You’ve heard the phrase mentioned in Formula 1, but what is the “summer shutdown” and what actually does it mean?
The relentless nature of Formula 1, especially in this record-breaking season with 24 races running from February to December, means that this year’s summer shutdown will be a welcome one for drivers and their respective teams.
It is an important break that is written into the 2024 FIA F1 sporting regulations. Article 24.1 says that “competitors must observe a shutdown “period of 14 consecutive days during the months of July and/or August”.
As it is in the rules, any team found breaking the shutdown rules risks a penalty from the FIA.
The rules are simple. During the two-week break, teams cannot carry out any work related to the performance of their cars. That means any design, research, wind tunnel time or even making a phone call or sending an email about the performance of the car is prohibited.
However, as Mercedes Chief Operating Officer Rob Thomas explains, there is still work to be done.
“Around 95% of the people are hopefully on the beach,” he tells Autosport, “but a lot does go on and people don’t really realise it.
“There is a lot of planning that goes on in the run-up to these precious two weeks. It’s the only time where you can get to things that you can’t normally get to, because we’re so flat out all the time.
Maintenance work can be carried out by external contractors while regular staff are on their enforced leave
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
“It sounds obvious, but it is a time where you give everything a good going over, rather like servicing your car. It means that you can take the power down for a day and it will not disturb operations.
“Our shutdown starts at 6am on Saturday morning and when the last person leaves the site, an army of contractors will descend on the place.
“They will try to clean up as much as they can. In the machine shop, each machine will be serviced.
“We’re actually taking four machines out and bringing four new machines in, which is a pretty massive piece of work to do that. And then you’ve got all of the services around it.
“So things from the air conditioning systems to lighting to your heating, that all gets its annual service.
“Anything that needs repairing will get repaired and we’ll even paint the floors so when people walk in again in two weeks’ time they go ‘gosh, it’s changed a lot. It looks really nice’.”
It is up to the FIA to ensure that teams adhere to the rules. But while he says it is up to F1’s governing body to ensure that teams are sticking to the regulations, Thomas says it is unlikely that teams would disobey the shutdown procedures.
He added: “It’s like a lot of things in Formula 1 where it’s very hard for the FIA to actually police directly. So a lot of it comes down to the integrity of the teams.
“What would happen if let’s say we were cheating, and we were running a wind tunnel – it’s actually really hard to keep those sorts of things quiet because people move between teams all the time, as you know, so a lot of things become self-policing by the transient nature of people moving between teams.
Wind Tunnel Model in Toyota Cologne
Photo by: Andretti Autosport
“I guess there was always the potential of the FIA could just come in here at any point and see what you’re doing, but I don’t believe that has ever happened.
“I have also never heard any rumour of any other team doing activities, so I hope it’s one of those things that people stick to because people are so, so ready for a break.”
However, while the work on the F1 car ceases, not every department comes to a halt. Those areas that a not directly related to the performance and the development of the car can continue to operate as normal.
Thomas said: “It’s all in the sporting regulations, but effectively, you can’t do anything that involves testing or design work, production, car build or any racing activity.
“It really is the best thing we ever bought into Formula 1 because otherwise, you’d never stop.
“There are some areas of the business, people who work in commercial areas or finance and they need to be around to do end-of-month type activities.
“We are also having some building work done and I was speaking to the site manager who is overseeing a big construction project and when I said we would all be out of his hair for two weeks, he said ‘no offence, but that would be really helpful because your cars are parked everywhere’, so it allows them to get on with their building projects.”
