Formula 1 teams have backed a plan to hold shorter ‘sprint races’ at three Grands Prix this season.
Details are still to be ironed out, but all teams gave their support to the idea at a meeting of the F1 Commission.
Teams and F1 bosses also agreed to the introduction of a freeze on engine development from the start of 2022.
This could be enough for Red Bull to finalise plans to continue running Honda engines when the Japanese company pull out at the end of this year.
Sprint Races
F1 had proposed an idea to try out sprint races of about 100km – a third the distance of a Grand Prix – at the Canadian, Italian and Brazilian races this season.
These would take place on Saturday and the result of the sprint race would set the grid for the main Grand Prix on Sunday.
The grid for the sprint race would be set by moving qualifying to Friday.
The teams backed the plan in principle at the meeting on Thursday but discussions will continue on a number of areas.
These include whether and how many points should be awarded for the sprint race; whether it would mean two ‘winners’ each weekend or just one; and the financial, legal and contractual implications of the plan.
Engine Freeze
The prospect of a freeze on engine development from the start of 2022 had been tabled as a means of reducing costs ahead of the introduction of a new engine design in 2025 or 2026, and to facilitate Red Bull’s desire to continue with Honda engines.
The Japanese company is leaving F1 at the end of this season, but Red Bull would prefer to take over the intellectual property of the Honda and maintain the power-units themselves rather than become a customer of another manufacturer.
This is because it gives them the prospect of independence and perhaps even manufacturing their own engines when the new rules come into force in the middle of the decade.
But to make the plan work, Red Bull needed a guarantee that their rivals could not develop their own engines and establish a growing advantage over the years from 2022, leaving Red Bull falling further and further behind.
Talks on the issue have been ongoing for months and a freeze from the start of the 2022 season was agreed by the F1 Commission.
However, there will not be a means of equalising the performance of the engines should one or more turn out to be less competitive once racing starts in 2022.
Red Bull had wanted this to be introduced but Mercedes have reservations about the idea.
Red Bull were unavailable for comment on the matter.
Other issues
The teams were told that the Portuguese Grand Prix would go ahead on 2 May, a slot in the calendar for which a venue has yet to be officially confirmed, as BBC Sport reported on Wednesday.
There was discussion of a ban on the use of wind tunnels for aerodynamic design from 2030, but this was opposed by Mercedes, Aston Martin (formerly Racing Point) and Williams.
And teams continued to discuss the potential introduction of a driver salary cap in 2023.