The 2015 Formula 1 Sporting Regulations explained

This week has seen the 2015 Sporting Regulations being released to the media with several changes taking place.

The proposed standing safety car restarts plan has been dropped, as has the controversial double points rule. Parc ferme rules will remain unchanged, despite reports that it could come into effect during FP3.

The biggest change to the regulations this season is the introduction of the Virtual Safety Car (VSC). The idea of the VSC is that drivers slow down to a pre determined lap time when there is an incident on track that warrants double waved yellow flags, but is not serious enough for the safety car to be deployed.

The VSC was one of the proposals put forward after Jules Bianchi's crash at Suzuka and was successfully tested in practice sessions at the final races of last season.

The regulations say that, when the VSSC needed, “VSC Deployed” will be displayed on the timing screens and the electronic marshalling boards around the track will show “VSC”. All cars must slow to the lap time that is displayed on their steering wheels, or face the penalties applied under normal safety car conditions.

Once the VSC period is over, “VSC Ending” will be displayed on the timing screens and at any time between 10 and 15 seconds later the track will return to green flag racing – with cars able to overtake immediately. When the VSC is deployed, cars may only pit to change tyres.

A further introduction for the 2015 season is the new 10 second penalty that has been added to the Sporting Regulations. Following the success of the 5 second time penalty introduced last season, the FIA has expanded the rules to account for a 10 second penalty. Cars must enter the pit lane, stop for 10 seconds and leave. The cars may not be worked on during those 10 seconds, but can be afterwards.

The rule was introduced as an alternative to the traditional drive through penalty and 10 second stop-go penalty and proved popular with teams and fans alike and I believe that the introduction of this regulation could be a good thing for the sport this season.

As we know, 2014 saw the reintroduction of mid season testing, with teams allowed to take part in four-two day tests following Grands Prix. These took place at Bahrain, Spain, Britain and a post season test at Abu Dhabi. For this season, the number of in season tests has been reduced to two – after the Spanish and Austrain Grands Prix.

These tests will be two days long. For two of the four days, teams must run drivers with less than two Grand Prix starts to their names, due to the end of the young driver tests after 2013.

Pre-season testing has been reduced for 2016, with just two four day tests taking place in Europe. 2014 saw one test at Jerez and two at Bahrain, whilst the 2015 pre- season testing starts at Jerez on 1st February and is followed by two further tests at Barcelona.

In conclusion, I personally feel satisfied with the Sporting Regulations for this season. With the debate still ongoing about how to reduce costs of competing in the sport, I feel that having Spain and Austria hosting two of the in-season tests is a good idea, even though I am sure that many would agree with me, that we would like to see more testing in the sport, seeing what test and reserve drivers can perform in the cars, but it is just not possible at the moment.

With the introduction of the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) system this season, as I have argued in previous articles on the subject, something needed to be done about the system, especially in the aftermath of Jules Bianchi's tragic crash at the Japanese Grand Prix last season.

It would appear that after testing the system towards the latter stages of last season, the FIA feel that this system best fits their needs and requirements, I hope the FIA are right and many will be wondering how the system will perform over the course of the season.

And finally, the introduction of the new ten second penalty is a really good idea. As we have seen with the five second penalty rule, it is a suitable punishment which allows the driver to lose temporarily during the race without it further compromising their race in the process.

I feel that this rule will work well during the sport and I think many pundits and fans will be happy with this rule being implemented into the regulations this season.

The new season starts on 15th March at Melbourne, be sure to keep checking Driving for Pleasure for the latest pre season news!

Sarah Jones