F1 2022 - News/Regulation change/Developments

Wolff: F1 budget cap allowance would help adjust staff salaries
Mercedes teams principal Toto Wolff says a compromise to adjust Formula 1's budget cap to account for increased energy and freight costs would allow the team to adjust staff salaries for inflation.

 

I support Binotto on this. The larger teams accommodated smaller team's earlier in this process. Costs cannot be denied at all now.

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/how-can-f1-break-the-deadlock-over-cost-cap/10317014/

How can F1 break the deadlock over competing cost cap desires?
We’re already in June with seven races of the 2022 Formula 1 season completed and there's still no sign of any agreement on an upward adjustment to the cost cap.

--Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto is clearly frustrated, suggesting that those teams now blocking change are not playing fair after big players made concessions when it was seen to be necessary.

“I would like, again, to reinforce whatever is the situation, small teams, top teams that it's a sense of responsibility that we've got all towards the regulations and F1,” he says. “As I think we had at the time, 2020, when we were reduced [from] 175 to 145 [for 2021]. It was certainly not in the interest of the top teams to reduce to 145. It would have been so simple for us simply to stop it and keep 175, and today, there will there be no discussions at all.

“I think we made an effort, because we understood the importance of it. We understood the importance try to balance a bit more the cap and the financial situations within teams. But I think as we did at the time, now we are experiencing the regulations, we know where the limits are, what needs to be improved.

“And I think as an entire community, all the teams should understand that, and be responsible. If a team is simply looking at its own individual interest, we will never move on. The thing that as Ferrari we accepted, even in 2020, to freeze regulation when we knew that our car was very bad [and] put all the criticism on our shoulder for an entire season.

“But we did that for the simple sense of responsibility. If someone is not doing it today when there is such a situation, which is force majeure, which is obvious, which everyone can understand, I would simply not understand it.”--

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Binotto has not shied away from voicing his displeasure with the current stand-off

Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images

 

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/mclaren-fears-it-cant-stay-within-f1-cost-cap-in-2022/10320058/

McLaren fears it can't stay within F1 cost cap in 2022
McLaren boss Andreas Seidl admits his team is expecting to breach the Formula 1 cost cap by the end of the season.

Several top teams have indicated that staying within the cap will be impossible as a result of inflation and rising freight costs, with Red Bull’s Christian Horner suggesting that up to seven teams will go over the total 2022 limit of $141.2m - $1.2m added to the initial $140m for the extra race over the 21-race plan.

Meanwhile Alpine and Alfa Romeo are resisting a push for an upward adjustment to the cap that would give teams breathing space.

Seidl still hopes the FIA and the F1 organisation can broker a solution as talks continue to drag on.

"For us as a team that was planned to run at the cap at the beginning of the year, with all these unexpected costs that came up, we are at a position where we can't make the cap anymore, because you simply have certain fixed costs in order to start the season," he said when asked by Autosport if the team could still stay inside the cap.

"You have fixed costs with the resources which you have in place, the personnel and so on, which you can't adjust anymore.

"And with this unexpected huge increase of costs, mainly on the freight side and utility bills, we're in the same position as some other teams that we can’t make the cap this year.

"And I'm still hopeful with all the conversations that are happening at the moment, together with the other teams, with FIA, and F1 that we still find the solution which is in the best interests of the sport moving forward."

 

FORMULA 1 NEWS
South Africa in contention for 2023 F1 calendar slot
Formula 1 could revive the South African Grand Prix as early as next year amid ongoing talks between series bosses and the event organisers at Kyalami.

 

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1-drivers-back-penalties-for-triggering-flags-in-qualifying/10322129/

F1 drivers back penalties for triggering flags in qualifying
Formula 1 drivers have backed a potential FIA initiative to penalise those who trigger red or yellow flags in qualifying, ruining the laps of rivals.


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By: Adam Cooper
Jun 14, 2022, 3:13 PM
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The issue became a talking point in Azerbaijan last weekend after Fernando Alonso went down an escape road towards the end of Q1, bringing out a yellow flag and spoiling the laps of anyone behind who might have had a chance of beating him.

Alex Albon, who was immediately behind the Alpine driver, made it clear that he thought Alonso had gone off track in a deliberate effort to frustrate his rivals.

The issue of drivers playing such games, especially at street tracks, made the headlines at the 2006 Monaco GP.

On that occasion Michael Schumacher was excluded from qualifying after the stewards determined that he had deliberately stopped on track at Rascasse, effectively ending the session early and securing pole position.

A similar incident occurred at the same venue in 2014, when Nico Rosberg went down the Mirabeau escape road, thwarting the final effort of team-mate Lewis Hamilton. The German survived an investigation without sanction.

