Obstacle to 21-race calendar in 2016 rules

F1 Fanatic Round-up

Posted on

| Written by

In the round-up: Plans for a 21-race F1 calendar in 2016 may hit a snag as current rules only permit a maximum of 20 events.

Show your support

Which drivers are you behind?
Which of this year’s drivers and teams are you rooting for? Here’s how you can show your support on F1 Fanatic:

  • Log in with your F1 Fanatic account sign up here if you dont have one)
  • Select Edit My Profile from the top-right menu
  • Select F1 Teams and Drivers
  • Make your selections then click Save Changes

Tweets

Comment of the day

Some F1 tracks cater for more than just cars
Lots of people would like to see less forgiving run-off areas which offer a ‘natural’ deterrent to drivers who go off the track. But is this always possible when tracks host bikes as well as cars?

The main problem with ‘natural punishment’ is the safety standards imposed by FIA, FIM etc… Most F1 circuits are certified by both organisations, so they need to fulfil both safety requirements. If we truly want to have natural punishments and keep the track ‘safe’ for both four-wheelers and two-wheelers, FIA and FIM need to work together to come up with a good run-off area type. I’ve suggested before that the kerb stones could serve as FIM’s main run-off area, while whatever’s beyond the kerb stones (grass for instance) is the run-off area for the FIA.

But yeah, that’s not going to happen, is it?
@andae23

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Fer No. 65, Sebastiaan Huizinga and Carlos!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is via the contact form or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

Future F1 driver Norberto Fontana clinched the German Formula Three championship at the Hockenheimring 20 years ago today, beating Ralf Schumacher. Jarno Trulli won the race:

However tragedy struck on the same day in the Formula 3000 finale. Marco Campos was killed in a crash on the last lap at Magny-Cours.

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

59 comments on “Obstacle to 21-race calendar in 2016 rules”

  1. Why don’t more drivers make their overalls like how Sainz Jr. has his in the picture? Your name and number written in large font size like a football jersey. It will put F1 in line with other major sports and give the drivers an individual identity rather than just being a driver for a team.

    1. I believe its the teams that design the drivers uniforms. Verstappen’s uniform is the same. Although I wouldn’t mind seeing the other teams doing it.

  2. I don’t understand them. 21 races? They can’t even manage twenty! There’s always some new crapy underfunded circuit somewhere who is all “we’ll have a race here next year” and then “nah, yeah, not happening” halfway through the season.

    Taff that!

    1. I fear it will be Monza making way :(

      1. Wow, I certainly hope not. Monza is my favorite circuit and I’d hate to see it go. I wish it would be Baku…but of course, Bernie is getting to much money in his pocket for that crap to go away.

        But honestly, I’m boycotting that race anyway because Bernie CLEARLY intended to put that race over the top of the 24 hours of Le Mans to screw with the WEC and make it impossible for F1 drivers to do both. Very sad for Hulk and others. But I’m going to boycott the Baku race because I’m not giving Bernie a single, red cent to support his dirty play.

    2. Just Bernies way of putting pressure on a circuit or three, the message is “We don’t really need you and you’ll be doing me a favor if you pull out”.

      1. So perhaps it’s the lowest-bidding race that gets excluded. Nice.

        1. Well if it is just a case of who pays the least Monaco should go, but Bernie is smarter than that.

        2. @timothykatz I do not think it is that simple; if a circuit has a contract and pays the hosting fee, then Ecclestone has to respect it. That said, Silverstone has not paid for the 2015 race yet and if the owners do not manage to get their finances in order, then the British GP could be thrown out of the calendar.

          Another obvious candidate is the “European” GP. The circuit is not completed yet and the current date does not make sense and was most probably chosen just to make sure that Hulkenberg cannot win the Le Mans again.

          1. No @girts, you are quite right. It was just me being cynical. I find F1 administration and politics routinely infuriating, venal and wilfully neglectful!

          2. was most probably chosen just to make sure that Hulkenberg cannot win the Le Mans again

            I’m going to assume you made that in jest; if that’s a serious point, then it’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read on here.

          3. @raceprouk I have to agree with @girts on this one. I COMPLETELY believe that Bernie intentionally scheduled Baku to be on top of Le Mans. He does not want drivers in the other series as he is a selfish task master. NOTHING can get in the way of Bernie’s control of every aspect and having drivers promote WEC is not in his interest and in his eyes diminishes his F1 brand.

