F1 Commission agrees tweaks to financial regulations

The Formula 1 Commission have met in Spielberg ahead of first practice for the Austrian Grand Prix and delivered some outcomes that include tweaks to the Financial Regulations to take into account increased costs incurred in 2022…

F1 boss Stefano Domenicali, FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem, F1 Motorsports boss Ross Brawn and all 10 team principals gathered on Friday morning to discuss a series of topics.

Rising inflation rates since the end of last year have affected Formula 1 teams to an extent that the FIA and F1 felt “creates a risk of noncompliance with the Financial Regulations if actions are not taken”.

The FIA say they brought a proposal to the Commission, which permits “indexation at a limited rate of 3.1% (which takes into account the original 3% inflation threshold already set out in the regulations) and permitted compounding of this rate as from 2023”.

This was approved by the required majority, with support from the FIA, Formula 1 and nine of the 10 teams.

There has also been a development regarding the draft Technical Directive which was issued ahead of the British Grand Prix and addresses safety concerns relating to the vertical oscillation of the cars (in other words porpoising).

The FIA says that following discussion with the teams, and to allow teams enough time to make necessary updates to the plank and skid assemblies which will allow “a fair application of the metric used to measure this oscillation across all cars”, it will come into effect from the Belgian Grand Prix onwards.

They added “enhanced controls” by the FIA introduced in Canada will continue, while several proposed actions to address this issue in the 2023 Technical Regulations were also discussed and are set to be taken in time for the next meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee.

A majority also agreed to update the regulations to allow pre-season testing to take place outside of Europe, four days prior to the first Grand Prix of the season.

Meanwhile, the 2026 Power Unit regulations were also on the agenda, with the FIA saying the package of regulations “is close to finalisation”.