FIA approves winter shutdown period for F1 teams

Formula 1 teams and power unit manufacturers will observe a mandatory shutdown period during the sport's winter break in the future.

The decision was approved by the FIA's Formula 1 Commission following a meeting in London on Tuesday. However, the duration of the shutdown period has yet to be approved.

Formula 1 teams already enjoy a summer break of fourteen consecutive days in July/August.

But the anticipated expansion of the sport's calendar from a record 23 to 25 races at some point in the future – the maximum number of events in a season as stipulated in the Concorde Agreement – logically called for a winter break to help team personnel recover in between seasons.

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At its meeting, The Formula 1 Commission also approved the following series of measures and decisions.

Additional DRS zones

The FIA has analysed DRS zones for 2022 and some changes made for 2023 in order to either facilitate overtaking, or make it harder in certain circuits where it was deemed not to be enough of a challenge.

These changes will be implemented in Bahrain, Jeddah, Melbourne, Baku and Miami, and involve the adjustment of detection and activation zones, and additionally in Melbourne the 4th activation zone will be reinstated.

Sporting, Technical and Financial regulations

The Commission approved revisions to the wording in the regulations to ensure that shorter races have reduced points even if they don’t finish with a suspended race.

An increase of the cost cap adjustment for additional races above 21 was agreed from 1.2M$ to 1.8M$ per race on the basis that the trend of the additional races being added to the calendar has been towards fly-aways, which are more expensive.

Parc Fermé for events that include a Sprint session

Parc Fermé rules as applied to Sprint races will provide teams with a greater scope to change components that can frequently get damaged, while there will be a greater use made of self-declared forms from the teams as a means of better policing themselves.

Radio messages between teams and drivers

The Commission approved the proposal to relax the regulation of radio messages to and from the Drivers at all times during a Competition. Communication restrictions were introduced several years ago to prevent a team's pitwall from coaching its drivers during a race.

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