The FIA wants to inspect F1 factories without prior notice

While the regulations of F1 have become increasingly complicated, teams are now facing a number of restrictions on how they can manage things within their own bases. There are limits on wind tunnel testing, the amount of information that can be shared between collaborating teams, and also cost caps.

In order to ensure that teams comply with regulations, the FIA has long had the right to visit factories to check the status. However, the head of single-seater matters at the FIA, Nikolas Tombazis, has stated that the governing body aims to achieve a situation where it would have immediate access to a factory.

« We practically want a zero notice period. We don’t think that we should just walk through the door and enter, but we think it would be fair to have a process in place where we can simply call them, and someone will come out and pick up these people, and they can say: “I want to go see the wind tunnel or something else” ».

Tombazis estimated that the FIA should not be required to wait too long outside a factory for an inspection. « Around 10-15 minutes, we want to reach the point where it’s immediate. […] We don’t need to wait another hour at the gate or something like that ».

The FIA has recently increased the number of its staff available to assist with such factory checks and believes it is now in a position where inspections could take place every two weeks.

« It has been a long time since we have been trying to expand the team of factory inspectors, but we were a bit understaffed », before concluding, « we have recently reached the target number for this team, and now it allows us to visit the teams about every two or three weeks ».