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In some minor changes to their sporting code ahead of the 2025 F1 season, the FIA have closed a couple of loopholes that have previously been exploited by the teams to gain an ‘unfair advantage’.
Article 43.8 of F1’s sporting rules has been changed to state “all cars starting from the pitlane able to do so must leave the pitlane and join the formation lap”.
And Article 26.10 has been changed to allow the race director to order a driver to stop immediately if their car has sustained “significant and obvious damage to a structural component, or such significant failure or fault”.
Let’s look at what these changes mean in more detail.
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Cars starting from the pitlane
The new rule states that all cars starting from the pitlane must also complete the formation lap. Once they’ve completed it they return to the pitlane where they’ll start from their qualifying order.
Previously, if a car was starting the Grand Prix or Sprint Race from a pitlane, they didn’t have to complete the formation lap.
There’s actually three loopholes this closes:
1: Pitlane starters could gain places
Previously, pitlane starters didn’t have to complete a formation lap but they could join an extra formation lap (behind a safety car in very wet conditions for example) if they wanted.
However, if there were multiple pitlane starters, the one at the back could chose not to join the formation lap. If the others ahead of them did join the lap, they would have to return to the pit lane before the race begins.
That meant the one at the back who didn’t do the formation lap jumped forwards in the queue, gaining positions, as the others returning to the pitlane would have have to line up behind them.
2: Pitlane starters could gain a fuel advantage
Previously, if there was an aborted start and an additional formation lap, the pitlane starters could gain an extra fuel advantage of one lap by not having to do the formation lap.
That additional lap of fuel would allow them to run in higher engines modes for more of the race.
3: Pitlane starters could gain a tyre advantage
Previously, if a race was declared wet and started behind the safety car, the pitlane starters could wait in their garage until conditions improved and then change to intermediates before heading out.
The cars on track already circulating behind the safety car would be on extreme wets and would have to wait for the race to begin before making a pit stop for intermediates, costing them time.
Now the pitlane starters will have to join the formation lap and wouldn’t get a ‘free’ tyre change.
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Damaged cars must stop
Now the FIA has given the race director Rui Marques power to order a car and driver to stop after a collision, depending on the level of damage sustained to the car.
There was a clear example of this last year at the Canadian Grand Prix. Perez crashed on his own after switching to slicks on a damp track, and damaged the rear of his car.
His teammate Verstappen was leading the race at the time and a safety car would have severely disrupted his strategy. So Checo limped his car back to the pits, dropping debris on the track as he went. That resulted in a 25,000 Euro fine for the team and a 3-place grid penalty for Perez at the next round.
The FIA has imposed this rule to avoid any other scenarios where a driver may try and continuing driving to avoid a safety car, potentially endangering other drivers in the process with car debris.
The issue with this new rule is that the order for a car to stop will be a the race director’s discretion, and it will be based on their judgement.
Had this rule been in place last year, would either Norris or Verstappen have been ordered to stop after their collision at the Austrian Grand Prix? If so, it’s clear to see that Marques’ decision will always have consequences.
