F1 drivers expect inside line attack changes from FIA meeting on racing guidelines

Changes to Formula 1’s racing guidelines covering driver attacking moves on inside lines are expected following a lengthy meeting with the drivers ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix.

The FIA committed to reassessing F1’s ‘Driving Standards Guidelines’ that inform stewards’ decisions on contentious racing moves, as well as how the drivers go about implementing their manoeuvres, following Max Verstappen’s battle with Lando Norris at Austin last month.

It decided it would present its findings to the drivers at this weekend’s Qatar round, after they had collectively agreed changes were needed around the circumstances of the Red Bull driver’s moves against his McLaren rival.

The reason for coming back to the drivers before the 2024 season concluded was to get their subsequent feedback on the proposed changes, as well as getting them tested in race situations.

The meeting took place at 7.30pm local time in Qatar on Thursday – instead of the usual post-FP2 slot for the typical drivers’ meeting because of the sprint format this weekend – and lasted nearly an hour.

This was longer than many teams had been expecting, as it is understood the discussions covered a lengthy range of racing scenarios and ideas for improvements.

But Mercedes driver George Russell – the only currently racing director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association – said afterwards, “The main discussion was about overtaking.”

“A lot of drivers are aligned that if you are the overtaking car on the inside, rule number one is you have to be able to stay on the circuit,” he continued, when asked by Autosport if Verstappen’s Austin tactics had been closed off as a result of the meeting.

“If you’re able to stay on the circuit, you are in your right to run the driver wide, as it has been for all of us since go-karting: if you’re overtaking somebody on the inside, you’ve got the right to run them wide.”

He later added, “Right now there is a line of regulation that says the inside driver needs to leave room to the guy on the outside from the apex to the exit” and explained, “I think that’s going to be getting binned off and I hope it’s going to be from this weekend onwards”.

“It was pretty productive,” Russell said of the meeting overall. “I think we all agree that the guidelines, they don’t need massive changes.

“I think they just need the…