Four-time world champion Alain Prost says that the FIA face a difficult challenge in revising regulations ahead of the 2022 season.
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix showed that the vagueness in regulations left them open to interpretation. Race director’s Micheal Masi’s decided to only allow lapped cars between Verstappen and Hamilton to overtake under the safety car.
Red Bull and Mercedes were at each other’s throats to distinguish between “any” and “all” in the rule book.
The final lap wasn’t the only contentious incident. Lewis Hamilton went past track limits at turn six on the opening lap. Race Contol’s deemed it a racing incident and let the Briton keep the place.
Prost sympathised for Masi, saying the race director was stuck between a rock and a hard place. However, Prost believes that the FIA needs to better define rules to bring back credibility to the sport.
“There is always much pressure from different teams. When you’re a top team – we’re talking about Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari – you always put much pressure for the rules, for the technical rules, for the clerk of the course,” Prost commented.
He further added, “On the other side, we have some very, very complex rules at the moment. There’s one thing that we have to be very careful [of], and that’s what could happen now today.”
Stefano Domenicali:
“Delighted to welcome the new President of the FIA, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, to F1 HQ in London today. Both of us are focused on moving the sport forward and continuing the momentum that is with F1.” pic.twitter.com/qk1uXNeP4c
— F1 Media (@F1Media) January 18, 2022
Alain Prost reckons there are considerable obstacles in defining sharper rules
Rewriting the rules could be difficult because of how varied modern tracks are. What may work for the vas run-offs at Paul Ricard won’t for the narrow streets of Monaco.
“Looking at all these new tracks today. How can you have a clear rule?” Prost questioned.
“Almost every track, every corner has a different specificity. It is tough. We went into a position where we would have more and more problems. And we have more and more problems.
“It’s tough to fix everything. We have to be careful that we don’t have the same story again, that only one team is putting pressure and getting what they want. That’s why the FIA has a very, very big challenge now, for the next month, to have clear rules.”
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