Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali wants to make it harder for the series’ top teams to achieve long periods of dominance.
However he ruled out making any mid-season change to the regulations in order to close up the competition following Red Bull’s dominant start to 2023.
The reigning champions have won all seven grands prix held so far, often with a margin in excess of 20 seconds over their rivals. However Domenicali told the official F1 website it would not be fair to change the rules in response to their dominance.
“It’s not correct because we cannot be seen as a sport of manipulation,” said Domenicali. “This is not correct and this is not fair. I’m not envisioning at all this kind of approach.”
F1 hoped new rules it introduced in recent seasons, including the budget cap, aerodynamic testing restrictions (ATR) and revised technical regulations, would create closer competition. But since the middle of 2022 all bar one of the last 18 races have been won by Red Bull.
During that time Red Bull were penalised for exceeding the budget cap in 2021. However Domenicali insists the team’s success should be respected.
“The gap is between one team and the others. While the others are very, very close, one team – and that is Red Bull – did an incredible job. This is a job of meritocracy so we need to consider that they did an incredible job.
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“It is true that the gap seems to be big but we need to be prudent because we know in life things can change very quickly.”
As the reigning champions, Red Bull are permitted less development time under the ATR rules, and the allocation was further reduced as a penalty for their budget cap infringement. Domenicali suspects the other teams will reduce their pace deficit over the remainder of the season without help from the rule makers.
“It’s clear that the aim of what we want to do is to make sure that this gap will stay as small as possible. I’m sure that the other teams are watching how they can catch up with their development in the context of the budget cap.
“It would be interesting to see if the development curve of the team that today is leading will slow down because at the end of the day they did a better job in the shorter term. So that would be very interesting to see in the next couple of months.”
Domenicali believes leaving the rules unchanged is the “right approach” to encourage teams to converge in performance, creating closer competition. “The rules have been changed not many years ago and therefore this will happen for sure,” he said.
The next major change in F1’s regulations is just three years away. Domenicali said the series’ goal is to make it harder for one team to dominate for extended periods of time after new rules are introduced.
“F1 has been always a sport where there has been cycles where teams were very dominant and then some others came in into the equation. So I would say our objective should be, if you take the strategic approach, to make sure that these cycles in the future will be shorter, because that means that 20 cars, or whatever they are, will be really in the competition. This is what I would say as a commercial rights holder, but also as a lover of the sport, I would like to see.”
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