Day 270: Prepare For F1 Dullness

This has been a big day for news in the world of Formula One. Four big items of news have happened today: the 2014 F1 calendar has been released, a new Concorde Agreement has been signed, Pirelli will remain sole tyre supplier and there will be a change to the format of the weekends.

Starting with the smaller items;

The change to the format of Friday morning practice will allow teams an extra set of tyres and the chance to run reserve drivers over a two hour session rather than the current 90 minutes. Unlike a previous plan, the extra set of tyres will be available to all teams rather than just those running a new driver. This is an important change which doesn’t allow any additional advantage to anyone, nor does it hamper the rookie driver who could be tied to that extra set. The additional rubber will only be allowed in the first 30 minutes however. Another tweak to the rules will allow teams to change drivers during the session – at the moment only two racers are allowed. The two drivers would have to be of similar size though as altering the car would take too long – there are practical issues like that to consider.
The new Concorde Agreement, which follows what seems like a life time of negotiation, is the highly secretive document by which F1 is run. The new document runs from 2013 to 2020 and includes a revised financial package for the FIA (the sport’s governing body) plus a new rule-making process for F1. The significance of this is that there has been a constant worry about whether or not the sport can survive long term – for environmental reasons, commercial reasons and what happens when Bernie Ecclestone retires (he is 82 after all). A solid grounding for the next seven years is part of ensuring its place in the sporting world.
Pirelli returning as tyre supplier in 2014 is a bit a non-event news wise. There have been plenty of bad news stories surrounding them – multiple tyre blow outs, creation of tyres that purposely don’t last long enough, those kind of things – however all of these are down to requests from the sport for tyres that do those things. They have followed instructions accurately, while possibly doing their reputation a lot of harm. That’s good marketing that. I should add that this is not officially confirmed, but is pretty much a done deal.

Finally, the 2014 calendar. It will be the longest F1 season in history with 22 races over 259 days between 16th March and 30th November. There are a few potential pit falls: the Grand Prix of America in New Jersey is a provisional fixture, alongside Mexico and Korea.

2014 F1 calendar: