Oliver Bearman\u2019s 190mph crash<\/a> at Suzuka, brought about because of the drastic difference in closing speeds between cars, caused huge concern. It has not been taken lightly, insists Tombazis, but he was wary of acting too soon.<\/p>\n\u201cEvery accident at high speed is always a little bit of a shock,\u201d he says. \u201cTo say it was expected would be wrong but the closing speeds had been identified as a risk. There have been talks about it but there was not easily the ability to act on it before we had a bit of time to analyse a few of the parameters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we\u2019ve introduced changes in a much more hurried way, the risk is that we make things worse or we cause all sorts of other issues, so that\u2019s why we need to have a bit of time to analyse. Clearly safety is the number one priority.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 57-year-old engineer and car designer from Athens has worked in F1 since 1992, including stints with Ferrari, McLaren and Benetton before joining the FIA. He is passionate about the sport but also brings the analytical and considered attitude the governing body requires, as the sport prepares to address these issues.<\/p>\n
double quotation markYou can learn theoretically to play the violin but until you play one you don\u2019t necessarily understand what it involves<\/p>\n
The discussions are taking place this month between the FIA, the teams, power-\u200aunit manufacturers and the commercial rights holder, FOM. A preliminary meeting is being held between parties on Thursday, largely to assess the technical and sporting considerations from the opening three rounds and potential changes, with another to come the following Thursday and the intention to have a discussion with the drivers as well.<\/p>\n
George Russell is receptive to the new rules but other drivers have been damning. Photograph: Mark Thompson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
These will be followed by a further meeting on 20 April for the senior representatives, including team principals and their CEOs, the power-unit manufacturers and F1\u2019s CEO, Stefano Domenicali. At that meeting, changes to the regulations will be decided, subject to ratification by the world motorsport council. It is hoped this will be in time for the next round of the championship, in Miami on 3 May.<\/p>\n
The FIA has been open in acknowledging that the new regulations would be something of an evolution and that it was monitoring them closely, with a review always planned. Tombazis notes that with as many as 200 engineers at each team all furiously looking to put performance on the car, there would be a steep learning curve for everyone. \u201cYou can learn theoretically how to play the violin but until you play the violin you don\u2019t necessarily understand what it involves,\u201d he observes.<\/p>\n
This is true, but rarely have new regulations provoked this level of disquiet. Part of the problem facing F1 is the complexity of how these hybrid engines work, how that affects drivers\u2019 experience and how fans see it. The last of these, F1 insists, has been a positive.<\/p>\n
The new Formula One regulations are something of an evolution with a review planned. Photograph: Issei Kato\/Reuters<\/p>\n
It is a juggling act, then. There will be no changes to the construction of the engines but rather to the parameters of energy recovery and deployment, which can be adjusted but which is also a finely judged line to manage, particularly as it also may affect overall speed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese rules are what we collectively refer to as energy management rules that won\u2019t require changes to hardware but may require some settings to change and some software,\u201d Tombazis says. \u201cChanges that are fundamentally possible to introduce very soon and go to the core of addressing closing speeds or driver satisfaction.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also did not, however, rule out further developments to give engine manufacturers a chance to make other developments. \u201cWe may decide that we want to have a phase one and a phase two and maybe give phase two a bit more time for some tweaks to be done by the manufacturers.\u201d<\/p>\n
These are testing times, then, but the governing body is at very least squarely addressing them and open in the requirement to do so. The task before Miami is to marry the commitment to safety to the changes required. The result will not please everyone but there is optimism this will at least make for a successful adjustment \u2013 at least until the more thorny debate over what to do for 2027 begins.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone is extremely passionate about this sport \u2013 drivers, fans \u2013 and when things are not perfect, they will be quite passionate about it. We\u2019re not expecting people to sugarcoat their comments,\u201d says Tombazis. \u201cBut I\u2019m now hoping for broad consensus, that teams will be also supportive and we won\u2019t be in a position where we have to argue too much.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formula One has endured a somewhat turbulent opening this season under the sport\u2019s new regulations. Amid the sound…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-594048","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}