F1 agrees to allow teams extra power unit elements without penalty in 2023

The change, which comes part way into a record-breaking season of 23 races, is set to reduce the number of grid penalties applied for the use of extra PU elements in the latter part of the campaign.

With immediate effect, each driver is allowed to use four rather than three examples of the internal combustion engine, turbo, MGU-H and MGU-K within this season before penalties kick in.

The allocation for the energy store and control electronics, with the latter having already caught out Ferrari's Charles Leclerc with a penalty in the second race of the year in Saudi Arabia, remains at two units of each per season.

The change was one of several pieces of housekeeping to be agreed by the F1 Commission and passed by the World Motor Sport Council on Tuesday.

In an update to the sporting regulations, the time allocated for the grid procedure has been extended from 40 minutes to 50 minutes, in order to allow more time for ceremonies and so on before races.

The FIA says that “at certain races, this additional time will be used for the presentation of the drivers to the fans.”

The new definition of working on a car at a penalty pit stop, which was put into the spotlight the penalty applied to Fernando Alonso in Saudi Arabia and which was subsequently rescinded, has now been formally adopted in the regulations.

Teams were already told in Australia that jacks touching a car would constitute working.

In an intriguing development the FIA has agreed to look into possible cost cap exclusions related to updating F1 team factory infrastructure, but only in the context of improving sustainability.

Logan Sargeant, Williams Racing FW45

Photo by: Williams

Williams in particular has been calling for some breathing space to allow it to update its Grove facilities as the team has slipped behind rivals over the years when it had a limited budget.

It remains to be seen what sort of changes the new initiative will allow teams to make without impacting the cap.

An FIA statement said: “A specifically dedicated working group within the Financial Advisory Committee (FAC) has developed a proposal for the introduction of an exclusion of costs in respect of certain sustainability initiatives from 2023 onwards, with particular focus on environmental concerns.

“Following support from the FAC members and approval of the commission, certain sustainability initiative costs will now be excluded from the cost cap.

“These exclusions cover, amongst other things, costs associated with installing sustainable infrastructure, auditing and monitoring of competitors' carbon footprint, donations to charities engaged in the promotion of environmental sustainability projects and carbon offset programmes. The FAC will continue to refine this regulation.”