FLOYD ON F1: Sport heading for a big wheel wobble

On occasion statements from the powers that be in F1 are confusing.

Details of the last F1 Commission in Dubai is a case in point. The matter of power unit grid penalties was tabled and led to some interesting conclusions, particularly teams employing “tactical” grid penalties, with regards to new components for power units.

A statement was issued which read: “Possible updates to the penalties relating to power unit [PU] infringements were discussed by the commission.

“It was agreed the current system is not a strong enough deterrent to teams to make strategic power unit changes, and encourages the change of more elements than needed once a driver has accumulated more than a certain level of penalty.

“This ultimately causes higher parts costs and undermines the PU element annual restrictions. This will continue to be discussed at the sporting and power unit advisory committees for further analysis and refinement.”

Need for more severe penalties

The commission believes the existing regulation and penalties are “not a strong enough deterrent”, to prevent the practice of fielding a refreshed PU and possible gains of F1 championship points for a nominal grid penalty. The benefit of those points could be a large financial reward.

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Both the FIA and F1 believe the practice “undermines” the current restrictions and adds expenditure to the team’s budget.

This is where I become confused. Surely the governing body’s financial restrictions, the infamous budget cap, will limit a team’s financial outlay, a penalty within itself, so why is it necessary to impose yet another regulatory monetary restriction?

The Liberty Media era seems set to be one of increasing profitability through choking the life blood out of F1.

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F1 teams lose out

Apart from the proposed power unit limitations, the requirements of the teams regarding practice and test sessions, both annually and on F1 race weekends, is being radically reduced.

Weekends with a sprint race are an example. These result in severe time limitations for race engineers endeavouring to ensure cars are at the peak of performance for the specific track.

Perhaps that is now of secondary importance.

The 2023 F1 season starts in Bahrain on 5 March.