The technical regulations that were scheduled for the 2021 Formula 1 season are postponed to 2022, the FIA announced Thursday (March 19).
Formula 1, the FIA and all teams agreed to delay the new rules after discussing the effects from the outbreak of COVID-19, a type of coronavirus.
“All parties further discussed the current situation of the 2020 championship and how the sport will react to the ongoing challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the FIA said in a statement.
“Due to the currently volatile financial situation this has created, it has been agreed that teams will use their 2020 chassis for 2021, with the potential freezing of further components to be discussed in due course.”
Since teams income may be lessened during this time, the FIA hopes this will alleviate their financial burden.
“The introduction and implementation of the financial regulations will go ahead as planned in 2021, and discussions remain ongoing between the FIA, Formula 1 and all teams regarding further ways to make significant cost savings.
“All teams expressed their support for the FIA and Formula 1 in their ongoing efforts to restructure the 2020 calendar as the global situation regarding COVID-19 develops.
“All of these commitments will be referred to the relevant governing structures for final ratification.”
About the author
Joy joined Frontstretch in 2019 as a NASCAR DraftKings writer, expanding to news and iRacing coverage in 2020. She's currently an assistant editor while continuing to write daily fantasy and news articles. A California native, Joy was raised as a motorsports fan and started watching NASCAR extensively in 2001. She earned her B.A. degree in Liberal Studies at California State University Bakersfield in 2010.
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Wonder on how this will affect the Gen 7 for NASCAR then.
Hopefully, the newer NASCAR brass is paying attention and has the smarts to do the same thing. This would be especially true if NASCAR tries to run all the races instead of shortening the schedule and changing the championship to season long version as playoffs should be nixed. It is early enough with only 4 races run to make this change fairly as team race strategy, for playoffs scenario, likely has not occurred yet. Thus little to no penalty if format is changed.