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[sagi58]

Looking Ahead to Melbourne – the Key Rule Changes for 2015 --- continued ---

In-season testing
There will be two in-season tests of two days each this year and no end-of-season test, a reduction of two on the 2014 total in an attempt to reduce the financial burden on teams.Two of the four days of testing must be reserved for young drivers.

Penalties
Race stewards now have the option to hand out 10-second penalties for minor infringements in 2015 in addition to the five-second penalty introduced last year.

Points
The widely reviled double-points for the season finale has been scrapped in 2015.

[sagi58]

Looking Ahead to Melbourne – the Key Rule Changes for 2015 --- continued ---

Safety Car
The proposal to introduce standing restarts has been shelved and safety-car restarts will be retained and follow the same procedure as before.

However, following trialling of new procedures in the wake of Jules Bianchi’s accident in the Japanese Grand Prix last year, a Virtual Safety Car system has been adopted for 2015 designed to ensure that drivers slow sufficiently in the event of double waved yellow flags, which will enable the race director to neutralise a race without recourse to the safety car itself.

As in 2014 lapped drivers may ‘unlap’ themselves by passing the safety car. However, the safety car will now no longer need to wait until the lapped cars have regained the tail of the field before heading to pit lane.

[sagi58]

Looking Ahead to Melbourne – the Key Rule Changes for 2015

Race suspensions
In the event of a race stoppage, drivers must proceed slowly into the pit lane, rather than back onto the starting grid as before.

Clearing the grid
Any driver who has team personnel still on starting grid after the 15-second signal is shown will be forced to start from the pit lane.

Unsafe releases
An automatic ten-second stop-and-go penalty will be imposed on a driver in the event of an unsafe release and the stewards have the option of further discretionary penalties.

[sagi58]

Looking Ahead to Melbourne – the Key Rule Changes for 2015 --- continued ---

Coaching
Drivers racing in 2015 will still be subject to the same radio message restrictions imposed by the FIA during last year rather than facing the blanket ban on radio traffic that had been contemplated, though the governing body are retaining the possibility that a “a few more” restrictions may yet be imposed.

[darwin dali]

I thought I'd revive this thread with the following article:

Looking Ahead to Melbourne – the Key Rule Changes for 2015

Team personnel are busy putting the final touches on their preparations for the opening round of the season in Melbourne this weekend and there are new regulation boundaries that they must come to terms with.

Stability in the rules means that Mercedes have retained much of their advantage and Manor/Marussia are set to run substantially the same vehicle as last year but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been changes ahead of the new year, many of which will provide considerable challenges for the teams and drivers.

Here’s a quick run down of the technical and sporting rule alterations in force from this weekend.

Power Units
One of the toughest tasks for teams this year will be in managing engine allocation. Each driver is restricted to four power units during the season, one less than 2014. Exceeding the total incurs a grid penalty and these will be applied cumulatively based on the individual components of the power unit.

However, grid penalties will no longer roll over to the next event. If a driver can’t take the appropriate penalty, the remaining grid positions will be applied as a time penalty for that event as follows:-

1-5 grid places: five-second time penalty
6-10 grid places: drive-through penalty
11-20 grid places: 10-second stop-and-go penalty
More than 20 grid places: a time penalty

By the way, I thought I'd split it up into shorter pieces.

This will decide the WDC.

[sagi58]

2015 Rule Change: Penalties

One of the more contentious issues in all sports is the way refereeing decisions are made and the penalties that are handed out to competitors during, or after, an event.

In football there is still a frustrating refusal to use video evidence to help the referee make the correct decision (unlike rugby and cricket for example). But this controversy does generate a lot of coverage and engagement from fans.

In Formula 1 we have no such problems with video evidence, as there are multiple camera angles of everything that happens on the race track and in the pit lane, and these are all available in real time and as replays to the FIA Race Stewards, who are the referees in F1.

But still there are some contentious moments and decisions, with drivers awarded time penalties during and after the race for a variety of driving infringements. Establishing who is at fault in a collision is not easy, which is why the fourth steward is always an ex-driver, who can input the drivers’ point of view to the ruling. This has led to a more consistent decision making process.

Last season the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) introduced a points accumulator system, like one the road, where a driver is required to miss a race if he reaches 12 points in a season. In total 10 drivers accumulated points, with Marcus Ericsson and Pastor Maldonado both reaching the total of five.

For the 2015 season there are a range of penalties that can be awarded by the stewards, which could well come into play at the Singapore GP, as the fast and furious nature of the race often leads to drivers overdoing it.

Last year saw the successful introduction of a five second stop and go penalty, which can be served just before a driver takes a pit stop; the stewards also have a tougher 10-second version which they can impose.

As with last year’s process, if the penalty is awarded late in the race, when the driver has no further scheduled pit stop to make, then 30 seconds will be added to his race time (for the 10 second stop/go).

This is quite a tough sanction and would, for example, have moved a driver who finished 5th at Marina Bay last season down to 14th place and out of the points.

We are likely to see this new penalty in action soon, as the FIA and the teams continue to be very vigilant on the dangers of the “unsafe release” from pit stops, where a car is sent on its way by mechanics after a pit stop, into the path of another car. This season an “unsafe release” will attract the 10-second stop/go penalty.

Also if a driver accumulates three reprimands during a season, this will translate to a 10 sec stop/go (as long as two of them were for driving infringements).

This level of sanction is likely to drop all but the front running cars out of the points. A Mercedes, with its performance advantage, could suffer a penalty like that and still score points, but it would certainly cost a victory and possibly a podium.

But for most cars challenging outside the podium places it would mean no points. It is particularly damaging at a race track where overtaking is difficult or where there is little prospect of a safety car to bunch the field up again.

The stewards can also impose a drive through penalty, where a driver must past through the pit lane without stopping. This typically takes 20 seconds, so drops him down the field and is more of a penalty than a stop/go, as he may not take a pit stop on the same visit.

They can also impose a grid position penalty at the next race, or a ban from the next race in extreme circumstances.

[darwin dali]

Sagi, do I sense an obsession with penalties and punishment here?

[sagi58]

The frequency with which F1 rules change, it's not easy to stay on the right side of the law!!