STUART CODLING
“Stakeholders can’t even agree on a broad outline for ’21”
Sunlit uplands! Easiest deal ever! Creating Formula 1’s next rulebook was supposed to be simple but, like that other thing going on in the wider world – let’s not talk about it in polite society, eh? – reaching a consensus that pleases everyone has proved far tougher than expected.
Having trouble trying to please all of the people all of the time? Fancy that…
For those not keeping up with the morass of arguments swirling around this issue, the key problem is that the technical and sporting regulations have come up for renewal at the same time as the current commercial settlement expires: 2020. So in and among the usual tawdry push-me-pull-you of the entrants angling for more money and the commercial rights holder trying to fob them off, we have the thorny philosophical debate about what F1 should look, sound and feel like post-2020.
As things stand, the technical and sporting regs should have been settled by June – yes, two months ago – but instead the evil hour has been put off to October 31, perhaps in the belief that all parties in the debate will break off to argue about which Nightmare On Elm Street movie to watch on Halloween instead. In the interim there’s still a vast amount to be settled, and it’s becoming increasingly obvious that the stakeholders haven’t even agreed on a broad outline of what they want, let alone the details.
Part of the problem, I think, is that the teams have been permitted to insert their collective oars into the water, thereby stirring up a time-wasting froth. Surely the FIA and the commercial rights holder between them have employed enough ex-technical directors as experts to formulate something workable? Instead we’re still arguing about fundamentals such as car weight, and the FIA president himself is throwing bad ideas onto the table such as bringing back refuelling.
Without wishing to go off on a tandem here (to quote the great Steve Soper), bringing back refuelling is an idea that doesn’t stand up to the slightest degree of objective scrutiny. While you can cherrypick a handful of mid-2000s races upon which it had a meaningful effect, it would do little to make the cars lighter and, once all the data had been crunched, strategies would inevitably converge. And who wants to see overtaking in the pits, anyway?
So, too much time is lost debating flawed ideas such as this. I’m with Mclaren boss Andreas Seidl, who said in Budapest: “It’s about time now to simply stop discussing. We all have downloaded our input.”
One thing’s for sure: the deadline isn’t getting any further away. Getting this one over the line in good time might just require a lot more than just positivity and a can-do spirit…
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