Formula 1 is not considering implementing in-season regulation changes to slow Red Bull, says the sport’s CEO Stefano Domenicali.
Red Bull has dominated the start of the 2023 season, winning all seven races staged so far with relative ease.
Its advantage over the rest of the field has left the outcome of grand prix weekends to be predictable and the campaign has been labelled as boring by some.
While F1 often alters its regulations to pull the field closer together, it is typically done before the start of a new season.
Speaking to the Beyond the Grid podcast, Domenicali clarified F1 is not considering introducing changes while the 2023 campaign is still underway.
“I think it is not fair to say that, because we cannot be seen as a sport of manipulation,” he said
“This is not correct and this is not fair. I’m not envisioning at all, this kind of approach.”
When asked if it was better to let the teams converge by keeping the regulations the same, Domenicali said: “I think that’s the right approach, because the rules have been changed not many years ago and, therefore, this will happen for sure.”
Red Bull has dominated the sport since the start of the 2022 season, when new technical regulations were brought into play.
Prior to that, Mercedes was F1’s leading force before 2021 saw a two-way fight for the title between Mercedes and Red Bull.
Recently, two-time World Champion Max Verstappen suggested that F1 should let regulation cycles play out longer in order to end up with more seasons like 2021.
However, part of the 2022 rules aimed to bring the field closer together by giving the team that finished last in the standings more aerodynamic testing time for the following year.
But Domenicali has ruled out the prospect of issuing the squads that are forming the base of the standings even more allocated wind tunnel time.
“This is something that is a change of framework on the sporting dimension, which is not fair,” he said.
“F1 has always been a sport where there have been cycles, where teams were very dominant and then some others came into the equation.
“Our objective should be to make sure that these cycles in the future will be shorter. This is what I would say, as a commercial rights holder but also as a lover of sport, I would like to see.”
