Last Updated on February 4 2025, 4:26 pm

The FIA came under fire on a number of fronts during the 2024 season with the drivers’ union forced to pen only their second ever open letter to F1’s governing body. The strongly worded document demanded the president of the association treat the F1 competitors with more respect following his accusation they were behaving like ‘rappers.’

“We urge the FIA president to consider his own tone and language when talking to our member drivers, or indeed about them, whether in a public forum or otherwise,” the statement read. “Further, our members are adults. They do not need to be given instructions by the media about matters as trivial as the wearing of jewellery or underpants.”

Yet this was just one of the controversies which rocked F1 as FOM finally came out with their response to the FIA giving Andretti the green light to become the eleventh team on the grid. In an incoherent statement, the operating company owned by the F1 commercial rights holder appeared to suggest amongst other strange requirements that Andretti would be incapable of becoming a font running team quickly.

 

 

 

F1 2024: A year of niggles

For those with some distance from the issue, this appeared absurd since Sauber’s James Key admitted the new Audi entry for 2026 would not even complete its integration until 2027. This will have been a four year process during which the Swiss based Sauber outfit have often been the rubbing rags of the F1 grid, failing to score a single point last year until the penultimate round of the year in Qatar.

Then like a whirlwind few days around the time of the US GP in Austin, the decision to refuse Andretti was dropped without explanation. The might of the US Justice department who had investigated F1 for its breach of US anti-completion laws had clearly been brought to bear, with Liberty executives fearing a similar $4.7bn fine issued to the NFL for similar breaches of anti-trust law.

The alternative was to quit racing in the USA, but having invested close to $1bn in the ten year long Las Vegas Grand Prix project, this was clearly something the commercial rights holder could not bear.

In the paddock the big controversy surrounded the design of the McLaren car. The Woking based team were accused by ferrari and Red Bull racing of deploying ‘flexi-wings’ in their car design which were outlawed under FIA regulations. Yet the FIA dithered over the issue, neither outlawing or sanctioning the component which infuriated Ferrari whose team principal suggested this may have cost the Italians the constructors’ title.

Vasseur says 2025 F1 titles won early in the year

 

 

 

Flexi wing chatter raises its head AGAIN

Flexi-wings have been a consistent topic in F1 with Red Bull having been accused of using a similar component in their record breaking year of 2023. The FIA use static loading tests in an effort to identify any flexing of the wings, yet clearly these are outdated and need revision.

Whilst McLaren did drop the ‘mini-DRS’ system they had developed for their rear wing, presumably after negotiations with the FIA, the issue of flexing remained a topic right up to the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi.

Meanwhile having been given the all clear, Ferrari had finally brought their own version of the flexi wing to the final six races of the year. The Scuderia were 75 points behind the rampant McLaren team come the USGP but so successful was the upgrade to the SF-24 the team came up just fourteen points short of McLaren in the final standings.

To offer clarity to the F1 team’s designers over the winter break as they finalised the preparations for the ir 2025 F1 challengers, FIA head of single seater racing (and the judge of what is legal or not) Nicolas Tombazis came out to clarify the FIA’s position on flexi wings going forward.

Hamilton exploding tyres in Qatar now ruled as Mercedes’ fault by Pirelli

 

 

 

FIA sudden U-Turn

As the 2024 campaign drew to a close, the FIA official informed the teams there would be no more changes to the regulations governing the measurement of flexi bodywork, the reason being each teams solution delivers different loads from the others at different points around a given circuit. For this reason Tombazis suggested any such late change in the rules for this year would have been “a bit knee jerk.”

“Because the front wing gets loaded in different ways, we cannot predict it easily in the regulations,” Tombazis explained. “As no two wings have exactly the same loading pattern, it is very difficult to come with a proper test.

“So, as these rules have been around since 2022, we felt it was a bit knee jerk to suddenly say that for 2025 we were going to change it, or indeed change something for 2024, but we are using this information we’re gathering to perhaps lead us to something a bit more effective for 2026,” concluded the FIA official.

This week Tombazis and his colleagues revealed that the FIA have suddenly changed their minds on the matter, just as F1 teams are putting their final touches to their 2025 cars. The previous static tests used to test for flexibility will now be modified from the start of the season in Melbourne in just over a month’s time.

South Africa GP: Fantasy or reality?

 

 

 

Which F1 teams benefit?

