Formula 1’s controversial racing guidelines will now not change until the 2025 season, Autosport can reveal.
The topic has been a huge discussion point as the current campaign has played out – with the FIA committing to reassessing the ‘Driving Standards Guidelines’ document that informs stewards’ decisions on contentious racing moves after Max Verstappen’s late-race clash with Lando Norris at the United States Grand Prix.
At the following round in Mexico City, it was agreed with the drivers that the FIA would look at the specific wording of the guidelines and what scenarios they are creating, and the governing body would present its findings to the drivers at this weekend’s penultimate 2024 event in Qatar.
Watch: How Cooler Temperatures in Qatar Played Into McLaren's Hands - F1 Sprint Qualy Reaction
After this hour-long meeting took place at the end of the race’s pre-event media day on Thursday, Mercedes racer and Grand Prix Drivers’ Association director, George Russell suggested the only proposed change concerned “a line of regulation that says the inside driver needs to leave room to the guy on the outside from the apex to the exit” and added “I think that's going to be getting binned off”.
At the same time, Russell said “I hope it's going to be from this weekend onwards”.
However, Autosport understands that given the scope of ideas discussed on Thursday, the FIA is continuing its assessment of the guidelines to take into account the driver’s latest feedback.
The proposal to clarify what a driver attacking on the inside can do regarding leaving a rival space on the outside is indeed set to be changed, but FIA sources indicate there are also additional revisions to the rules planned too.
From the drivers’ perspective, these mainly centre on how certain circuits – such as Austin – have huge runoff areas that mean very aggressive tactics knowing can be deployed given there is no hard limit to damage cars if things go wrong.
This year, the FIA has improved some such problematic corners by fitting small strips of gravel – which can be removable to aid circuits that also host MotoGP racing, such as the Red Bull Ring – and a more widespread usage of this system is now under consideration.
At the same time, it remains possible that the loophole in the guidelines that Verstappen has been exploiting – by re-attacking when being overtaken to ensure his wheels are ahead at the apex, the critical factor in the way the guidelines are currently written regardless of line positioning – will now be closed for the 2025 season.
The possibility that no changes would be made before the 2024 campaign concluded was thought possible back in Mexico based on how the FIA presented this as a collaborative effort with the drivers.
But given there is just one round remaining before the current season concludes, Autosport understands it has been agreed that it is prudent to implement the guideline changes for the start of the 2025 championship instead.
Gary Connelly, chairman of the F1 stewards, highlighted the united nature of the Qatar meeting in an FIA statement supplied to Autosport.
This follows a suggestion made by Russell and Norris back in Mexico that only Verstappen had objected to the need to change the guidelines back, something the Dutchman firmly rebuffed on Thursday.
“As stewards, if drivers and teams and the FIA agree that they want rules or guidelines to allow more aggressive driving, we'll apply those rules or guidelines,” said Connelly.
“Likewise, if they want stricter driving standards, we'll apply those.
“The driving standard guidelines are a living document, so every year, as the F1 stewards we try to meet with the drivers, sporting directors and FIA representatives, to see if we need to tweak the guidelines to use the experience of the last 12 months and see what improvements we can make to ensure consistency.
“The goal of the guidelines is consistency. The meeting on Thursday evening here in Doha, was the most productive one we've attended.
“The drivers were fantastic with their input. Very constructive. There was not one negative comment. There was no finger-pointing.
“It was very inspiring to see the world's best drivers, communicating clearly and speaking constructively on how we can improve the driving standard guidelines to the benefit of the drivers and to make all of our jobs easier.”
In a nod to the bitter discourse that has followed Verstappen and Norris clashing several times over the course of the 2024 season, as well as harking back to the toxic social media chatter in the 2021 campaign, Connelly was also moved to remind F1 fans that “as stewards, we are not here to inflict pain on drivers”.
“We're here to provide a level playing field,” he added. “It's not us against the drivers, it's the drivers against the drivers and we're here to make sure everyone gets a fair go.
“We have an open-door policy. The door to the stewards’ room is always open to any driver who wants to come up and talk to us about a decision that's been taken either in relation to them or in relation to any other driver.
“We think Thursday’s meeting emphasised that open-door policy.”
Connelly also outlined the short history of the DSG document, which was first introduced at the urging of the drivers for the start of the 2022 season, with previous reviews into its wording coming at the end of that campaign and in 2023.
“Up until 2017 there were very few driving standard regulations in the FIA system,” said the Australian.
“They mainly existed in one of the appendices of the International Sporting Code. So, it was very difficult for the stewards to apply the regulations because they were very, very simple regulations.
“Some of them date back to 1954 when the code was formed and haven't changed much since.
“Then in late 2018, the approach called ‘let them race’ was introduced, where we adopted a more hands-off approach and tolerated more aggressive driving styles.
“However, it reached the stage in late 2021 when the drivers were saying: ‘look, we want to have more precise understanding of what we can do and what we can't do.’
“Therefore, a very basic set of guidelines was introduced in early 2022.
“Since then, we have had several meetings to discuss how the wording of those guidelines needed to be amended to make them more understandable and applicable.”
In regard to the additional circuit changes and the role of certain corner layouts in contentious driver moves, FIA single-seater sporting director Tim Malyon said: “As the FIA, we work continuously with circuits to evolve in many different ways.
“Obviously, we are continually working on the safety aspect of circuits.
“But what that meeting highlighted is that there are a number of considerations on the sporting side, which we can prioritise for circuits going forward.
“As we have done this year, we introduced the gravel traps, starting in Austria, and obviously, with this weekend [in Qatar] being perhaps the most obvious with gravel traps added in a in a number of places.
“We continue to work with circuits on all topics, but it was very useful in Thursday’s meeting to get the insight of the drivers and see how they prioritise the gravel track concept, not only for track limits, but also for managing some of the situations that have arisen with overtaking during the course of the last four or five races.
“In all, there was a commitment to work together to find solutions that work for everyone.”
