Category Archives: Grand Prix News

FIA race director Charlie Whiting has confirmed that F1’s Halo cockpit protection is still on course for its planned 2017 introduction, while acknowledging that other concepts could eventually replace it.

However he stressed that the newer Red Bull idea – which involves two bars and a “windscreen” element – has yet to be properly tested.

“I think it’s going pretty well,” said Whiting of the Halo. “It’s been tested quite extensively now, and I think it will offer very good protection for a flying wheel for example, that’s the main way it’s been tested so far.

“We need to do a thorough risk assessment on it, we need to look at a number of other related things like extrication. We’ve got to talk to the medical crews about it. But I think it’s going quite well. We’ve got a little separate working group just to deal with that, it’s headed up by Mercedes and Ferrari, they’re doing I would say a really good job on that.

“The Red Bull [idea] is an alternative to that. It’s considerably further behind in development, it’s never been tested, but it could offer additional protection. But I’ve got my doubts that it could actually be implemented for 2017, whereas I think the Halo could.”

Whiting said that even if the Red Bull concept proved interesting for the longer term the Halo would still be introduced next year.

“I don’t think we would delay if another one was emerging. I think we are on a course for the Halo, because that has been tested thoroughly, and we feel it offers the best all-round protection. We do have as I said earlier a thorough risk assessment to do on a number of different accident scenarios, we obviously want to make sure that we don’t make things worse in certain circumstances, so that has to be done. But I don’t think we would delay it because we felt there was another one coming.”

Whiting acknowledged that teams need to know what the standard spec of the Halo will be as they are starting design work on their 2017 cars.

“That’s what this little working group is for, in order to finalising mounting positions for it, and the strength of those mounting positions, which is just as important of course. I think the end of May is the target.”

He also pointed out that when Ferrari tried to prototype in Barcelona it actually proved easier for the driver to get out: “One team did put a Halo on their car, and did get the driver to see how quickly they could get out, and it looked perfectly simple, and arguably easier, because the driver can get hold of this thing and lift himself out much easier. It looked very simple, I must say.”

Nico Rosberg says he welcomes the raft of rule changes despite the fact that they could trip up Mercedes at some point this season.

The new tyre regulations, elimination qualifying and a clampdown on radio chat have all been designed to add a little uncertainty to the mix.

“I think it’s great that F1 is reinventing itself, and the target been to create more surprise events and surprise results,” said Rosberg. “And with all three of these regulation changes, that’s been targeted. And that has been achieved. There will be more surprises; in qualifying there will be more people getting caught out, so the fastest guy will not always be on pole.

“Also with the tyres, the fastest guy won’t always win the race. It will sometimes be the guy who had made the right tyre choice, because you cannot predict often before the race what’s going to be the bets tyre. So all of these things are good.

Regarding the radio ban he said: “It has a big influence. It’s great, because we’re not Muppets any more. It’s down to us to get the job done on our own. It’s very good. It’s gone to the extent of not even being able to tell us that strategies have changed, so if I change from a three stop to a two-stop, I’m driving flat-out thinking I’m stopping in two laps time, and then they’re just not going to pull me into the box. And then my tyres are done.

“So for sure, there’s going to be some more fault. What is it going to do? It’s going to make it more challenging at times. Last year was already two-thirds of the way, there was not much going on any more last year. Now it’s more the procedural stuff that is left, which they’ve totally removed now as well.

“That’s just a matter of preparation. From that point of view, I’m comfortable. Us drivers, all of us benefited from strategy. And we’re going to lose race performance as a result, because we can never drive according to our strategies. We can just drive according to what was planned before the race.”

The FIA has now added the procedure for the elimination qualifying system into the latest version of the 2016 Sporting Regulations.

After the basics had been agreed on by the F1 Commission and World Motor Sport Council the detailed rules were drawn up by Charlie Whiting. It means that there must now be no doubts within the FIA about FOM’s ability to have its timing software ready for Australia – although presumably in an emergency the stewards could be asked to approve the old system.

Article 33 confirm that the eliminated car will no longer be timed.

a) From 14.00 to 14.16 (Q1) all cars will be permitted on the track. Seven minutes after the start of the session the driver last in the classification will be eliminated and will no longer be timed, he must then return to the pit lane and may take no further part in the qualifying practice session. The same procedure will then apply after 8m30s, 10m0s,11m30s, 13m0s and 14m30s leaving sixteen cars eligible to continue. At the end of the session all drivers on the track may complete the lap they are on and, once these final laps have been completed, the driver last in the classification may take no further part in the qualifying practice session.

Lap times achieved by the fifteen remaining cars will then be deleted.

b) From 14.24 to 14.39 (Q2) the fifteen remaining cars will be permitted on the track. Six minutes after the start of the session the driver last in the classification will be eliminated and will no longer be timed, he must then return to the pit lane and may take no further part in the qualifying practice session. The same procedure will then apply after 7m30s, 9m0s, 10m30s, 12m0s and 13m30s leaving nine cars eligible to continue. At the end of the session all drivers on the track may complete the lap they are on and, once these final laps have been completed, the driver last in the classification may take no further part in the qualifying practice session.

Lap times achieved by the eight remaining cars will then be deleted.

c) From 14.46 to 15.00 (Q3) the eight remaining cars will be permitted on the track. Five minutes after the start of the session the driver last in the classification will be eliminated and will no longer be timed, he must then return to the pit lane and may take no further part in the qualifying practice session. The same procedure will then apply after 6m30s, 8m0s, 9m30s, 11m0s and 12m30s leaving two cars eligible to continue. At the end of the session any driver on the track may complete the lap he is on and, once any final lap has been completed, the overall classification will be established.

Bernie Ecclestone has said that the revised qualifying system will not be introduced until Spain because of issues with readying the new timing software, which has to deal with the complex elimination process.

The timing system is the responsibility of FOM and not the FIA. The new system had been discussed behind closed doors for some months, so the delay reflects a lack of joined-up thinking at the top of the sport. The FIA is also likely to be frustrated by the situation given that the change has already been announced, albeit with the proviso that it will “potentially” be introduced for 2016.

As reported last week that there were already concerns in the paddock about the software being readied in time.

“There’s a lot of work to do in the next few weeks,” said Pat Symonds of Williams. “Not just for us but for FOM to redo the software that handles the timing systems and things like that. It’s quite a tough call.”

Ecclestone has now confirmed that the work cannot be completed by the start of the season.

“The new qualifying won’t happen because we can’t get everything together in time,” he told The Independent. “It was going to come in at the start of this year but we are not going to be able to get all the software done in time. So the qualifying changes will probably be in Spain. In Australia it will be the old qualifying. All of the software has to be written so it’s not easy.

He added: “It’s not what I wanted in the end. All I’m trying to do is muddle up the grid so that the guy that is quickest in qualifying doesn’t sit on pole and disappear because why should he be slow in the race if he is quick in qualifying?”

Ecclestone also confirmed that he wanted time penalties added in order to mix up the grid.