Given that the F1 Strategy Group meeting that decided on the direction that F1 should take was less than a month ago it's perhaps not surprising that discussions over future rules have been a big part of the Montreal weekend. It's inevitable too that a lot of things are still in a state of flux, but at least we are getting a clearer picture on some issues. As you probably know, the Strategy Group is comprised of Bernie Ecclestone, the FIA, and team principals of Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren, Williams and Force India, the latter as the "best of the rest" in last year's championship.To recap, the May 14th meeting determined that from 2017 F1 cars should be 5-6 seconds faster, look more spectacular, and be more challenging to drive. The feeling was that cars are far too slow now compared with 2004, which is regarded as the ultimate benchmark for F1 performance. One of the main drivers of that improvement in performance is a reduction in weight – the minimum having crept inexorably up over the years. And the Strategy Group decided that a way to decrease weight, at least for the first part of the race, would be to bring back refuelling. In other words drivers would take the grid with say 50kgs of fuel as opposed to the 100kgs maximum that they now have on board for a race distance. The idea is said to have been pushed in the meeting by Ferrari/Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne, and Donald McKenzie, head of main F1 shareholder CVC. It's not a co-incidence that neither of these two gentlemen are close to the day-to-day particulars of running an F1 team, and seemingly neither remembered that refuelling was stopped on costs and safety grounds last time around, at the end of 2009. Despite this the meeting agreed that the idea was worth looking at. And while it was very much just a concept the FIA's subsequent release made much of a return to refuelling, and naturally media and fans picked up on it, and have been debating it ever since. Not surprisingly some folk thought it's a good idea and will add to the TV show, while others thought the opposite. And it's the latter view that's now prevailed. The question of refuelling was discussed on Thursday at a meeting of the the Sporting Working Committee, which is essentially the 10 team managers/sporting directors, and the FIA. This body exists to fine tune rules, and usually comes up with sensible solutions because its members are all hardened racers and very clever guys. Thursday's discussion focussed on the fact that refuelling is not good for racing. Various team strategists had analysed data from before and after the end of refuelling in 2009, and thus the team managers had the statistics to hand. For example, it was shown that in 2010 the number of overtakes on track actually doubled. In addition there were arguments about safety and costs. It's accepted that it would cost each team around £1m for the first year, including the cost of the rigs, and then £500,000 a year thereafter, due to the cost of shipping and running equipment. In safety terms the original plan called for stops to be as fast as they are now, when the tyre changing time determines how long the car stands still. That would require a much faster fuel flow rate than we had in the past – something like 33 litres pre second, rather than 12. And high pressure refuelling brings with it obvious risks. However, in the end it was the impact on the show that was the main discussion point. The FIA's Charlie Whiting will now take a report back to the Stratgey Group which will basically say that nobody wants refuelling, and in theory, the idea should be dropped. Although you never know... This was a classic example of the much criticised Strategy Group dropping the ball, in that it seemingly agreed and announced something, only for wiser heads to point out what was wrong and the idea to be derailed. Unfortunately previous ideas, such as double points for the final race, didn't get stopped. It's also more ammunition for those who struggle to understand how the Strategy Group functions. Manor CEO Graeme Lowdon, a successful entrepreneur outside racing, made an interesting observation. “Strategy is very important for any business and any industry, and any group of businesses as well. Strategy: setting goals, setting objectives, coming up with strategies, evaluating them and then coming out with a strategy plan, that can then be articulated, is not an easy task. Very large companies do nothing but spend their time analysing and evaluating strategies. “It’s not something that can just be achieved in a one hour meeting somewhere. Or even a one day meeting or something like that. It’s a difficult job, a difficult task if it’s all done correctly. The idea of having a group to help with that process is actually a good idea but – and this isn’t a criticism, it’s an observation – there does not seem to be a strategy that’s come out of the Strategy Group and therefore it’s not working...” Meanwhile, Matthew Carter, CEO of Lotus, added, “My personal opinion is that the composition and the way that the Strategy Group is set up doesn’t work. There’s six teams there that each have a vote, and there’s six teams there that have completely different agendas. And therefore to get anything through that forum is almost impossible. “And I sat there for hours and hours listening to debates and nothing coming to the end of it. I think that’s been generally accepted by the people that sit on the group as well as the people that govern the sport. What the answer is, I genuinely don’t know. I think there needs to be some form of governance and there needs to be a strategy. How they go forward with that I don’t know.” A lot of people, including some team bosses, have suggested that Bernie and the FIA should just take over and impose rules on the teams. And that would certainly mean things would actually happen rather than being blocked by teams with their own interests at heart. But as the saying goes, be careful what you wish for...

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