Start of the 2022 Italian Grand Prix at Monza

FIA rewrites rules on how F1 grids are decided following Monza confusion

2022 United States Grand Prix

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New rules defining how Formula 1 grids are drawn up will come into force from this weekend’s United States Grand Prix.

The FIA has issued new regulations defining how the classification of F1 qualifying sessions are decided and how penalties are applied to determine the final starting grid.

It follows confusion among teams over the starting grid at last month’s Italian Grand Prix. Nine of the 20 drivers had penalties for the race, and after Saturday’s qualifying session some teams and drivers were initially unsure what their starting positions would be.

Extensive revisions have been made to the 2022 Sporting Regulations in order to clarify the situation in future. The rules now define the starting order of drivers who are not classified in qualifying sessions but are given permission to participate in the grand prix.

The rules also define how grid penalties are applied and what happens if they lead to two or more penalised drivers sharing the same grid position. In that instance, the driver with the fastest time in qualifying starts ahead.

Drivers who accrue a total penalty of more than 15 grid places – for infringements of any kind – will start at the back of the grid behind any drivers who were classified in the qualifying session. Unclassified drivers will line up behind them in an order based on the lap times they set in third practice (or, when deciding the grid for a sprint race, first practice).

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Updated F1 Sporting Regulations on setting the grid

Revised rule defining how the qualifying classification is determined:

39.3 The Qualifying Classification will be determined in the following way:
a) Classified drivers will be ordered according to the sequence below:
i) The top ten positions will be allocated to the drivers who took part in Q3, in accordance with the best time set by each driver in Q3, the fastest in the first position.
ii) The next five positions will be allocated to the drivers who got eliminated in Q2, in accordance with the best time set by each driver in Q2, the fastest in the 11th position.
iii) The next five positions will be allocated to the drivers who got eliminated in Q1, in accordance with the best time set by each driver, the fastest in the 16th position.
iv) If two (2) or more drivers set identical times during Q1, Q2 or Q3 priority will be given to the one who set it first.
v) If more than one driver fails to set a time during Q2 or Q3 they will be arranged in the following order:
– Any driver who attempted to set a qualifying time by starting a flying lap.
– Any driver who failed to start a flying lap.
– Any driver who failed to leave the pits during the period.
b) Drivers will be considered to be “unclassified” in the following circumstances:
i) If they got eliminated in Q1 and their best session lap exceeded 107% of the fastest time set during that session, unless the track was declared wet by the Race Director.
ii) If they failed to set a time in Q1, or if all their laps were deleted
iii) If they got disqualified by the Stewards from the Qualifying session
The relative classification of such drivers will be determined as follows:
– Drivers who are unclassified because of conditions (i) or (ii) will be allocated the top positions in accordance with the order they were classified in P3 (or, in the case a Sprint Session is scheduled, P1)
– Drivers who are unclassified because of condition (iii) will be allocated the lower positions in accordance with the order they were classified in P3 (or, in the case a Sprint Session is scheduled, P1)
The participation of unclassified drivers in the remainder of the Competition will be determined in each case by the Stewards, who may exceptionally consider parameters such as:
– A suitable lap time being set in a free practice session
– The gravity of the offence which caused the driver’s disqualification

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Revised rule defining how the grid is determined on a sprint race weekend:

41.2 The grid for the sprint session will be based on the Qualifying Classification defined in Article 39.3.

41.3 For the purposes of this Article 41.3 only, the final classification of the Sprint Session, to be used for the determination of the Race grid, will be considered to be as follows:
i) The top positions will be occupied by drivers who have been classified in the sprint session, in accordance with their finishing position
ii) Drivers not classified in the sprint session will occupy the next positions in the order of the number of laps completed. Should more than one driver have the same number of completed laps, their order will be determined based on the final grid for the sprint session.
iii) Drivers who failed to start the sprint session will occupy the next positions, and their relative position will be determined by the Qualifying Classification.
iv) Drivers who were disqualified in the sprint will be positioned behind all the other drivers and their relative position will be determined by the Qualifying Classification.
The grid for the race will be based on the Sprint Session Classification defined above. Starting from a nominally empty grid, drivers who were not disqualified in the Sprint Session will be allocated their grid positions in the sequence of steps (a) – (d) defined below, while drivers who were disqualified in the Sprint Session will be allocated their grid positions in accordance with (e), below:
a) Drivers who have received 15 or less cumulative grid penalties will be allocated a temporary grid position equal to their Sprint Session Classification defined in (a) plus the sum of their grid penalties. If two or more drivers share a temporary grid position, their relative order will be determined in accordance with their Sprint Session Classification, with the lowest classified driver keeping their allocated temporary grid position, and the other drivers getting temporary grid positions immediately ahead of them.
b) Following the allocation of temporary grid positions to penalised drivers in accordance with (a), unpenalised drivers will be allocated any unoccupied grid position, in the sequence of their Sprint Session Classification.
c) Following the allocation of grid positions to unpenalised drivers, penalised drivers with a temporary grid position, as defined in (b), will be moved up to fill any unoccupied grid position.
d) Drivers who have accrued more than 15 cumulative grid position penalties, or who have been penalised to start at the back of the grid, will start behind any classified driver. Their relative position will be determined in accordance with their Sprint Session Classification.
e) Drivers who were disqualified in the Sprint Session, but who have been permitted to participate by the Stewards will be allocated grid positions behind all the other drivers and their relative position will be determined by the Qualifying Classification.

