Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFormula 1

Teams cast doubt over refueling return

The potential return of refueling in 2017 has been cast in to doubt following comments from Christian Horner and Toto Wolff.

An FIA press release following a meeting of the Strategy Group claimed it had been agreed refueling will be introduced as part of a major regulation overhaul in 2017. However, when speaking about how the meeting went, Red Bull team principal Horner said there wasn't an agreement on a number of the topics discussed.

"There was obviously a large amount of discussion about the future and about current issues," Horner said. "I think there is positive work going on regarding the 2017 chassis.

"There were debates about refueling, whether that should be reintroduced or not. Differing opinions on that. It was a constructive meeting. I wouldn’t say that we nailed down a whole load of decisions out of it, but certainly a lot of discussion about the relevant topics at this point in time."

And Mercedes boss Wolff similarly admits refueling is not certain to return, but says the end goal was agreed upon.

"It was a good meeting in relation to the 2017 regs. We all agree that we want to reintroduce quicker cars, get the lap times down by five to six seconds. Make it more of a driver formula, maybe get rid of the electronic start procedures, go back to more conventional clutches. Refueling was discussed, with many various opinions. But we all agreed that this is what should be happening, so it was good."

Click here for a look at the technical updates brought by all the teams at the start of the European season

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.