Max Verstappen
Red Bull's Max Verstappen won the sprint race at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix last weekend

A plan to double the number of Formula 1 events next season is being held up by the governing body.

The teams unanimously supported a proposal from F1 to hold six sprint events next year.

The proposal is being evaluated by the FIA, which said in a statement that it was "examining the impact of the proposal on its trackside operations and personnel."

Several sources say the FIA asked for more money in return for its support.

Senior sources have told the radio station that they were surprised by the stance of the president of the world governing body.

An extra $1m for every race held above 20 is added to the income the FIA gets from F1, as well as income from the promoter.

The request was not entirely money related, but for a genuine operational purpose to assure we have the resources to adequately do our job.

He said that they are not a profit-creating organisation, but that they need to be properly resourced.

He said sprint events had a significant impact on the workload of staff, and that we would probably need to increase the number of operational staff in areas such as scrutineering, parc ferme and tyre return.

The Commission will get feedback from the FIA at a later meeting.

F1 wants to increase the number of events because it believes that the change to a short race on Saturday to decide the grid for the grand prix has increased both income and interest.

The format was supposed to hold six sprints this year, but was unable to win the necessary support from the teams due to a disagreement over financial compensation.

The final step in the rule-making process is the F1 Commission, a body of senior figures featuring F1, the FIA and the team principals.

No final agreement on new engine rules

The new engine regulations were discussed without a final agreement.

A general framework has already been agreed - the engines will remain a 1.6-litre V6 hybrid but the MGU-H part of the energy recovery system will be removed, and the proportion of power created by the hybrid system will be increased to 50%. A sustainable fuel will be used.

The reworked regulations are expected to attract new manufacturers to the sport.

The board of the VW Group has approved an entry by its brands but it is waiting for the final version of the regulations before making a firm commitment.

The new rules this season will cause the regulations to be changed in 2026.

These wills:

  • Reduce drag to improve sustainability
  • Take further steps to generate competitive racing and enabling the cars to follow each other closely
  • Reduce the car dimensions
  • "Reduce or contain" total mass
  • Continue to standardise or simplify certain components to reduce costs and expand the use of sustainable materials and technologies

F1 will trial a reduction in the number of tyre sets used by each team on a grand prix weekend from 13 to 11 on sustainable grounds.