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Revised rule defining how the grid is determined on a normal race weekend:

42.2 The grid for the race will be based on the Qualifying Classification defined in Article 39.3. Starting from a nominally empty grid, drivers will be allocated their grid positions in the following sequence of steps:
a) Classified drivers who have received 15 or less cumulative grid penalties will be allocated a temporary grid position equal to their Qualifying Classification plus the sum of their grid penalties. If two or more drivers share a temporary grid position, their relative order will be determined in accordance with their Qualifying Classification, with the slowest driver keeping their allocated temporary grid position, and the other drivers getting temporary grid positions immediately ahead of them.
b) Following the allocation of temporary grid positions to penalised drivers in accordance with (a), unpenalised classified drivers will be allocated any unoccupied grid position, in the sequence of their Qualifying Classification.
c) Following the allocation of grid positions to unpenalised classified drivers, penalised drivers with a temporary grid position, as defined in (a), will be moved up to fill any unoccupied grid position.
d) Classified drivers who have accrued more than 15 cumulative grid position penalties, or who have been penalised to start at the back of the grid, will start behind any other classified driver. Their relative position will be determined in accordance with their Qualifying Classification.
e) Unclassified drivers who have been permitted to participate by the Stewards will be allocated grid positions behind all the classified drivers. Their relative positions will be determined in accordance with Article 39.3 (b).

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2022 United States Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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18 comments on “FIA rewrites rules on how F1 grids are decided following Monza confusion”

  1. Obviously as clear as mud! Lesson in how to further confuse the confused!
    The constant revision of rules during a season?
    Echoes of Nero fiddling away whilst Rome burned down.

  2. No less confusing, although I didn’t bother reading through, partly for this factor.

  3. I think I understand it, it should work like this…

    Driver 1 Qualifies 15th with a 10 place penalty
    Driver 2 Qualifies 17th with a 5 place penalty

    Driver 1 total = 25
    Driver 2 total = 22

    Therefore they both start at the back with driver 2 in slot 19 and driver 1 in slot 20

    1. @napierrailton
      Yes, and that all makes perfect sense to me.

      But there’s an added wrinkle in that there is a separate “class” at the back of the grid for drivers with cumulative penalties of over 15 grid places. So:

      Driver 3 qualifies 1st with a 16-grid-place penalty

      Driver 3 total = 17

      Driver 3 still starts behind Driver 1 and Driver 2, at the very back of the grid, even though their temporary grid position is higher than Driver 1 and 2. I’m not really sure why this soft limit exists and why it’s set at 15; this is the part that feels unnecessarily confusing to me.

    2. Driver 1 Qualifies 15th with a 10 place penalty
      Driver 2 Qualifies 17th with a 5 place penalty
      Driver 1 total = 25
      Driver 2 total = 22

      The clarification was for a slightly different situation (2+ drivers with the same temporary grid position):
      Driver 1 Qualifies 9th with a 10 place penalty
      Driver 2 Qualifies 14th with a 5 place penalty
      Driver 1 total = 19
      Driver 2 total = 19

      In this instance Driver 1 will start immediately ahead of Driver 2 due to the better qualification result.
      And (if no other drivers with penalties) they will start as follows:
      Position 17: Qualifier 19 (he moves up to fill the 2 empty spaces)
      Position 18: Driver 1 (moves up just ahead of Driver 2 due to better quali)
      Position 19: Driver 2 (based on qualification and penalty)
      Position 20: Qualifier 20

  4. If you get rid of the part where anyone with a “15 place grid penalty or more” is treated differently, I think it might make sense. Not sure why that bit needs to be there.

