FIA Has a problem

The 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix has just finished, and we were yet again forced to wait several hours after the podium ceremony to have a final finishing order announced, thanks to some confusion from the FIA.

The grid before the start of the Saudi GP 2023

The FIA has an issue with the current rule book. In recent history, rules have been changing faster than ever and often as a result of some major controversy. Most notably was the title defining, Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2021 that saw the then sole-race director Michael Massi interpret the rules in a way that gave him permission to override the rules surrounding the safety car process. This led to a series of events that many still argue about today, where the safety car was brought in earlier than the rules originally intended, with only some of the cars allowed to unlap themselves in the process.

This led to a re-write in the regulations and the rule that allowed the race director to essentially modify the rules at their discretion was removed. This controversy also saw the end of Michael Massi as race director, and the FIA brought in a pannel of professionals to ensure a less 'biased' interpretation of the rulebook. But it wasn't long until more gaps in the rules were found, especially when 2022 saw a major change in the technical regulations, including the introduction of the infamous budget cap.

The 2022 race season was clouded in doubt over whether Red Bull had spent over the budget cap, and by October of that season it was announced by the FIA that both Red Bull and Aston Martin had overspent and/or misfiled their documentation. For Aston Martin this meant a fine of $450,000, and for Red Bull a fine of $7,000,000 and a 10% reduction in their allocated wind tunnel testing time for the next season. Unfortunately for both teams, it was found the rule breach was as a result of a misinterpretation from their legal teams on the procedure for filing their spending, and particularly for Red Bull what they could spend money on.

"There is no accusation or evidence that RBR has sought at any time to act in bad faith, dishonestly or in fraudulent manner" - FIA Statement on Red Bull cost cap breach.

Christian Horner at the Dutch GP 2022

The cost cap breach wasn't the only series of misunderstandings from teams in 2022, with Toto Wolff revealing he and the Mercedes team had misinterpreted the new technical regulations that unfortunately for them led to the performance of their car being worse than expected. Porpoising was the talk of the season for the silver arrows, with their car struggling to keep itself stable down the high speed straights.

"We got the physics wrong, it's no myth." - Toto Wolff, on Mercedes' 2022 drop in performance

While these two issues of the technical regulations could be put down to the teams mistakes, there have been recent failures in the rulebook that have led to penalties that some would deem unfair, and even the race directors have had to redact at times, and questions over points awarded after a race.

Toto Wolff, Mercedes team principal

The 2021 Belgian Grand Prix was the catalyst in a series of rule changes in the point awarding system. After the race had been suspended due to severe weather conditions, the drivers had only completed one full lap. As the race had technically officially begun, it had to be completed within 3 hours regardless of if there was any more track action. The weather did not clear and thus the race finished with only a few laps under safety car conditions, and half points awarded to the top 10.

As a result of this, the rules were changed to better distinguish point distribution should a race length be shortened for any reason. They split the level of points awarded into three groups depending on how long the race had lasted. It wasn't long until this new rule was brought into effect, as the 2022 Japanese Grand Prix* saw a delayed start and so an overall reduced race length. But it wasn't smooth sailing for the implementation of the new rules, as despite most of the teams, viewers and paddock personelle under the assumption that the race would be awarded reduced points, the FIA decided to award full points because the race wasn't "suspended indefinitley" and was able to resume until the clock - despite only running 28 of the planned 53 race laps.

This meant that while the overall race length was reduced, in their eyes it constituted to a complete race because it wasn't ended early, rather started late. This meant that Max Verstappen thought he was still short of winning the championship as he also assumed he was awarded reduced points, but as it turned out he was told in the cooldown room that he was infact World Champion.

Max Verstappen winning World Championship in 2022 - Photo by Clive Mason

Lo and behold, further clarification in the rules for the next season. The rule book was changed to fit with what the majority had originally understood it as; a reduced race should result in reduced points, regardless of if it started late or ended early.

Another, more recent example of rules needing clarification, is over the serving of penalties during a race. At the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso was handed a 5 second penalty for being outside of his grid box at the start of the race. But the controversy started when it came to the question over whether the mechanics had start working on the car in the pitlane before the 5 second penalty was officially served.

How do they fix this issue?

There are many things they could do to try fix these issues. The first step is to go through and re-write the whole rule book with a new group of regulators/lawyers to ensure there is no room for misinterpretation or other gaps. The current set of rules are adapted versions of historical rules, that have changes as the times have changed and new safety standards have come into place. But this has meant many loopholes and ambiguities for teams and race directors to exploit.

Get independent clarification between the FIA and teams to work out how each team has interpreted the rules before a season to make sure everything can be clarified. Obviously there are caveats to this, with the sport being as competitive as it is, that teams will be reluctant to expose gaps in the rules they might want to exploit. But a more involved relationship between the team's lawyers and the rule-makers, would create a healthy balance on where gaps in the rules might appear.

There is no perfect way of writing the rules, and there will always be ways to find loopholes. But there is definitley a lot that could be done to modernise the current set of regulations and solve most of the current ambiguity.