtedly puts higher demands on Pirelli's research and development, after ending the competition for imola station, Pirelli also determined the R&D and test schedule and participated in the team for the 2023 F1 tire, and Zhou Guanyu also returned to Imola three days ago to participate in the test on behalf of Arrow. Interestingly, Imola stood in Sainz, who was not going well, and during the test, the car encountered problems and stopped on the track, once again "triggering a safe car"...
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In addition to the above two topics, the opinions of all parties did not seem to be in agreement during the discussion of the sprint...
At their first meeting, held in mid-February before the start of the season, F1 commissioners unanimously approved the renaming of the original "Qualifying Sprint" to "Sprint" and set the rules for points and the specific definition of "pole position". At this meeting, F1 and all 10 teams agreed to increase the number of sprint races next season from the current 3 to 6, a proposal that was proposed by the free press, although the FIA does not seem to be so positive.
According to the BBC, the FIA has not yet approved the proposal, on the one hand, the increase in sprint races also makes the FIA look forward to getting more shares from it, on the other hand, the increase in the workload of the FIA means that F1 needs to pay additional subsidies for the FIA, the BBC quoted a FIA spokesperson as saying, "This matter is not entirely about money, but based on the overall perspective, to ensure that the FIA has enough resources to do its job." ”
In addition to the just-concluded Imola, the remaining two sprints of the season will be played at the Red Bull Ring in Austria and Interlagos in Brazil. With regard to the decision to increase sprint races, since the FIA, F1 and ten teams each hold ten seats in the F1 committee, the resolution would require at least the approval of a "majority" (25 votes) to pass, so there may be variables in this proposal.
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At the same time, the new power unit framework for the 2026 season was unanimously adopted, based on the power unit rule framework adopted at the World Motor Sport Council in Paris at the end of last year, further clarifying that the new power unit will retain the current V6 hybrid turbo, but will remove MGU-H and introduce 100% sustainable fuel.
With the inevitable reduction in power that follows, FIA wants the car to compensate for changes to the power unit in terms of performance, so changes in the rules for the end of 2026 include significantly reduced drag, maintaining and improving close-range following capabilities, reducing the size of the car and controlling weight, and focusing on the use of sustainable materials and technologies.
But for today's fleets, research and development will inevitably require more funds, but with the current high inflation is raging in Europe, each team has its own ideas for the assessment of the budget cap, after all, under the existing budget cap, high inflation will inevitably make the purchasing power of the middle and lower reaches of the team decline, but the head team is still trying to persuade to increase the upper limit of the budget cap...
In order to reduce the cost of competition, ensuring fiscal sustainability may already be a false proposition the moment it is proposed.