    1. @simon999 @markzastrow maybe it’s set at 15 because they’re trying to encourage teams who have an engine or gearbox penalty to just take the penalty for that specific component and trying to deter them from changing multiple components to add them to their “pool”?

  5. iv) If two (2) or more drivers set identical times during Q1, Q2 or Q3 priority will be given to the one who set it first.

    I just read this and other mistake here, it says 2 or more drivers but priority will be given to the first. That should be:

    2 or more drivers but priority will be given to the first and then the next one in order…..

  6. @simon999 @markzastrow maybe it’s set at 15 because they’re trying to encourage teams who have an engine or gearbox penalty to just take the penalty for that specific component and trying to deter them from changing multiple components to add them to their “pool”?

  7. OMG !!!
    So still not foolproof clarified what first of all should be clarified !!!

    DriverA qualified P1 and +5 penalty
    DriverB qualified P2
    DriverC qualified P3 and +10 penalty
    DriverD qualified P4 and +10 penalty
    DriverE qualified P5 and +10 penalty
    DriverF qualified P6
    DriverG qualified P7
    DriverH qualified P8
    DriverI qualified P9
    DriverJ qualified P10

    So what’s the grid position of DriverA?
    He will get Temp P6, so will he start behind DriverF and ahead of DriverG? So 3rd in the grid.

    If yes this would mean that in some conditions a penatly won’t be a full penalty.
    But we know that the rules in Formula 1 are made to be used at will…

    1. It seems pretty clear to me.
      first, ‘award’ the penalties (42.a):

      DriverA qualified P1 and +5 penalty – temporary grid position 6
      DriverB qualified P2 – temporary grid position 2
      DriverC qualified P3 and +10 penalty – temporary grid position 13
      DriverD qualified P4 and +10 penalty – temporary grid position 14
      DriverE qualified P5 and +10 penalty – temporary grid position 15
      DriverF qualified P6 – temporary grid position 6
      DriverG qualified P7 – temporary grid position 7
      DriverH qualified P8 – temporary grid position 8
      DriverI qualified P9 – temporary grid position 9
      DriverJ qualified P10 – temporary grid position 10

      then, move non penalised drivers up into the unallocated spots (42.b):

      DriverA qualified P1 and +5 penalty – temporary grid position 6
      DriverB qualified P2 – grid position 1
      DriverF qualified P6 – grid position 2
      DriverG qualified P7 – grid position 3
      DriverH qualified P8 – grid position 4
      DriverI qualified P9 – grid position 5
      DriverA qualified P1 and +5 penalty – grid position 6
      DriverJ qualified P10 – grid position 7
      DriversK-O qualified P11-15 – grid positions 8-12
      DriverC qualified P3 and +10 penalty – grid position 13
      DriverD qualified P4 and +10 penalty – grid position 14
      DriverE qualified P5 and +10 penalty – grid position 15

      The ‘nice’ thing about this is that penalised drivers get the actual penalty they ‘deserved’.

      1. Ok thanks got it. True then, in this way +5 is a +5

  8. Assuming there are enough grid position markings, I would like them to position drivers in the actual grid box dictated by their penalty, without shuffling the gaps closed. E.g. driver qualifies 10th, takes a 15 place penalty-starts in the 25th grid spot and spot 10 is empty.

  9. This may very well have come up before but why, in the era of budget caps, do we still need component penalties? Kinda seems like DRS, in that they’re holding on to a solution developed for different circumstances, when the new set of regulations (should) make it obsolete.

    1. @tomd11 – The problem is if no penaulties the rich teams will replace engines and components every race….. because those are outside the budgetcap…..
      So what is your suggestion to reduce components and engines without costing to much?

      The grid penaulties seems to help as the topteams still try to use as less components as possible. Or you suggest constructor points reduction that would give the top team to much advance. Points reduction to the drivers is that fair no so not grid penaulties is the best what we can do at the moment.

      1. @macleod I was thinking more along the lines of bring every every aspect of the construction and operation of the cars into the domain of the budget cap. You could then use many engines and gearboxes as you like but it’s going to hurt you in other areas. The upshot being we avoid these constant ridiculous grid penalties.

  10. The root cause of the confusion is not the Grid regulations but the fact that teams are allowed to take strategic penalty’s. Why not stick to the maximum allowed engines in the first place. Only when you blew up all of your engines or have a good reason to replace than you are allowed a new engine with a penalty.

  11. Just go back to the old (and equally silly) system where a driver could accumulate 50+ grid spot penalties.

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