Jean Todt, FIA president, announces formal engagement of Formula 1 sports stakeholder. The talks will start in October to discuss Belgian Grand Prix ‘farce’ and its possible remedies.
Heavy rainfall poured in at Spa-Francorchamps and race was delayed for about three hours. Later, authorities decided to run the race behind a safety car. It lasted about three laps before it came to an end and announced the race results at the end.
The F1 announced the grid formation as the winning sequence. However, it handed half points to the top ten drivers. It stirred wide scale criticism, especially from Hamilton and Alonso, of the authorities. It pushed FIA and F1 to look at their regulations.
Todt announced on Twitter that he will chair the F1 commission meeting. The meeting is expected to occur in about a month.
“The FIA together with Formula 1 and the teams will carefully review the regulations to see what can be learned and improved for the future,” he said.
“The findings, including the topic of points allocation, will be added to the agenda of the next F1 Commission meeting on October 5.”
The F1 Commission is a regulatory body that includes FIA, F1 and the teams. Each stakeholders unit have 10 votes to it and it requires majority out of 30 votes for a regulation modification. World Motor Sport Council then approves to enact the new regulation.
Rule change to enact in the current year requires a majority of 28 votes, while 26 to ratify for the next year.
The outcry on Belgian GP hints to a probable support for regulation change this year.
Todt spoke about how FIA put its efforts to run the Belgian GP, which the weather did not let it happen.
“This year’s Belgian Grand Prix presented extraordinary challenges to the FIA Formula 1 world championship,” he said.
“The weather windows predicted by the forecasters did not appear throughout the day, and while a small window did appear late in the day during which there was an attempt to start the race, conditions quickly worsened again.
“Therefore, due to the lack of visibility created by the spray behind the cars, we could not run the full race in sufficiently safe conditions for the drivers, marshals as well as the brave spectators who waited for many hours in the race, for whom I am very sorry. This has been recognised by all stakeholders.
“The FIA stewards have, based on the provisions of the International Sporting Code, stopped the competition to gain more time, and therefore more potential to give the fans an F1 race.
“Despite these efforts, the race could not be started after the safety car laps and the existing regulations have been correctly applied.
