Why the end of "party mode" won't crash Mercedes' festivities

At Formula 1's Spanish GP it emerged the FIA was planning to restrict teams to a single engine mode for qualifying and the race. Aimed at Mercedes to slash its pace, the new rules might help rather than hinder the team.

Jake Boxall-Legge Aug 17, 2020, 5:19 PM

Upd: Aug 17, 2020, 5:25 PM

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When Formula 1 draped an "under new management" sign over its doors upon its takeover by Liberty Media, many fans were hoping for an end to the knee-jerk decision making that had perhaps become customary over the previous few years in a bid to peg back teams getting too big for their boots.

Perhaps it falls more into the domain of the FIA to make those calls, but still, most were hopeful of more consistent governance with regards to the rulebook.

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Author Jake Boxall-Legge

Jake Boxall-Legge Autosport’s Technical Editor. Having studied Automotive Engineering with Motorsport at the University of Hertfordshire, West Country-born Jake's original ambition was to design racing cars. During a year between studies in which he accidentally rekindled a love of writing, he took up a Master's in Motorsport Engineering at Oxford Brookes. Halfway through his master's year, he was offered a place on the Autosport Academy, conducting occasional freelance duties before becoming the press officer for Formula 2 and GP3 in 2018. Autosport offered him a return to the fold later that year to serve as its Technical Editor. His voice appears on a number of videos and podcasts, and can often be found writing about terrible Formula 1 cars in excruciating detail. In his spare time, Jake enjoys baking and blames his failure to make it past the Great British Bake-Off interviews on his tenuous grasp on choux pastry. His dream is to open a brunch cafe - and his willingness to make outrageous puns in inappropriate situations has earned him the contempt of his colleagues.