Key F1 team staff to get FIA licences

The FIA is to push ahead with plans to issue licences to key members of F1 team staff, so as to avoid the problems that occurred after its botched attempt to ban Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds from the sport.

In the Renault ‘crash-gate’ case the guilty individuals could not be punished directly, so former FIA president Max Mosley tried to ban them from F1 by threatening teams, drivers and events who had any involvement with them, all of whom require FIA licences. That premise was successfully challenged in court by Briatore and his legal team.

The new system will cover team principals and managers, technical and sporting directors and race engineers, with a minimum of six people per team. All will have to comply with a new FIA Code of Good Standing, and anyone not deemed to be in compliance with that won’t be able to access ‘areas under the FIA’s jurisdiction’.