Formula 1

SPECIAL QUALIFYING PARTY MODE COULD BE BANNED AFTER SPAIN

Published

3 years ago

13/08/2020

Fati's Sturm F1 Author

SPECIAL QUALIFYING PARTY MODE COULD BE BANNED AFTER SPAIN

The international motorsport federation has sent a letter to all teams to see how they feel about this. The FIA would like to see the engine stands also fall under the parc fermé rules.

Peak qualifying engine modes could be outlawed from this year’s Belgian Grand Prix onwards, The Race understands.

Throughout the V6 turbo-hybrid era, F1’s engine manufacturers have been pushed to develop high-performance settings – dubbed ‘party mode’ by Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton two years ago – that allow the engines to be turned up for crucial moments in qualifying and very briefly during grands prix.

The Race understands that teams have been informed a rule change could be rapidly implemented to ban such modes as of the Spa round in just over two weeks’ time.

One theory is this will be enforced by requiring teams to use their qualifying modes for a percentage of the race that would not be achievable with the current peak performance setting because of the impact it has on engine life and battery management.

This would effectively bring engine modes into the parc ferme regulations that stop teams making major changes to the car between qualifying and the race.

It is possible that this change, which could have a major impact on the competitive order this season, may be pushed to the start of 2021 pending further discussion.