The FIA is “very confident” it will be able to enforce a ban on teams using high-performance engine settings known as ‘qualifying modes’ from the next round of the championship at Spa-Francorchamps.
As RaceFans revealed last week the FIA intends to ban the modes by issuing a technical directive forcing teams to run their engines using the same settings in qualifying and the race. ‘Qualifying modes’ are not suitable for continuous use throughout entire race distances due to the increased fuel consumption they cause and additional wear they inflict upon the power units.
Racing Point CEO Otmar Szafnauer said he is waiting to see exactly how the FIA enforces the ban, which it notified teams of in a letter last week.
“I haven’t delved too deeply into what’s going on with the qualifying modes,” he said. “From what I hear it’s going to be a technical directive. TDs aren’t really the law so I don’t know where that’s going.”
However the FIA’s F1 race directive Michael Masi said they are “very confident” they will be able to enforce the ban “otherwise we wouldn’t have gone down the road that we have.”
“I know that the technical team in particular has done a huge amount of work on this and has also consulted with the four power unit manufacturers to get their input,” he said. “So we’re as confident as we possibly can be at the moment.
“But as the late Charlie Whiting used to say, we have a technical team of 10, you [have] a thousand people at each of the various PU manufacturers. But no, we are confident. Otherwise we wouldn’t certainly be going down that road and pursuing it.”
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2020 F1 season
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