Racing Point: F1 technical rules delay makes “absolute sense”

Racing Point CEO and team principal Otmar Szafnauer says Formula 1’s decision to delay the planned introduction of the 2021 technical regulations makes “absolute sense”.

Last week, all 10 teams unanimously agreed to postpone the technical rule changes by a further year until 2022 amid the uncertainty caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

It is hoped the delay will help ease the financial strain teams will face during the coming months, with the 2020 F1 season now not set to begin until the Canadian Grand Prix on June 14 at the earliest.

Teams were already faced with the dilemma of having to develop their 2020 cars in parallel with an all-new design for 2021, but the postponement has taken that pressure away.

“This is an unprecedented situation - one that is changing by the day,” Szafnauer said in an open letter.

"Right now, we simply cannot say with any degree of certainty when we’ll be back to normal. There are so many factors that are not under our control.

“With that in mind, another decision taken between the teams and the FIA has been to delay the introduction of the new regulations until 2022. From both a logistical and a cost perspective, this makes absolute sense.

“Of course, that doesn’t mean we can afford to take it easy when we return to work. When we do eventually get back on track, we need to be in a position to compete – whatever the regulations.

“There’s still plenty of work ahead and we’ll be ready to tackle it when the time comes.”

Teams also agreed to bring forward the summer break to a spring slot in order to free up August to potentially hold a number of the already-postponed races. Szafnauer confirmed Racing Point began its mandatory three-week shutdown of its Silverstone base on Wednesday.

“In light of the latest guidance from the UK Government we shut down on Wednesday evening, our doors will be closed for at least three weeks,” he explained.

“As things currently stand – and it’s important to stress that this is a constantly evolving situation – we’ll be returning to work on Thursday 16 April.

“We’ve also worked extremely hard over the last few weeks to ensure that all staff who can work from home have the equipment they need to set up home offices.”