Formula 1 Jam

In the final installment of 2009 rule changes we look at the sporting rule changes for this season. These changes were introduced to make the sport more transparent to the tv audience and the fans. The changes are as follows:

• The pit lane speed limit has been raised from 80kph to 100kph.
• A car starting the race from the pit lane can now make changes to improve driver comfort and the driver may do a reconnaissance lap.
• All teams must declare the starting weights of their cars within two hours of qualifying finishing.
• If a race starts behind the safety car, drivers must start the race on wet weather tyres.
• The teams cannot do more than 15,000km of testing and may not test between the first race of the season and the last day of the year. There are two major exceptions: teams can do up to eight days of straight-line aerodynamics testing, and after the last race of the season they have three days in which they may test young drivers.
• The cars must now have four onboard camera housings instead of two.
• More stats and graphics will be available for Tv audience to better understand pitstops and strategies.
• The rule stating that the pit lane is closed during a Safety Car period will be scrapped in 2009. The rule was introduced in 2007 to avoid people rushing back to the pits to refuel, possibly speeding through a danger zone, but software has been successfully developed to solve this problem.

What does this rule change mean to the fans?

Better understanding of the sport we love.  Now all the speculation of who was the fastest can stop as we can easily understand who is where after qualifying.  Even debate on who will pit when wont be necessary.  Safety car periods wont make the race into a lottery as earlier seasons, that might make the race less exciting.

Which Teams/Drivers will gain an advantage from this rule changes?

Most of these rules shouldnt aid or cause discomfort to any teams.  The safety car rule might mean that luck wont play such a big role this season but with so many rules and regulations luck always tends to be a factor.

Testing rules will seriously dent the fortunes of teams that aren’t up to speed at the start of the season.  With limited time on Fridays and Satudays to test new components, the development of new parts for a car will be much slower than earlier seasons.  Also on Fridays and Saturdays the cars that run on the track have to be legal enough to be raced, this means that aids that help to check performance of new components wont be allowed on the cars.

All in all the limited testing rule might be advantageous to teams that are better prepared for the first race of the season.