Formula One’s technical regulations for the 2019 championship have been handed its first tweak after a meeting between the F1 Strategy Group as well as the F1 Commission at the FIA headquarters in Paris, while the 2021 rules begin to take shape. Both FIA President Jean Todt and F1 CEO Chase Carey were present to confirm three key alterations to next year’s rules which sees a 5kg increase in race fuel allowance, making a driver’s weight separate from the car to stop bigger drivers being unfairly penalised plus the mandatory use of biometric gloves by all drivers.
The fuel load boost has been installed to allow F1 cars to stay on full power for the full race rather than having to go into fuel-saving modes which has come in for criticisms from fans and teams in recent seasons. Any aerodynamic tweaks to the 2019 rules will be confirmed by the end of April after research is completied by the FIA and the teams. Fresh overtaking fears were sparked at the 2018 season opener in Australia but some of the concerns have been cooled off by the action witnessed at the following two races in Bahrain and China.
The meeting also heralded the initial steps towards the 2021 technical regulations shake-up which laid out the key engine changes proposed by Liberty Media: the retention of the 1.6-litre V6 turbo hybrid engines while dropping the MGU-H exhaust energy recovery system.
The FIA statement confirmed its technical department will host meetings with existing and potential power unit manufacturers to discuss the new plans in more detail and aims to nail down its 2021 regulations by the end of May this year. Liberty Media hosted a presentation with all F1 teams and stakeholders in Bahrain to lay out its future vision beyond the end of the 2020 season – when the current Concorde Agreements expire – which covered the 2021 technical rules, revenue redistribution, a $150million cost cap and the governance of the sport.
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