Todt: F1 rule changes need to be streamlined

FIA President Jean Todt has talked of his frustration with how difficult it is to introduce change into Formula 1.

Todt said that the sport must be able to make changes quicker in future. He explained that the current structure consisting of the Strategy Group, F1 Commission and World Motor Sport Council thwarted rapid responses to problems as they arose.

Todt was talking to RACER after the Australian Grand Prix which saw criticism of how difficult it was for drivers to overtake.

Todt himself acknowledged that the problem with overtaking was "probably worse now than it's ever been."

But he added that "It's definitely not going to be better. It's going to be the same for the rest of the season.

"Unfortunately the way things are happening, the reality is [it takes] too much time," Todt said. "The governance of Formula 1 in a way is a big security for the teams, but it's a 12-year process. It shouldn't be that heavy to change something.

"I can understand that for some long-term projects you need to have some time to plan ahead, but for some very easy moves it's a very heavy process, and something like that should change.

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"For me, that's very much disturbing for running the business properly. It's easier opportunity to change things which need to be changed. Unfortunately, at the moment, the way it is, it is not possible."

"We should really envisage and foresee what Formula 1 should be in five years, in ten years. And starting from there, probably decide what should be the rules in five years, so we allow teams to prepare that rather than overreacting."

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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.