Formula 1 Rule Changes Use Common Sense to Improve the Sport | Bleacher … – Bleacher Report

Late last Friday, common sense finally prevailed in Formula One. It is just a small step, with the FIA World Motor Sport Council approving some of the F1 Strategy Group’s latest recommendations, but even a small step in the right direction is a good sign for the sport after a turbulent year of bankruptcies, double points and threatened boycotts.

Last week, we cautioned not to get too excited yet about the Strategy Group’s proposal to improve F1, but the first changes are positive, consisting mostly of simplifying some of the sport’s complex regulations.

First, there are immediate modifications to the overly complicated system of penalties for exceeding the limit on various power unit components.

In Austria last month, the two McLaren drivers faced a ridiculous situation where they were each penalised 25 grid places on a 20-place grid, meaning they also had to serve time penalties during the race.

With the rule changes, drivers can still be demoted to the back of the grid, but that’s it—no more drive-through or stop-and-go penalties and no more calculators necessary to determine the actual starting grid once penalties are announced. In fact, the only negative part of this change is that future generations of F1 fans will miss out on jokes like these:

Jenson Button hit with 25 place grid penalty in Austria, on a 20 place grid. He’ll start the race from somewhere in Switzerland…

— Chris Liversidge (@NorthLightPhys) June 20, 2015

Bad news: Jenson Button given 25-place grid penalty
Good news: McLaren are confident he’ll finish in the top 20 pic.twitter.com/JzgdgO8V9C

— NOW TV Sport (@NOWTVSport) June 20, 2015

Staying on the engine theme, the second rule change grants an extra power unit during any new manufacturer’s first season in the sport. Every team had five power units in 2014, the first season of the new engine formula, but the limit dropped to four this year.

Honda, entering the sport in 2015, was subject to the lower limit, partly leading to the aforementioned McLaren grid penalties in Austria. But this rule change applies retroactively to the Japanese company, giving Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso an extra power unit before they get a chance to test out the new engine penalties.

Meanwhile, the extra leeway will benefit any new manufacturers, hopefully mitigating the negative impression that Honda’s struggles will have made on any companies thinking of joining the sport.

Third, the Super Licence points system, announced at the beginning of the year to much derision, is being modified before it has even really been implemented.

In the first place, the points system was a classic case of fixing a problem that did not exist.

Was there suddenly such a glut of inexperienced and incompetent drivers arriving in F1 that a barricade was needed to fight them off? Hardly (especially since the FIA itself is working to simplify the path to F1).

Not to mention that, per NBC commentator Will Buxton’s personal blog:

Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher, two of the finest drivers to ever grace the planet, would not have been granted a Super License under this system. Neither would Mika Hakkinen. Neither Gilles Villeneuve. Jim Clark’s tractor definitely wouldn’t have given him the points. Not entirely sure racing a Model A Ford taxi would have done [Juan Manuel] Fangio much good either.

The latest decision leaves the points system in place but increases the flexibility for F1 test drivers who are not racing in other series, adds series that were left out in the first iteration (e.g. DTM, the German touring car championship) and revises the weighting for some series to better reflect their skill level (I wonder where they got some of these ideas).

The final common-sense change pertains to the provisional 2016 calendar. It includes 21 races, up from 19 this year, which should surprise no one who has been paying attention lately, but recent experience also demonstrates that one or two races from the provisional calendar might not actually take place.

But even with 21 races, there are still some positives to draw out of the new schedule. First, the number of back-to-back flyaway races has increased from three to four. At the same time, the number of standalone flyaway races has been reduced from six to five (assuming the teams fly to Azerbaijan).

Of course, it’s possible these changes were necessary given the desire to cram 21 grands prix into a timeframe three weeks shorter than we have for 19 races this year. Given all the other positive changes that came out of this meeting, though, let’s give the benefit of the doubt and assume the changes are an attempt to relieve some of the travel burden on the teams.

And with the season starting later, teams will have additional time to develop their cars, meaning maybe everyone will make it to the starting grid in Australia. Meanwhile, there will be fewer gaps in the schedule once the season begins (good for the fans, maybe not so much for the teams).

Taken together, if these changes are a sign of things to come from the Strategy Group and the FIA, perhaps F1 is serious about digging itself out of the pit of negativity it has built for itself.

On the other hand, remember that these are still the easy fixes. It remains to be seen whether the teams can look beyond themselves for the good of the sport when it comes to substantial changes to the technical regulations, for example.

For now, though, it’s a good first step.

Follow me on Twitter for updates when I publish new articles and for other (mostly) F1-related news and banter: @MatthewWalthert.