FIA President Missing From Critical Meeting After Stepping Back From F1

Stefano Domenicali and Nikolas Tombazis led the meeting bringing important rule changes.

FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem was not present at a meeting of the F1 Commission where several changes to F1 rules were confirmed for the upcoming 2023 season.

This comes after Ben Sulayem decided to step back from the day-to-day management of F1 after recent controversies.

The F1 Commission meeting, held on Tuesday, was chaired by F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali and FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis, who has taken over from Ben Sulayem with regards to day-to-day matters.

Several regulatory changes were approved, subject to the World Motor Sport Council's approval, for the upcoming season.

A new wet weather tyre that does not require a tyre blanket will be made available from the fourth race of the season, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Teams will also have greater flexibility in changing components that are "prone to getting damaged" during parc ferme periods on sprint race weekends. On top of this, radio messages between teams and drivers will be relaxed "at all times".

Minor revisions were made to the 2023 sporting, technical, and financial regulations, including the introduction of a winter shutdown period for competitors and PU manufacturers.

The wording in the sporting regulations was updated to avoid a recurrence of the confusion that arose over the points system and Max Verstappen's title coronation following last year's Japanese Grand Prix. Meaning the points system for shortened races has been ironed out. 

Furthermore, wording has been introduced to enable easier access for the FIA auditing team to factories "to monitor teams' and PU manufacturers' adherence to financial regulations and operational limitations of technical and sporting regulations."

Meanwhile, it was agreed to increase the cost cap adjustment for additional races beyond 21 from $1.2m to $1.8m per race.

Several changes to five circuits were also outlined for the 2023 season:

Jeddah street circuit in Saudi Arabia will undergo significant changes to improve corner entry visibility wherever possible; the Azerbaijan and Miami circuits will be completely resurfaced; the pit stop positions will have an increased space of 1.5m in Zandvoort; and a new pit building and paddock infrastructure will be constructed in Qatar.