General changes • In September 2016,
Liberty Media purchased a minority stake in the sport from
CVC Capital Partners, and completed the purchase ahead of the 2017 season, with the long-term goal of adopting a model similar to that used by the U.S.
National Football League and
Major League Baseball, with teams entitled to purchase a stake in the sport. The commercial operation of the sport underwent a restructuring in January 2017, with
Bernie Ecclestone leaving his position as chief executive of
Formula One Group after forty years in the role. Former team principal
Ross Brawn—who won World Championships with
Ferrari and his own
eponymous team—was appointed as managing director in Ecclestone's stead. • With the acquisition of the sport by Liberty Media, teams were given more control over creating and uploading content to
social media. Under Bernie Ecclestone's previous management, all footage filmed in the paddock was automatically controlled by Formula One Management with tight restrictions on the release of content. • As a response to widespread changes in the technical regulations expected to increase cornering speeds by up to , the FIA requested that every circuit on the calendar undergo revisions to update safety features.
Technical regulations • The technical regulations governing bodywork design were revised for 2017, with the objective of improving lap times by four to five seconds over the 2016 generation of cars. These changes include: • Overall width of the car increased from . • Bodywork width increased from . • 2017 saw teams adopt the "T-wing", a thin T-shaped wing mounted to the bodywork above and forward of the rear wing to generate additional downforce. Its creation prompted concerns about the use of moveable aerodynamic devices—forbidden under the rules—after several T-wings were observed to be vibrating during pre-season testing. However, the stewards chose to review the use of T-wings on a case-by-case basis rather than issue a technical directive. The usage of T-wings, along with Shark fins would later be banned in the
following season. • The token system used to regulate power unit development—where the power unit was divided into individual areas, and each area assigned a points value with development of these areas deducting points from a manufacturer's overall points quota—will be abandoned. • Teams are restricted to four
power units per season regardless of the number of Grands Prix in the season. Previous seasons had included a provision for a fifth power unit if the number of Grands Prix in a season exceeded twenty; from 2017, this provision is to be abandoned. • The cost of a power unit supply is reduced by €1 million in 2017 ahead of a further reduction in 2018. •
Pirelli continued to be Formula One's sole tyre partner and supplier in 2017, beating out a bid by
Michelin to provide tyres for the championship. Continuing from previous seasons, the company offered a range of seven different tyre compounds, five for dry and two for wet conditions. While both wet compounds are available for every Grand Prix, only a choice of three dry compounds are made available to teams for a single race weekend. As in the previous season, teams are allowed to choose ten out of thirteen sets of tyres for a race weekend freely from the three compounds made available by Pirelli. However, due to limited testing time for the new compounds during the winter break, Pirelli chose to provide teams with a mandatory number of sets for the first five races.
Sporting regulations • Under rules introduced in 2015, grid penalties for exceeding a driver's quota of power unit components carried over from one race to the next if the penalty could not be fully served when issued. When this carry-over system was abandoned, teams could build up a reserve of spare components by introducing several at once while only serving a single grid penalty. From 2017, teams will only be able to use one new component over their quota per race, with any additional components incurring further penalties. This change prevents teams from "stockpiling" spare power unit components. • Power unit suppliers will have an "obligation to supply", mandating that they supply power units to any team, should a team end up without an agreement. The rule was introduced following the breakdown in the relationship between Renault and their customer teams Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso at the end of the 2015 season that left both teams in limbo until deals could be arranged. • In the event that a race is declared wet and must start behind the safety car, the grid will follow normal starting procedures once conditions are declared satisfactory for racing. Drivers will line up on the grid for a standing start once the safety car pulls into pit lane, although any laps completed behind the safety car will still count towards the total race distance. • The FIA abandoned the rule governing driving standards under braking, in lieu of an all-encompassing rule against manoeuvres that could endanger other drivers. The rule was introduced in 2016 amid criticism of
Max Verstappen for his habit of changing direction before braking late to defend his position, which led to concerns that such aggressive defensive driving could trigger an accident. • Starting from the
Spanish Grand Prix, teams were required to display a driver's name and racing number on the external bodywork of the car in such a way that they are clearly visible to spectators. Teams have the option to use the official timing screen abbreviation; for example HAM (Hamilton) and VET (Vettel). ==Season report==