            And if you look at the schedule, logistics, timing, the challenge of finishing Baku track on time…EVERYTHING points to it being better to push Baku back a week. Name a single reason why Baku would be the week of Le Mans instead of going back a week. Seriously, go look at the calendar and notice the breaks around those races. There is absolutely no reason to have it the week of Le Mans other than to stop drivers from competing in both.

          4. @raceprouk Why do you believe it is something unthinkable? The world of F1 was pretty much focused on Hulkenberg on the Austrian GP weekend because of his victory at Le Mans. This was the message: Hulkenberg is a great driver, who has not been able to show his skills in F1, the WEC now gave him a chance to prove himself and look what he did. In other words, the whole affair gave the WEC a lot of good publicity for free. I would not be surprised if Ecclestone did not like it.

          5. @daved, @girts, are you really going to defend a crazy conspiracy theory? Because that’s what it is, a crazy conspiracy theory.

          6. @raceprouk I truly don’t understand why you’d think this was a conspiracy theory. Seriously, it actually makes business sense to Bernie as it keeps the WEC from encroaching on what he sees as a zero sum game. Why would you think it’s conspiracy that Bernie would think: “there are XXX dollars to be spent on motorsport and if someone else is getting them then I’m not”.
            That is clearly Bernie’s personality so it’s a very likely thought process for him.

            In addition, please stop just saying “that’s crazy” and actually ANSWER the following questions:
            1) The distance from Montreal to Baku is 8,919 miles. The distance from Baku to Austria is 1,729 miles. Why would you only allow 1 week between Canada and Baku (and travel all those time zones) when you could do one week between Baku and Austria with only 2 time zones difference?
            2) They need more time to get the Baku venue ready, so why would they move it UP a week rather than do it right before the Austrian Grand Prix and have an extra week of prep time?
            3) There is NOTHING more important to Baku than this sporting event so nothing else could force that date change.
            4) If Baku was a week later, then they would not be competing for motorsports fans with Le Mans.

            So all of those are logical reasons why Baku should be a week later. So what possible logic can you offer for it to be the same week as Le Mans???

            You can’t win a debate by simply saying “you’re crazy”. You have to be able to back up your position with some type of logic or simply admit you have an opinion that defies explanation. @girts brought up a valid point and you have not shown why his view was “a conspiracy”. Bernie is VERY egotistical and VERY money driven. So Girts’ statement is very logical, actually.

          7. @daved, the fact you cannot see how ridiculously convoluted your position is means there’s no point continuing this asinine spectacle

          8. @raceprouk

            So….you got nothing. LOL Pathetic.

    3. Couldn´t the 21 races schedule proposal be an attempt to let the teams use 5 engines instead of 4 during the season without punishment, just as they tried to do the last year?

      1. Think its the other way round, that is to say, the engine rule is to encourage teams to agree to 21 races.

    4. Wasn’t this year when one of the initial calendars had Korea and Austria as back to back races? Then Korea didn’t happen… and this year we see Canada and then Azerbaijan as back to back races. Seems Bernie is playing the same card again.

      Also.. I think there was a draft calendar that had a race the Same Weekend as Le Mans.

  3. Paul Ortenburg
    15th October 2015, 1:54

    With RB / STR and Lotus all looking shaky whether they will even be there next year we are going to have more races than cars.

  4. As someone a little bit obsessed with symmetry, the three-tailpipe option makes me happy. Hope everyone goes for it… I’d be rather displeased to see a little second exhaust poking out on one side of the main tailpipe without a matching pipe on the other side.

    (Yes, the 2014 Lotus gave me nightmares)

    1. I’d keep them away from the Dallara F312 then.

      1. Ugh. Been hating F3 cars for longer than I care to remember.

  5. Thanks for the birthday shout! :D It’s the first I receive every year, since it’s 5 hours before my actual birthday :D!

    1. OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
      15th October 2015, 4:15

      Happy birthday @fer-no65 !!!

    2. Ha, by now it should be the day of your birthday, so good morning and enjoy your birthday @fer-no65!

    3. happy birthday mate @fer-no65

    4. Happy Birthday! Have a great year ahead :)

  6. The latest draft calendar has 21 races

    ‘The latest daft calendar has 21 races’ – is what I read. Though I do think 21 is a healthy maximum and achievable.