After qualifying for this year's Monaco race, Max Verstappen suggested that penalties should be imposed to those causing red flags after losing his final Q3 lap to someone else's accident for a second year in a row.

Although there was no official documentation associated with their enquiry, it's understood the FIA stewards conducted an informal investigation of the Alonso incident last weekend, with the Spaniard and Alpine sporting director Alan Permane seen leaving Baku race control on Sunday morning. Team boss Otmar Szafnauer also paid a visit.

Although the stewards took no action, their suspicions were alerted sufficiently to trigger a discussion about a possible solution to the problem.

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Fernando Alonso, Alpine

Photo by: Alpine

The F1 sporting regulations already contain an article that can be applied to anyone taking an escape road or going onto a run-off area, and which reads: "Drivers must make every reasonable effort to use the track at all times and may not leave the track without a justifiable reason."

Appendix L of the FIA's International Sporting Code, which applies to driving conduct, contains a similar clause: "Drivers must use the track at all times and may not leave the track without a justifiable reason."

The stewards have the discretion to delete any or all lap times if a driver is deemed to have committed an offence that falls within that description.

If it is agreed between the FIA stewards and the F1 race directors that such a course of action would stop the sort of manoeuvre that Alonso was suspected of, drivers could be warned of potential sanctions as early as the Canadian GP, either in the race director's event notes or in the regular Friday drivers' briefing.

Awarding penalties for an actual accident that ends a session early, like those involving Charles Leclerc in Monaco in 2021 and Sergio Perez this year, would probably require a further discussion.

Asked by Autosport about the FIA potentially clamping down on controversial yellow flag situations in qualifying, Alonso said he would support the idea.

"Yeah, I think so," he said. "There's going to be always difficulties, like now in the [Baku] race, if you crash in one corner or if you park - there was one Haas [Kevin Magnussen] parked in Turn 15.

"If you park there or you park 10 metres after that, maybe you have a safety car deployment, depending if you take a good position or not. And then we will penalise the Haas driver because he chose the wrong thing?

"So we need to be careful on how we enter and how we do those things. But yeah, I agree. Especially qualifying it should be different.

"We are dealing with problems of slow laps, minimum time to respect, traffic in the last corner, tows, no tows. So I think we should be clever and think in another format in qualifying."

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Lando Norris, McLaren MCL36, heads to the grid

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Lando Norris, who was also involved in a yellow flag incident in Baku, also supported the idea.

"Yeah, of course," he said when asked by Autosport if he agreed with a possible clampdown. "I think I was one of the guys who caused the yellow yesterday, but just to get out of the way of Seb [Vettel].

"I think there's a difference between people doing it by accident, and people doing it to get out of the way of people by not causing blue flags and whatever when you're in qualifying, versus people who quite obviously do it on purpose. Especially when you're one and a half seconds down on a push lap!

"You always say it until you're the one that does something wrong. And then you're like, #Oh, I wish that rule wasn't introduced', because you've just made a simple mistake, like when I spun in Imola.

"I guess I say I wish there's no rule but obviously when someone else does it you say you wish there was a rule. It always bites someone at some point. The people who are more vocal about it are the ones who just haven't made a mistake just yet."

Norris's team-mate Daniel Ricciardo also agreed that a clampdown would be a positive move.

"It's tough because they'll every incident will probably be a little bit different," said the Australian.

"But unless you've frickin' totalled your car, if it's just like a little lock-up or an escape road or something, then I feel like if you've caused something then maybe we should look into being penalised or something for it. Maybe a deleted time could be a good way of looking at it."


Asked about Alonso's claim of innocence after the Q1 incident in Baku, Ricciardo added: "His conviction is impressive! I mean that's the experience. That's why I love him. But I mean, obviously Alex spoke it about yesterday.

"We all know, we're all kind of playing tricks, and I know Lewis tried to not give us the DRS I think, with Lando. I mean, that's a bit of just tactics and strategy. But then there's kind of the other way of obviously what Fernando did. Maybe deleted laps could be the way forward, we'll see."

Alonso's team-mate Esteban Ocon also backed the idea of penalties.

"I think so, because in Monaco and Baku I've been suffering for that in qualifying," he said. "And, yeah, probably people would take more care if they get penalised, and it would be less easy to take a risk and just go down the escape road. I would definitely be in favour of changing that for the street circuits."

 

Valtteri Bottas: Alfa Romeo driver says 'porpoising' is 'getting quite serious'

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/61809406

 

The FIA has this on their agenda. My guess Sommer break