The FIA World Council announces changes to the 2014 regulations

The FIA World Council, which was held at Goodwood on Friday alongside the 2013 British Grand Prix, resulted in a number of regulatory measures and changes. The International Automobile Federation’s website has listed these developments.

The changes made to the 2014 sporting regulations

The engine manufacturers will only be able to supply a maximum of four teams from the 2014 season onwards. In practice, the supply of engines rarely exceeds this number – which has often been described as the “ideal” figure in the field – the establishment of this limit follows a request from Mercedes, according to the FIA. As things stand, Renault will supply its V6 turbo engines to Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Caterham, and presumably Lotus, while Mercedes will provide engines for its namesake team, Force India, Williams, and McLaren for one last season before Honda returns. Ferrari, for its part, will obviously equip the Scuderia, and presumably Sauber. Marussia is the only team around which uncertainty hovers, although the strengthened ties with the Maranello team since the arrival of Jules Bianchi, a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy, tilt the balance in its favor.

It should be noted that the engine manufacturers will only be allowed to homologate one power unit for the 2014-2020 period, but changes to it will be permitted for reasons related to assembly, reliability, and/or cost reduction. Furthermore, on-track testing will be authorized from January to allow testing of the single-seater’s power units and enable their development under better conditions.

These power units will also be subject to specific regulations: a maximum of five power units must be used by each driver during the season. From the moment an additional complete power unit is used, the concerned car must start from the pit lane. However, if only a single component of the power unit is changed beyond the five allowed, a 10-place grid penalty will be applied. The gearboxes, which currently must cover five Grand Prix races, will now have to last for six races, under penalty of exposing the driver to a 5-place grid penalty.

**Fuel consumption will be limited to 100 kg during the race**, meaning between the lights out and the checkered flag. An FIA-approved flow meter will be used to monitor this parameter.

In terms of discipline and penalties, a points penalty system is being introduced from 2014. Each driver will start with 0 points, and this total will increase each time a fault is committed, with penalties ranging from one to three points, although the scale has not been disclosed yet. When the number of points reaches 12, the driver will be automatically excluded from the next Grand Prix.

Furthermore, the possibility for a driver to give back a position gained by overtaking outside the track limits has been established. Indeed, despite beliefs and practice, this procedure was not formally regulated. It was recently applied during the 2013 Monaco Grand Prix, when Fernando Alonso, by cutting the Port chicane, retained his position against Sergio Pérez.

Regarding work on cars, a significant reduction in wind tunnel testing and computer work has been imposed to allow cost reduction in this area, but also to encourage teams to share infrastructure, similar to the collaboration established between McLaren and Marussia, for example.

On the track testing side, four sessions of two-day tests will be established during the 2014 season instead of the current eight promotional days and three days of testing for young drivers. These tests will take place on European circuits on Tuesdays and Wednesdays after the Grand Prix to minimize costs.

In terms of safety measures, in the stands, all team members working around the car during a stop must wear head protection. Additionally, the speed limit in the pits, which is currently 60 km/h during free practice and 100 km/h during qualifying and the race for most races, will be unified to 80 km/h for the entire weekend. This measure is justified by the fact that when drivers arrive at the sessions with stakes, they have never had the opportunity to perform practice stops at the speed of 100 km/h: unifying it allows both to change this and to reduce the speed in the stands on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Finally, to encourage drivers to start as early as Free Practice 1, an additional set of tires will be available during the first half-hour of the session, which is often marked by inactivity on the track.

Changes to the 2014 Technical Regulations

In terms of the appearance of F1 cars, the 2014 regulations will mark the end of the platypus noses – thanks to the elimination of the step at the junction of the nose and the cockpit – and, as was already planned, will lower the front of the single-seaters for safety reasons.

The minimum weight of the single-seaters has been increased by 5 kilograms, because the power units will ultimately be heavier than expected.

A rear brake electronic control will be allowed to ensure constant braking while energy is recovered to fill the KERS (which can be activated for 30 seconds per lap next season).

Finally, the side protections of the single-seaters will be standardized and improved to better serve their role as shock absorbers during oblique collisions. In addition to the safety improvement, such a system allows for cost reduction for teams who will not have to develop their own as is currently the case. Furthermore, the side head protections for drivers will be made more robust.