{"id":703222,"date":"2026-05-30T00:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T00:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/703222\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T00:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T00:09:10","slug":"sailgp-teams-share-data-should-f1-plus-new-fia-presidential-term-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/703222\/","title":{"rendered":"SailGP teams share data. Should F1? Plus: New FIA presidential term proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic\u2019s F1 newsletter. Sign up here<\/a> to receive Prime Tire directly in your inbox twice a week during the season and weekly in the offseason.<\/p>\n

Welcome back to Prime Tire, where we\u2019re wondering if the FIA president trying to get rid of FIA presidential term limits when nobody likes the FIA\u2019s new Formula 1 cars is like me saying, \u201cWell I\u2019m never leaving!\u201d when someone corrects a typo. Maybe not. Who can say?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Patrick, and Madeline Coleman will be along later. Let\u2019s get to it.<\/p>\n

Should F1 mimic SailGP?<\/p>\n

Hey, why is there\u00a0a sailing story on my F1 home page<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Let me explain.<\/p>\n

SailGP<\/a>\u00a0is an annual international sailing competition featuring 13 teams that race identical high-performance catamarans.\u00a0SailGP runs its boats with around 35,000 unique data points flowing off each vessel per second. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure processes roughly 80 billion pieces of information over a typical race weekend. (This may sound familiar to you \u2014 AWS does similar things at the F1 series level, while companies like Oracle, Microsoft and IBM work with individual teams.)<\/p>\n

And then \u2014 here\u2019s the part where F1 folks start sweating \u2014 SailGP teams just \u2026 give that data to everyone. Seriously.\u00a0We wrote about it and everything<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Alex Reid, SailGP\u2019s director of performance engineering, said visitors walk into the data center and immediately ask if they\u2019re allowed to take pictures. \u201cWe encourage it,\u201d Reid said.<\/p>\n

I have tried to imagine Toto Wolff encouraging a rival team to photograph his data center. I can\u2019t. The human brain has limits.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because secrecy is built into F1.\u00a0\u201cSpygate<\/a>\u201d remains the sport\u2019s defining corporate-espionage scandal nearly 20 years later. Everyone has been even more jumpy about protecting data ever since.<\/p>\n

And yet, SailGP has had seven different winners across 12 events this season. F1 has had\u00a0two winners (from the same team)<\/a>\u00a0across five races.<\/p>\n

You could see a consistency argument here, if you squint. F1 teams buy engines from other teams (McLaren, Alpine and Williams buy Mercedes; Haas and Cadillac buy Ferrari). Shouldn\u2019t smaller teams be allowed to buy data from larger teams, too?\u00a0After all, the open-data sailing league is producing more competitive racing than the closed-wall \u201cpinnacle of motorsport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well \u2026 SailGP can share all that data freely because\u00a0there is only one boat<\/a>, and everyone already has it. The data points don\u2019t reveal how to build a faster boat, but how well a crew is sailing. Human stuff. Harder to manufacture.<\/p>\n

In F1, the data\u00a0is\u00a0the car.\u00a0It\u00a0is\u00a0the competitive edge. Mercedes\u2019 telemetry doesn\u2019t just tell you how fast they\u2019re going; it tells you why, and\u00a0how to build your car to catch up<\/a>. The data is the whole thing.<\/p>\n

So SailGP\u2019s open-data philosophy isn\u2019t really a philosophy so much as an inevitability of choosing hardware parity. Whether F1 could (or should) get there someday is an interesting thought experiment. But too much of its identity lives in the answer being no.<\/p>\n

Anyway, as you can tell, Andrew Rice\u2019s SailGP piece is thought-provoking.\u00a0I highly encourage you to\u00a0give it a read<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s stay on the topic of F1\u2019s future, and throw it to Madeline.<\/p>\n

Inside the Paddock with Madeline Coleman: No more FIA presidential term limits?<\/p>\n

Current FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has proposed\u00a0ending term limits\u00a0for the FIA presidency.<\/p>\n

The current maximum duration that an FIA president can serve, whether consecutively or broken up, is three terms, which amounts to 12 years. Ben Sulayem is currently in his second term\u00a0after running unopposed last year<\/a>. The 64-year-old was the only eligible candidate after his rivals, Tim Mayer and Laura Villars, were unable to nominate seven vice presidents for their ballots.<\/p>\n

BBC Sport first reported the news of the proposal, and\u00a0The Athletic\u00a0confirmed it with the FIA.<\/p>\n

\u201cA proposal has been put forward to establish a consistent approach to tenure across all FIA bodies, similar to what currently exists for the World Councils and the Senate,\u201d an FIA spokesperson said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proposal is subject to approval by the World Councils and by the General Assembly. FIA bodies retain full authority to democratically elect officeholders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Term limits for FIA presidents haven\u2019t always been a thing. Jean Todt, who held the post prior to Ben Sulayem, proposed the rule. Before Todt, Max Mosley was FIA president from 1993 to 2009.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocratic election by FIA Member Clubs is the appropriate mechanism for determining who serves and for how long,\u201d the FIA spokesperson said. \u201cElections place judgment with members rather than arbitrary time limits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Accountability: A correction from last edition<\/p>\n

