Last Updated on December 18 2023, 12:07 pm

In the modern Formula One era, the FIA has become a more effective policeman of the regulations than it was in yesteryear. The sport’s governing body used to rely on the teams spying on each other and then “protesting” a potential breach of regulations at a Grand Prix weekend.

Now the teams are required to submit detailed CAD drawings and even an audit history of the development of components to ensure compliance both with the technical design regulations along with ensuring intellectual property is not improperly shared.

 

 

 

FIA powers of inspection grow

Since the introduction of the financial regulations commonly known as the cost cap in 2021, the FIA has even more powers of scrutiny and the right to demand to inspect a factory and even the offices within to ensure proper compliance is being observed.

The introduction for 2023 of technical directive (TD) 45 saw the FIA stop up its audit process to ensure teams were not using ‘outsourced’ work to develop the cars which was not included in the cost cap calculations.

A number of the larger teams have other projects within their group structures which could develop concepts or components which would then slot into their F1 programme.

Red Bull consultant Dr. Helmut Marko confirmed this season that the team had been questioned extensively over their RB18 hypercard programme, believed to be targeted to compete at Le Mans.

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Other projects benefit F1 designs

The RB17 used the same ground effect principles as for an Formula One car and clearly and research spend into this could benefit the Red Bull F1 team at zero cost to their budget.

When asked about how TD45 had affected Mercedes, team boss Toto Wolff replied:

“The work that the FIA has put into auditing us was big work and big effort, and I have no doubt that they are going to do the same with the other teams. If someone has been cavalier or has cheated, then they’re going to find out.”

Mercedes power unit division based in Brixworth also produces research and development work on a number of none F1 projects and could theoretically hand over valuable information to the F1§ team, free of charge.

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Red Bull and Mercedes under the microscope

With the advent of TD45 the FIA beefed up their inspection teams and according to De Telegraf’s F1 expert – Erik Van Haren – they are leaving no stone unturned with talk of “raids” and “ruthless searches” now emerging.

“Red Bull and Mercedes, in particular, have received many questions about their submitted data”, which have in turn led to raids according to Van Haren.

“During these ‘raids’,” he claims, “drawers are pulled open ruthlessly and everything was examined. Even Whatsapp messages and e-mails are viewed to see the conversations between two people and to see whether or not they have discussed something related to the Formula 1 team.”

Despite this apparently vigorous approach to enforcing F1 regulations, there have been inordinate delays between the request from the FIA to visit a facility and the arrangements made for them to enter the property.

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FIA want “zero notice” inspections

Now the head of the day to day running of the FIA’s Formula One division, Nikolas Tombazis has said that the governing body wants to get to a situation where it has access to a factory immediately. 

“We want to go to basically zero notice,” he explained. “We don’t think we should be just entering the door and going in, but we do think it would be right to have a process in place where we can just phone them, and somebody comes out and picks up these people and they can say: ‘I want to go and see the wind tunnel or whatever.’”

FIA officials have apparently been kept waiting for extended periods of time outside F1 team premises and Tombazis is determined this must change.

“About 10/15 minutes,” waiting time he believes is reasonable. “We want to get to the point where it’s really quite immediate.”

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Teams visited every 2/3 weeks

The expanded number of personnel now employed by the FIA to carry our team audit work also means the number of inspections a year will climb significantly.

“We were aiming to expand it [the team of factory inspectors] for quite a long time now, but we were a bit understaffed,” said Tombazis.

“We recently went to the target number of this team, and now that enables us to visit teams approximately every two or three weeks.”

During a Grand Prix weekend, the FIA officials are ever present and have unrestricted access to the F1 team garages and preparation areas. 

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Boundaries must always be pushed

It has almost become the case that each team has these officials embedded within the team for the entire weekend from when the car is scrutineered on Thursday, through to the final parc ferme checks following the chequered flag.

The problem for Formula One and its governing body is the very essence of the sport is about pushing boundaries and developing innovative and new ways of making the cars go faster.

This means at times the teams find themselves in a grey area where the line not to be crossed is not properly defined. Historically this has been seen as fair game and a sign of a team who are on top of their game. Should the FIA embed their inspection officers within the teams’ headquarters in the future, the emphasis will shift from innovation and exploitation of a loosely defined regulation, to one of compliance at all costs.

Then F1 teams would be giving the “line” a huge berth which is not a good philosophy for the sport where the boundaries must always be pushed hard – whether in the design and build of the cars or on the racing track itself.

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