The FIA, the rule maker for Formula 1 and governing body of World Motorsport, is seeking to make F1 factory visits without requiring notice to be given to the teams.
There are several rules that F1 teams must abide by during factory operations, from wind tunnel testing and CFD time, to cost-cap restrictions and the use of third-party staff.
Because of these factors, the FIA makes regular visits to F1 factories to ensure everything is being conducted within the guidelines of the regulations.
However, FIA Single Seater Director Nikolas Tombazis has revealed he wants to streamline this process to ensure sides are being checked more robustly without loopholes.
“We want to go to basically zero notice,” Tombazis told Autosport.
In the current situation, the FIA gives plenty of notice to competitors of any upcoming visits, which makes things easier for anyone wishing to cover up any unsporting activity.
Tombazis’ preferred approach would seek to mitigate this.
“We don’t think we should be just entering the door and going in, but we do think it would be right to have a process in place where we can just phone them, and somebody comes out and picks up these people and they can say: ‘I want to go and see the wind tunnel or whatever,'” he explained.
“About 10/15 minutes, we want to get to the point where it’s really quite immediate.
“We don’t have to wait at the gate for another hour or something like that.”
Previously, the FIA’s team of factory inspectors was on the light side, but Tombazis claims a recruitment drive has alleviated these concerns, enabling the governing body to conduct factory visits more readily.
“We were aiming to expand it [the team of factory inspectors] for quite a long time now, but we were a bit understaffed,” he added.
“We recently went to the target number of this team, and now that enables us to visit teams approximately every two or three weeks.”
A recent item within the F1 regulations that will require policing revolves around the 2026 cars.
During the Abu Dhabi GP weekend, the F1 Commission decided that no work should be carried out on the next generation of cars before the start of 2025.
The sporting regulations for the 2024 season were subsequently updated, preventing teams from carrying out any wind tunnel or CFD work on the 2026 cars until 1 January 2025.
Zero notice factory visits and a bolstered staff of FIA inspectors will contribute to ensuring teams comply with this latest regulation.
The Gentlemen of the FIA request permission to visit your factory on the 6th instance of ……………
In industrial regulation and military ZNI has been normal for decades.
Yet another illustration of how out of date FIA is in ALL areas of Management and Regulation !!