Thanks, Madeline. And now, I must issue a correction\u00a0from Tuesday\u2019s issue<\/a>. I got something wrong in my last send, and I\u2019m going to walk through exactly how. I am going to \u201cFire Joe Morgan\u201d myself. This is what I deserve.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go through what I said line by line, and I\u2019ll show you where it went wrong:<\/p>\n

\u201cF1\u2019s new engines split output 50\/50 between the ICE and electrical deployment. The problem: If a car can\u2019t recover enough energy, the battery drains, and the car loses speed on the straights (that thing called \u2018clipping\u2019).\u201d<\/p>\n

A little clunky, but we\u2019re not dissecting the prose. Also, it\u2019s \u201csuper clipping,\u201d not \u201cclipping.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also, also, \u201csuper clipping\u201d is not a passive battery failure. It\u2019s an automated choice: To prevent depletion, the engine will enter harvest mode (even at full throttle). The car slows not because it is out of energy, but because it is prioritizing recharging.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Canadian GP\u2019s Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve looks like the perfect fix on paper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts heavy braking zones (like the hairpin and the Wall of Champions chicane) should give the power unit ample time to harvest energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Correct. Good. Loving it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the reality is the opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here we go.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe long straights demand so much sustained electrical deployment that they drain whatever drivers harvest under braking.\u201d<\/p>\n

You fool. The actual problem is sequencing. The front half of the lap has braking zones. The back half demands massive deployment with almost no recovery. Drivers who push too hard early arrive at the final straight with nothing.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 making Montreal the worst energy-starvation circuit on the calendar so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

This section is the worst accuracy-starved section on the calendar so far.<\/p>\n

I regret the error. I regret it specifically, and in the order in which it occurred. And I regret the rules are so complicated to understand, making me, and by proxy you, the real victims here. Moving on!<\/p>\n

Ripple Effect: Welcome to F1, Gucci<\/p>\n

Alpine is leaving behind BWT\u2019s pink and blue livery for Gucci\u2019s black, gold, red and green when Gucci\u00a0becomes its title sponsor in 2027<\/a>. Which is, aesthetically, a bit like trading a watercolor painting for a Renaissance ceiling. Here\u2019s the logo for Gucci Racing:<\/p>\n

\"\"\/I mean. Pretty slick. No notes.<\/p>\n

As I wrote this week<\/a>, it feels inevitable, in hindsight, that a fashion brand became an F1 team title sponsor, with the way fashion brands are everywhere around the grid and paddock. Even if fashion isn\u2019t your thing, it\u2019s an interesting shift.<\/p>\n

But, hey. Can we talk for a minute about BWT, Alpine\u2019s outgoing title\u00a0sponsor?<\/p>\n

BWT is an Austrian water treatment company. Its product makes water softer. The most glamorous sport in the world, with one team brought to you by the people who ensure your shower doesn\u2019t leave mineral deposits on the glass.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not mocking BWT. We support water treatment here at\u00a0The Athletic. I just think it\u2019s worth pausing, now that Alpine has announced Gucci as its replacement title sponsor, to appreciate the full arc here.<\/p>\n

*pauses reflectively*<\/p>\n

Anyway, BWT and its pink-and-blue liveries had a really good run. Merci pour l\u2019eau.<\/p>\n

Outside the Points<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc1 Last edition, we told you of Lando Norris\u2019 Indy 500 interest. This time, Luke has the full story on whether Norris\u00a0would ever actually race it<\/a>, and what might\u2019ve sold him on doing so.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc1d A\u00a0newly discovered species of wasp<\/a>\u00a0found in amber has been named\u00a0Gwesped piastrii\u00a0after Oscar Piastri, because the color of the amber reminded the researchers of McLaren\u2019s papaya orange. Piastri has not yet commented, but we assume he\u2019s absolutely buzzing at the news.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udd0b\u00a0Mercedes revealed this week<\/a>\u00a0that George Russell\u2019s Canadian GP retirement was caused by a battery that, in technical director James Allison\u2019s words, \u201csuffered a catastrophic failure\u201d and was \u201cfairly unhappy.\u201d Someone should tell the battery to stop being so hard on itself.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udf27\ufe0f Madeline\u2019s mailbag this week tackles the question everyone was asking after Canada: What exactly was McLaren thinking starting on intermediates?\u00a0Read the full breakdown here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\uddb1\ufe0f\u00a0And finally, most-clicked last time: Luke\u2019s\u00a0dispatch from the Triple Crown<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udceb Love Prime Tire? Check out The Athletic\u2019s other newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic\u2019s F1 newsletter. Sign up here to receive Prime Tire directly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-703222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703222","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=703222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}