2015 rule changes official

Changes to the F1 Regulations for 2015 have been agreed by the WMSC.

The last date at which the sporting and technical regulations can be changed without unanimous agreement has been changed from 30 June to 1 March each year, starting from 2015.

Changes to 2015 Sporting Regulations

Power units

- The number of engines permitted by each driver in a season will be four. However, if there are more than 20 races in a season, the number will increase to five.

- The penalty for a complete change of Power Unit will be starting from the back of the grid, not the pit lane.

Aerodynamic testing

- The number of wind tunnel runs will be reduced from 80 hours per week to 65 hours per week.

- Wind-on hours are to be reduced from 30 hours per week to 25 hours.

- Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) usage is to be reduced from 30 Teraflops to 25 Teraflops.

- Two periods of tunnel occupancy will be allowed in one day (rather than only one).

- Teams will only be able to nominate one wind tunnel in one year.

Testing

- There will be three pre-season tests of four days each in Europe in 2015 (currently teams are able to test outside Europe). This will be reduced to two tests of four days in 2016.

- There will be two in-season tests of two days each in Europe (instead of the current four). Two of these four days must be reserved for young drivers.

Car specification at an Event

The current restrictions to the parc fermé will now apply from the start of P3 instead of the start of qualifying.

Wheels and tyres

The ban on tyre blankets will be rescinded for 2015. This will be re-discussed if and when the wheel and tyre diameter increases in the future.

Personnel Curfew

The Friday night curfew will be extended from six to seven hours in 2015 and will increase to eight hours in 2016.

Safety Car restarts

Safety Car restarts will now be a standing start from the grid. Standing starts will not be carried out if the Safety Car is used within two laps of the start (or restart) of a race or if there are less than five laps of the race remaining.

Changes to 2015 Technical Regulations

A number of changes have been made, including:

- A number of new regulations for the noses to ensure improved safety and to provide more aesthetically pleasing structures.

- A number of new regulations concerning skid blocks to ensure that they are made from a lighter material (titanium) and are better contained.

- New regulations to ensure that the brake discs rotate at the same speed as the wheels.

- A two-stage wheel fastener retaining system is now compulsory.

What's wrong with the safety car as it is??

I guess the idea is to get rid of the bit where the leading car backs up the rest of the field?

terrible idea the standing start. strategy just got reduced, as the fear of one-stopping & having worse tyres & being picked off at a restart is high. reducing the power units, more conservation then.

I can only assume its SC as usual but the cars line up when the SC pulls in. Could be more entertaining tbf, SC restarts tend to be a non story.

At Monaco, you could see three or four actual restarts, will be too stop/start. Actual restarts on worn tyres & some on fresh rubber will cause a dangerous situation in my opinion (not trying to be a kill-joy but that is fact). Your only going to cause more incidents by having restarts as drivers will be at different speeds & making banzai moves. It's also killed alternate strategy in my opinion.

The actual SC restarts werent the issue. It was getting the drivers who were lapped or out of position back to the rear of the pack more quickly.

I agree John in it being far too stop/start. Ricciardo sums it up well also as you may have built up a lead of twenty seconds and through no fault of your own you could be punished at a restart with standing starts more likely to see you lose places. It is just the disrupting of the whole flow of the race I do not like. A race is supposed to be 50+ laps of full speed action but next year it could be two laps then safety car slowing the field down then stopping them for a standing restart and then who is to say we don't get another crash straight away.

Conceivably, it could very easily be left as it is and perhaps only have restarts for crashes that may take 5+ laps behind safety car to clear up.

Unless its too early in the stint, everyone pits under the SC anyway because its a free pit stop. In which scenario your tyres are pretty new anyway.

Doesn't really change a lot tbh.

In other news Caterhams demise is imminent

GSC wrote:In other news Caterhams demise is imminent

That should please BE.

GSC wrote:

Doesn't really change a lot tbh.

I have to beg to differ. It totally breaks up the smooth running of the race. At least under the safety car the cars are still in motion. Now we well have a crash then cars slowing down under safety car and then stopping on the grid and then restarting when the possibility of another crash immediately is increased and then we go through the whole process again. All so needless.

So does the SC altogether if we're being honest

But the SC does not bring the cars to a complete stop.

~20 F1 cars cruising around the track in single file is hardly keeping up the flow of the race either. Whether it brings them to a stop doesn't change that.

Have incident ->everyone pits->watch them cruise round the track for about 10 minutes->restart. All this does is add stop before the restart. Pretty unnecessary but not a particularly big deal

No it is probably not a big deal once you get used to it but cars in motion with safety car is still better than bringing them to a halt. It is like being stuck in a heavy traffic jam - I am sure people feel better crawling along in a jam than being brought to a halt.

Anyway if I had my way I wouldn't have safety car either. Bring the race to a halt in serious crashes but non-serious race on under double yellows.

another issue is the marble build up on one side of the pit-straight during a race. the off-racing line will be covered, whereas the racing line will be clean & have more grip on the restart. completely unfair for one side of the grid & I expect not taken into account by the people who make these bizarre & uncalled for decisions. baffling.