FIA reveals plan for fresh approach to ensuring F1 regulations compliance

The FIA want to introduce unannounced visits to team’s factories as a way of further ensuring all rules of competing are being followed.

Unannounced visits by governing officials are nothing new in sport and are particularly prevalent when it comes to drug testing but for now, F1 teams have been given warning of the FIA’s inspections.

That could change in the near future with FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis admitting he would like to add unannounced visits to the FIA’s arsenal.

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Factory visits are a vital part of the FIA’s safeguarding with the governing body able to independently check just how an F1 team builds a car but until now, team’s were given plenty of warning that the FIA would soon be knocking on their door.

“We actually want to make unannounced visits,” Tombazis said according to Motorsport.com’s Dutch site.

“We don’t think we should just barge in, but we do think it would be good to have a process where we can call teams, have someone come and pick people up and allow them to say, ‘I want the wind tunnel or whatever see’.”

Another issue Tombazis raised was a lack of inspectors on the FIA payroll but he also hoped that would soon change.

“We had been aiming to expand the team with inspectors for a long time, but we were actually shorthanded,” he said.

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“We have recently approached the target number for this team and are therefore able to visit teams every two to three weeks.”

As for how long they expect to wait at a team’s gates, Tombazis said no more than “10 to 15 minutes.”

“We want to get to a point where it really happens quite immediately, so that we don’t have to wait another hour or more for the entrance.”

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