Formula One regulations
[2] The car must only have four wheels mounted externally of the body work with only the front 2 steered and only the back 2 driven.
There is a 30 mph (48 km/h) head-on impact into a steel barrier; "average deceleration must not exceed 25g", with a maximum 60g for a minimum 3 milliseconds, with no damage to the chassis beyond the nose section.
[4] Side impacts by a 780 kg (1,720 lb) object at 10 m/s (22 mph) must be decelerated at less than 20g, and absorb no less than 15% and no more than 35% of the total energy; 80 kN (18,000 lbf) can not be exceeded more than 3 milliseconds.
[4] Onboard electrical and computer systems, once inspected at the start of the season, may not be changed without prior approval.
A rule was added in 1994 that stated that gearboxes must have anywhere from 2 to 7 discrete gear ratios, alongside a clause that explicitly bans CVTs.
Devices designed to inject any substance into the cylinders other than air and fuel (petrol) are forbidden, as are variable-length intake and exhaust systems.
The engines, now referred to as power units, are divided into 6 components: the internal combustion engine (ICE); turbocharger (TC); Motor Generator Unit-Kinetic (MGU-K), which harvests energy that would normally be wasted under braking; Motor Generator Unit-Heat (MGU-H), which collects energy in the form of heat as it is expelled through the exhaust; Energy Store (ES), which functions as batteries, holding the energy gathered by the Motor Generator Units; and Control Electronics (CE), which includes the Electronic Control Unit and software used to manage the entire power unit.
)*[14][15][16] From 2010, refuelling is no longer permitted during the race and now every car starts with a full fuel load.
The supplier (Pirelli since 2011) supplies 5 specifications of slick dry-weather tyres (C1, C2, C3, C4, C5), of which 3 compounds are provided at each race (as soft, medium and hard).
The combination of longer lasting and faster tyres adds an element to each car's race strategy.
Each compound is differentiated by a colour-coded band painted around the tyre's sidewall and including the supplier's logo: red for soft, yellow for medium, white for hard, green for intermediate, and blue for full wet.
Competitors are allowed only a limited number of tyre sets during a race event: 13 dry, 4 intermediate, 3 wet.
From 2014 to 2021, if qualifying and starting the race on dry tyres, drivers who completed a lap during the third period of qualifying (the top ten) were required to start the race on the tyre set with which they recorded their fastest time during the second period.
After weighing during each qualifying session, teams are required to take their cars to a place in the paddock, sectioned off by the FIA, known as parc fermé; they may not do work on the cars, other than routine maintenance, until they are released from parc fermé for the race the next morning.
A series of short, controlled burnouts is usually performed as each driver approaches their grid box in order to maximize rear tyre temperature and clean off any debris from the parade lap.
If, for some reason, a car cannot start the race (engine failure during qualifying or practice, suspension fails, etc.
For strategy's sake, teams will sometimes opt to start a car affected in this way from the pit lane.
It is also possible for the lower points not to be awarded (as at the 2005 United States Grand Prix) because insufficient drivers completed 90% of the winner's distance.
From 2010 until the end of 2021 championship, if the race had to be abandoned for any reason before 75% of the planned distance (but after a minimum of two completed laps), then the points awarded were halved: 12.5, 9, 7.5, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0.5.
[25] Additionally, the fastest lap point will now only be awarded if more than 50% of the scheduled race distance is completed.
In case of a tie, the FIA compares the number of times each driver has finished in each position.
On 10 December 2013, it was confirmed that drivers and constructors will score double points in the final Grand Prix from 2014 onwards,[29] but this was abandoned in the weeks following the 2014 season.
However, race marshals continue to use physical flags as a redundancy mechanism in the event of electronic display failure.
Penalties may be imposed on drivers for numerous offences, including jumping the start, speeding in the pit lane, causing an avoidable accident, unsportsmanlike conduct, or ignoring flags of any color.
After the driver stops in their pit box, mechanics must wait for 5 or 10 seconds before touching the car.
[31] A drive-through penalty requires the driver to enter the pit lane, drive through it while obeying its speed limit, and exit without stopping.
The most recent occurrence of this was at the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix, where Lando Norris was penalized for failing to slow down under double-waved yellow flags, caused by debris on the main straight, costing him around 35 seconds in race time.
For example, Romain Grosjean's crash at the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix earned him a one-race ban at the next race.
For example, it was not allowed for a driver to be given information about driving lines or how to adjust their car to make it faster whilst out on the track.
[40] The primary reasons behind rule changes have traditionally been to do with safety[41] and (mostly since 2000) to limit the cost of the sport.