Whether this is merely a dry run to see if the FIA’s new process can uncover some of the flexing previously undetectable by the static load tests or not is yet unclear. Whether F1 teams will be sanctioned of they fail the late to the party new test is also uncertain at the moment, however a clampdown is planned form June 1st onwards following the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.

The FIA claim this is designed to stop the incessant chatter over flexible wings once and for all to “ensure a level playing field for all competitors to promote fair and exciting racing”. Yet the field is not level given the in season development budgets of the smaller teams is way less substantial than the big 5 who are funded way beyond the limits of the budget cap constraints.

This will not play well with the smaller F1 teams given the whole concept behind the flexi-wings its to improve the airflow around the car. In particular the underfloor aerodynamics which deliver 50% of the current F1 cars are designed in a sympathetic manner along with the new front wings, so come the Canadian Grand Prix, each of the teams will field a completely different floor design, which again eats into the seasons budget.

The FIA claim this late decision has been staggered in its implementation so that teams carrying over their 2024 designs will not be unfairly punished. Yet given the only teams capable of producing these components in 2024 once the FIA failed to outlaw them, were those less well funded and who would not have any carry over worth speaking of in this area.

Newey’s ridiculous claim about FIA cost cap

 

 

 

F1 regulation change delayed

Sources claim the FIA initially wanted to bring in the new regulations for the first race in Europe at the Emilia-Romagne Grand Prix, however the bigger teams argued this did not allow their winter efforts to be properly represented and so a compromise was reached for the rule changes to begin during the Canadian Grand Prix, which is round ten of the year.

Conversely, the smaller teams who planned to phase in their 2025 flexi-wings design, now believe the FIA have given the front runners a head start as there is little point bringing a half complete flexi-wing design to develop, only for it to be outlawed less than half the way through the season.

Further, Barcelona is a circuit where teams tend to bring big upgrade packages each year, due to the nature of the circuit which tests most of the aerodynamic aspects of an F1 car rigourously. So whilst the new regulations will kick in after the event in Catalunya, the teams will bring their replacements for the flexi wings a race before the FIA new levels of scrutiny kick in.

In reality, the FIA was facing a huge new challenge come the 2026 season, where more components other than the DRS will be moveable and controlled by the drivers. These components will also feature as much flex as the teams can muster legally, and this decision feels as though its to get the FIA ahead of the game before the drama of next season unfolds.

Mercedes warn Bottas prior to his return

 

 

 

Smaller teams would have benefitted from immediate change

The cruel reality of all this, is the smaller teams would have had far less to change had the clampdown begun race one of the year. This would really have shaken up matters as the likes of Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren scramble to redesign their cars within a few weeks, although the PR fallout from the likes of Horner and Brown would have been monumental.

The pecking order may be shaken up somewhat come Barcelona, as teams will be switching their focus and resources to the all new F1 car design rules for 2026. The changes required for Barcelona and beyond are significant and not to be underestimated, which means Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur’s belief that the season could be decided early on, has now been thrown into question.

Vasseur suggested last week, the resources of the teams will switch to 2026 quite early on and so were the likes of McLaren to make a rocket start to the year, he felt they would be able to cling on as everyones focus shifted to next year. As is often the case in F1, this last minute change of heart from the FIA favours nobody in particular. In fact it is the least worst option for all the competitors, which is depressingly most often the case.

Vettel confirms Le Mans decision

 

 

 

Cadillac commercial deal with F1 remains incomplete

There were remarkable events taking place in Formula One in 2024, the final specifications for the all new powertrains for 2026 was finally signed off while the chassis regulations for debut at the same time remained in limbo. The FIA sacked its F1 race director with just three races of the season remaining though promoting an inexperienced official to replace Neils Wittich did prove trouble free.

The revolving door at the Place de Concorde in Paris where the FIA resides gathered pace with the likes of Tim Mayer, son of the c-founder of McLaren and F1 steward of 15 years was relieved of his duties. Janette Tan who was  to be promoted to F2 race director also left the organisation at the same time, with just two race weekends of the season to go. Both were informed by text of their sacking.

The F1 drivers’ union, the GPDA only for the second time in its history penned an open letter which was highly critical of the FIA president himself. In a hard hitting response to Mohammed Ben Sulayem who had suggested the bad language used by the F1 competitors was in some way similar to the behaviour of certain rappers, the drivers did not pull their punches… READ MORE