Whiting reacts to the topics raised before Hockenheim

Charlie Whiting, the FIA ​​race director, reacted to the many topics and decisions raised this week in F1. The F1 Strategy Group and race management responded to improve the quality of the spectacle and the understanding of spectators.

The postponement of Halo to 2018

The FIA ​​has indicated that the Halo will not be installed in 2017, giving the teams a year to develop this cockpit safety system.

“This decision was only made because only three drivers were able to test it and they only completed four laps in total, explained Charlie Whiting at a press conference held in the paddock of the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. It did not seem that its implementation would be feasible in the short term, enough time to do a sufficient number of laps with the Halo. »

Radio conversations free again

After having strongly limited the authorized exchanges between the team and the driver, the FIA ​​reversed course by once again authorizing staff on the pit wall to provide information to competitors (except in the formation lap).

“We felt that we would be more satisfied by letting the radio conversations be free again and offering them in full to the TV channels in order to offer a better show to the viewers. »

Exceeding runway limits sanctioned by management

After the track limits were automatically checked at the Hungarian Grand Prix held on July 24 at the Hungaroring, it was mentioned that exceeding the limits would no longer be penalized.

“Some have proposed no longer penalizing exceeding track limits, but I felt that was inappropriate. My main goal has always been to enforce these boundaries. Some corners on certain circuits present some problems, but we analyze them one by one. We have a similar situation in Hungary with turns 4 and 11, and turn 1 (at Hockenheim) seems to be the same with 93 limit violations today alone. We must think carefully about what we do tomorrow. The problem that arises by no longer penalizing these exceedances of track limits is to simply have a different track which would become faster and which would have smaller clearance zones. »

The proposal for standing starts in the rain

The teams have discussed a rule change regarding Grand Prix starts in the rain. While this procedure is currently carried out under the safety car regime, the F1 Strategy Group studied the possibility of a standing start on a wet track.

“There was agreement that this should be done in the future, but we need new rules to validate this process. In any case, everyone seems to agree on this point and all the team managers were positive during the Strategic Group meeting which was held this Wednesday (July 27). »

Red flags and double yellow flags

Charlie Whiting also confirmed that race management would not hesitate to display the red flag instead of the double yellow flag, following Nico Rosberg's pole at the Hungarian GP obtained in these conditions.

“We can use the “Virtual Safety Car” in practice and qualifying since its introduction in 2015, but we still prefer to interrupt the session if a yellow flag is displayed for a long time. The reason we didn't show the red flag in Hungary is that the session was over, but some cars were behind Alonso (which caused the double yellow flag after spinning) and some in front. The procedure should therefore be to put up a red flag as soon as there is a double yellow flag in order to avoid discussions. »