The FIA confirms Lotus, Marussia and the noses for 2014

Several announcements have been made by the FIA in recent days, all concerning the Formula 1 season. The first concerns the question of teams whose registration for the championship was pending, the second is related to the design of the front of the single-seaters for the upcoming season.

Lotus and Marussia have paid the registration fees

At the time of publication of the list of entrants for the Formula 1 World Championship, attention was particularly focused on Lotus F1 and Marussia. Both teams, although pre-registered, were marked with an asterisk indicating that their final registration was not yet fully official.

The situation is now clear: Lotus and Marussia are indeed registered and have paid their entry fees. The FIA confirmed this information to Autosport, which had already obtained confirmation for Marussia from team principal John Booth: « Yes, it’s confirmed. We are a small team and we have to manage our cash flow […] Sometimes you have to have a sense of priorities but we knew we had to pay and we did it on time. »

Registration fees in Formula 1 are calculated based on the team’s results from the previous season: thus, Marussia had to pay 378,000 euros and Lotus nearly 1.5 million euros.

The noses version /f1/news/16811-officiel-la-liste-dinscription-et-les-numeros-des-pilotes-publies.html authorized, pending 2015?

At the end of last week, the FIA launched a consultation with the teams to address an aspect that has been somewhat overlooked since the unveiling of the single-seaters: the safety of these new noses. Indeed, for several months, the focus has mainly been on aesthetics, with observers almost forgetting to question the safety aspect that originally led to the rule changes in this area.

A directive was reportedly sent by the FIA to the teams on Thursday, January 30, during the Jerez tests, to clarify some information regarding the design of the front of each F1. *Autosport* reveals that doubts have emerged within the international body about the safety of these noses which, although some technically comply with the regulations and have passed crash tests, philosophically contravene the spirit of the regulations aimed at enhancing safety – by avoiding facilitating one car passing over another and the resulting entanglement effect, which could have dramatic consequences.

But today, Monday, February 3, the German newspaper Bild echoed statements from FIA members that seem to indicate that the issue was closed for /f1/actualite/16811-officiel-la-liste-dinscription-et-les-numeros-des-pilotes-publies.html and that the noses as they were unveiled are considered legal.

A confirmation that nevertheless sounds like a decision made “by default,” with the German daily adding in its article that: « The FIA intends to clarify the rules for 2015 ». It seems likely, as highlighted by the F1Technical site, that faced with the risk of having to revise the design of most single-seaters, the Federation decided to postpone the issue to next season. A situation that is unlikely to silence the voices here and there pointing out the opposite risk of seeing a Formula 1 pass under another single-seater.

As a reminder, the governing bodies have been aware of the front design of the single-seaters at least since mid-2013, as revealed by Charlie Whiting, FIA delegate, regarding the solution adopted by the Lotus team.