Rules under discussion
Nicholas Tombazis is the main face of the Federation’s technical department, holding the role of FIA single-seater director. And the Greek engineer – former Ferrari – has often found himself explaining and clarifying the decisions made by the motorsport governing body.
These are key days for the near future of F1, as reported in recent weeks. Last Thursday, an initial meeting was held to analyze the data emerged from the first 3 GPs of 2026 and put forward the first proposals for improving the regulations to be implemented already in view of Miami.
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In an interview given a few days ago to The Guardian, Nikolas Tombazis expressed confidence in the decision-making process of these weeks: “We are not discussing a complete rewrite of the rules. We believe the patient is not in intensive care. The patient just needs a couple of apples a day, not to undergo open-heart surgery.”
Tombazis: “Changes for drivability and safety”
The Greek engineer explained that there are two fronts on which the work has been concentrated: “There are issues to be addressed both from the point of view of drivability for the drivers and safety. I don’t like going around saying everything is fine, but not that everything is a disaster either. We have fans satisfied with the show, but we have to deal with an accident caused by specific aspects that we need to resolve and some drivers who believe that some things need to be improved“.
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The reference is to Oliver Bearman’s accident at Suzuka, Tombazis explained: “Every high-speed accident is always a shock. To say it was predictable would be wrong, but the speed difference had been identified as a risk. We had talked about it, but it wasn’t easy to act before having some time to analyze some parameters. When changes are introduced too hastily, the risk is to make things worse or cause other problems. But safety is the priority number one”.
Tombazis continued: “These energy management rules will not require hardware changes but settings and software changes. And these are changes that can be introduced very quickly and that go to the heart of the issues, both for the speed difference between the cars and for driver satisfaction“. The FIA technical director finally hinted at a road map, with potential news in two stages: “We could decide to have a phase 1 and a phase 2 and allow a bit more time for phase 2 to allow manufacturers to make some changes”.
