The 2013 Formula One season will be the 64th season of the
Formula One World Championship, a motor racing championship for Formula One
cars which is recognised by the sport's governing body, the Fédération
Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), as the highest class of competition for
open-wheel racing cars. Eleven teams and twenty-two drivers will contest the
nineteen Grands Prix that will make up the calendar for the 2013 season, with
the winning driver and team being crowned the World Drivers' and World
Constructors' Champions. The season is due to start in Australia on 17 March
and end in Brazil on 24 November.
The 2013 season will be the final year the series uses the
current 2.4 litre V8 engine configuration; a 1.6 litre turbocharged V6 engine
formula is to come into force for 2014.
Sebastian Vettel will start the season as the defending
World Drivers' Champion, having won the title in the final race of 2012. His
team, Red Bull Racing will be the defending World Constructors' Champions,
having secured their third consecutive title at the 2012 United States Grand
Prix.
Seventh Concorde Agreement
The Sixth Concorde Agreement – the contract between the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the Formula One teams and the Formula One Administration which dictates the terms by which the teams compete in races and take their share of the television revenues and prize money – which was first ratified by teams in 2009 expires at the end of 2012, necessitating the creation of the Seventh Concorde Agreement. As part of the renewed Agreement, the commercial rights to the sport were to be floated on the Singapore Stock Exchange; however, in June 2012 the planned floatation was delayed, with weak markets, uncertainty within Europe over the continent's economic future, and Facebook's disappointing IPO cited as reasons for the delay.
The Sixth Concorde Agreement – the contract between the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the Formula One teams and the Formula One Administration which dictates the terms by which the teams compete in races and take their share of the television revenues and prize money – which was first ratified by teams in 2009 expires at the end of 2012, necessitating the creation of the Seventh Concorde Agreement. As part of the renewed Agreement, the commercial rights to the sport were to be floated on the Singapore Stock Exchange; however, in June 2012 the planned floatation was delayed, with weak markets, uncertainty within Europe over the continent's economic future, and Facebook's disappointing IPO cited as reasons for the delay.
Decision-making process restructured
The sport's decision-making process will be restructured.
Prior to 2013, any decision to change the sporting or technical regulations
required the agreement of at least 70% (or nine votes) of the teams in order
for those changes to be accepted. From 2013 onwards, those changes will only
need a 51% majority (six teams) in order to be approved. The Technical and
Sporting Working Groups, the committees responsible for deciding upon the
technical and sporting regulations, will also be disbanded in favour of a
"Strategy Working Group" that will oversee both technical and
sporting regulations and will be made up of representatives from each of the
teams that scored points in the previous season's championship, the FIA,
Formula One Management, one engine supplier and six event promoters. FIA
President Jean Todt described the changes as necessary and designed to give
each of the stakeholders in the sport a proportionate representation in deciding
the future of Formula One.
