Let’s hope for consistency and clarity in 2022!
Whilst the launch of the Ferrari was going on last week, the FIA held a press conference, which to be fair had probably been scheduled for a while beforehand, where the new president of F1’s governing body, outlined how they were making changes for the upcoming F1 season. To me, it is progress, but could more be done?
Arguably the biggest change, at least in terms of the headlines, is the removal of Michael Masi as the race director. Really, this had to be done, as he had made far too many mistakes in such a short period of time, which showed he wasn’t the right person for the job. There is a very strong argument that he wasn’t given enough support in the role, which I fully agree with, however, his attitude to the teams and drivers wasn’t correct either. If he had stayed, it would have taken a lot for the teams, especially Mercedes, to trust him again.
My first issue with the decisions they have made, is that Masi is not being replaced by a single leader, instead we have a shared position, between two, admittedly very experienced people. Freitas and Wittich are both the right people for the job, however, I fear that there will be a lack of consistency if they keep swapping between races, which is what this sport needs right now. The situation could be helped though, by the return of Herbie Blash, in an advisory role. As the No. 2 to Whiting, he knows everything you could possibly need to know about the sport, and the FIA should have tried to keep him on, after Charlie sadly passed away.
Alongside the trackside Race Control, a secondary, remote one will be set up for each race weekend, to further inform the decisions being made, and make sure those stewards at the track are not overwhelmed. To be honest, I am surprised and a bit disappointed that this was not thought of and carried out before. We have seen for many years, that each F1 team, has a ‘mission control’ room at the factory, where team personnel back home aid those at the track over a race weekend, why has the FIA not done the same. At least they are doing it now, which should hopefully stop them missing incidents which occur during the race.
Next, we have an excellent, although slightly confusing new scoring system for shortened races, in reaction to last years farce of a Grand Prix in Belgium. To begin with, they have mandated that a minimum of 2 Green Flag laps must be run, before a race can be declared as official. So, there is a guarantee of some racing! Furthermore, the points arrangements have been broken down further, with a race of less than 25% of the full distance, giving the winner 6 points, then 4,3,2,1 for the next four finishers. For 25-50%, it goes down from 13 points for the winner over the top nine, and 1st place gets 19 points if it doesn’t pass 75%. I do understand it is confusing, and you can argue this wasn’t the rule that needed changing as much as the one about when a race becomes official, yet it is an improvement in my eyes.
Some more changes have come out, in a recent draft of the 2022 sporting regulations, which show that the Q2 tyre rule as it is known, could well be taken away for this year. I am glad that the sport has finally listened if this is the case, as all the rule did was limit strategy for the top 10, and so make the race more boring. It won’t be a huge change, yet it could give us some more interesting strategies. Also, the entire format of the Safety Car period could be changing, it is unclear how, I have just heard rumours of change being in the air. Personally, I can’t see much that needs changing, it just needs to be followed better.
Overall, I am pleased with the steps they are taking, we were never going to get a full apology or admission of guilt from an internal review. So, the best we could have hoped for was for them to mitigate the chance of it happening again, which they seem to have done pretty well.
-M
Meaning of Motorsport 