Important meeting on F1 future at Spa

The Grand Prix weekend at Spa-Francorchamps is not only dominated by a sprint race on Saturday and a race on Sunday afternoon. Teams' agendas are also filled on Friday. On 28 July, the Formula 1 Commission will meet to discuss the future of Formula 1. Four major agenda items are scheduled, with perhaps sweeping changes for the coming years.

The most important topics are related to tyre warmers, engine power, gearboxes and a possible budget cap increase. All teams and engine suppliers will be present at the meeting, as well as Formula 1 management and the FIA. They will discuss these issues among themselves and then cast their votes for a possible change in the regulations.

The main topic regarding tyres is artificial preheating with tyre warmers. The meeting will decide whether or not to postpone the ban on tyre warmers for at least a year. For that, a minimum of five teams are needed to agree to keep the current tyre regulations.

The outcome of the vote is also important for tyre suppliers. If the ban on tyre warmers is delayed by up to a year, Pirelli will have better papers in hand to continue supplying tyres. With a postponement without an exact date, Bridgestone would be fully engaged in the supplier battle, reports Auto, Motor und Sport.

In addition, the FIA will look at engine power. The Alpine team has put forward a proposal to find additional power in the interest of equal opportunities. For this, they would like to see a revised regulation in the regulations. There is currently an engine freeze, but under the guise of 'reliability' the other engine manufacturers have built up a lead of tens of horsepower' over the past year. Renault wants to do something about that.

Furthermore, a number of teams want to vote on regulations in terms of gearboxes. Switching transmission suppliers is practically impossible without making major changes to the car. As a result, the FIA introduced a standard system to make a switch easier. The bigger teams are reluctant to look at this development. After all, they supply many gearboxes to customer teams and therefore see their power potentially diminished.

Finally, the budget cap is the main topic on the agenda. The smaller teams in particular could use extra investment to connect to the top, but the budget cap limits their options. Two options are on the table tomorrow; increasing the cap to $50 million or $80 million. This will then only involve investment in facilities, as the top teams still have a big advantage in that area.