    1. sounds pretty fitting yes. Afterall having 4 races more or less standalone with huge amount of flights in between and some of the constraints later does seem somewhat off.

  7. Bernie: “Oh: ok then so which Grand Prix shall we get rid of then? The British one causes me headaches, so let’s do away with that. No? Ok, we will have to do 21 races then”

  8. russian gp onboard!
    Link
    no worries…

    1. @sato113 – thanks for that link… @3:37 Lewis so nearly collected Nico when the S/C flags went out on lap 1!

    2. ColdFly F1 (@)
      15th October 2015, 15:31

      Beautiful on-boards as always. thanks @sato113.
      Poor race by Kimi, twice overtaken after the safety car, struggling to pass Ric and we all know what he did to Bot.

  9. Matt Damon.

    1. +100000000000000

      1. Good Will Shunting.

  10. Someone should have told Hamilton that he doesn’t need to wear 3D glasses when he is at the actual set of a 3D movie.

    1. ColdFly F1 (@)
      15th October 2015, 8:40

      good one.

    2. I’m pretty sure that, along with Scott, he’s watching the monitor.

  11. ColdFly F1 (@)
    15th October 2015, 8:56

    If the wastegate tailpipe(s) needs to be rearward facing, end close to the turbine tailpipe, etc – thus having a very similar length to the current single tailpipe – how can it create more noise?
    I was hoping that the wastegate would have a short tailpipe which would exit close to the actual wastegate itself.

    1. Turbine acts as a form of muffler.
      The exhaust going through the wastegate is bypassing the turbine,hence more noise.

      1. ColdFly F1 (@)
        15th October 2015, 11:09

        Yes – but the wastegate exists already! @melchior
        The only difference AFAIK is that now – after bypassing the turbine – the gasses go to the single exhaust/tailpipe.

        1. You are right, I believe it will only separate the 2 sounds thus making each a bit clearer, not really louder

  12. sounds like pirelli are not making very big changes. from what i’ve read it seems like they need an entirely new concept for how the tyre wears, not just small tweaks. and there’s no real incentive for them to do that…so we need a tyre war!

    1. @frood19 Tyre war would not help. Even if Bernie signed up more manufacturers, they woud all have in their contracts obligation to produce self-destructing tyres. That’s where the problem is. If Pirelli got green light, I am sure they could produce a tyre that lasts the whole race comfortably. They would welcome it, too, as experience in self-destructing tyres is not exactly road relevant.

      1. A tire competition (not a war any moreso than any other aspect of F1) would not be allowed again unless F1 had the motivation to have better tires. There would be no point in inviting a competitor in to go up against Pirelli if they were both being mandated to continue producing the limiting tires that Pirelli currently must.

        I would love to see a tire competition again, with a mandated number of pit stops per race to avoid them going the whole distance on one set, so that each stint is more of a sprint than an exercise in conservation. The drivers need to be able to push themselves and their cars more if F1 is to call itself the pinnacle.

  13. Ferrari should fix their driver overalls. Looks out of size

    1. Or the drivers should eat more?

    2. OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
      15th October 2015, 14:34

      @brianfrank302 I dont know… but who is that Manor driver? He is so short!

      1. ColdFly F1 (@)
        15th October 2015, 15:03

        Will Stevens! He is standing behind number 28 with the Union Jack.
        @omarr-pepper
        Can’t do anything about his length ;-)

    3. I read somewhere that Vettel prefers baggy overalls, so maybe this is a driver request.

      1. Baggy overalls will cause drag, the Ferrari engine must be a monster if their drivers wore normal overalls they would have better fuel consumption and top speeds so could go faster for longer. Maybe thats why they are good in hot races as the overalls stick to the driver. I believe this occurred 3 times this year so far, Malaysia, Hungary and Singapore.

        Next years big update to catch Merc is mainly about the overalls but it takes months to design and make them, if tbey work RedBull will want equal Ferrari spec drivers overalls.

        1. Lmao markp. Good one

        2. i heard Christian Horner has already been chasing getting some same-spec coffee & pizza.

  14. Cotd is right but it’s tragic that Motogp are racing at Motegi which has come into scrutiny again for being an relatively unsafe track which has little of the modern run offs.

  15. Bernie loves the taste of blood money, so the “European Grand Prix” is safe.

Comments are closed.