F1 Rules: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. In 2009 a new rule was introduced limiting drivers to using just eight of what key component of the car across the whole season?

Answer: Engine

The cost of competing in F1 came under scrutiny following the global financial crash of 2008 and the shock withdrawal of Honda from the sport. After the teams failed to agree on a limit for a full budget cap, the governing body, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), introduced a whole raft of new rules for 2009 that were aimed at limiting costs. One of these was the decision to limit engines, meaning that each driver had just eight engines available to complete 19 races and any driver that needed to use a ninth engine faced taking a 10-place grid penalty.

At the time this new rule seemed harsh and unworkable given that teams used to routinely change engines during a grand prix weekend and turn up with new engines for each event. However, the 2009 engine rule was lax compared to the one in place ten years later - in 2019 only three of each element of the power unit could be used without incurring a penalty.

2. Helmets were the focus of a new rule in 2015, but for once the change had nothing to do with improving safety - what did it relate to?

Answer: Colour

The new rule stated that the drivers were not allowed to make any "substantial" changes to the colour and design of their helmet during the F1 season. The theory behind the rule was that regularly changing helmet designs made it confusing or difficult for fans to identify their favourite drivers during the race.

The rule was widely derided as unnecessary and restrictive and stopped drivers from introducing special designs for particular races, such as their home grand prix, or change their helmet colours to support particular charities or commemorate past heroes. It was later tweaked to allow drivers a 'joker' and let them change their helmet design once during a season.

3. The F1 points system has been subject to many changes over the decades, with differing numbers of points awarded, occasional bonus points for fastest lap and in some years only counting a certain number of a driver's best results. What particularly odd rule was introduced for 2014 and then dropped for the following year?

Answer: Double points for the final race

The final race of the 2014 became worth twice as many points as any other grand prix that year when the FIA introduced a new rule aimed at increasing the chances of the championship competition lasting right to the end of the season. As such the winner of the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix collected a massive 50 points, rather than the usual 25 points allotted for a victory. The move proved to be highly unpopular and generally considered to be a gimmick that had the potential to bias the outcome of a whole season by the result of just one of the 19 races.

Luckily the race was won by the championship leader Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes, so the ill-thought out rule didn't impact on the final winner of either the drivers' or constructors' titles.

4. In order to race in F1, all drivers must hold a FIA super license. In 2016 a rule banning anyone under the age of 18 from obtaining one came into force, after the Toro Rosso team had employed a 17-year-old to race one of their cars the previous year. Who was that 17-year-old?

Answer: Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen made his F1 debut with the Toro Rosso team in the 2015 Australian Grand Prix at the age of 17 years and 166 days and had signed up with the team as a practice driver when he was just 16. Prior to the start of the 2015 season, the FIA announced rule changes to be implemented in 2016 would mean that all drivers would have to be 18 years old before being granted a license to take part in an F1 event. If they had introduced it immediately then Verstappen wouldn't have been allowed to drive.

5. Pit stops can produce some of the most exciting moments of a F1 grand prix race, but in 2005 F1 introduced a rule that limited the usefulness of pit stops by banning mid-race tyre changes except in very specific circumstances. In which of these situations would a change of tyres have NOT been allowed?

Answer: Significant loss of tyre temperature

In 2005 the tyres of an F1 car were not only expected to complete the entire race distance but to get the driver through the qualifying session as well. However, having to drive carefully to nurse their tyres to the end of the race in a decent condition naturally meant that drivers spent much of the race driving much slower than they could have done with fresh rubber - a situation that didn't prove to be the most exciting spectacle for fans and the rule was unceremoniously dropped for the following year.

Amazingly, the exemption allowing drivers to replace a dangerously worn tyre didn't exist at the beginning of the season and was only introduced after Kimi Raikkonen crashed when his flat-spotted tyre failed and broke the front suspension of his McLaren.

6. In 2003 a new rule was introduced forcing drivers to wear the safety device known by the acronym HANS. What does HANS stand for?

Answer: Head and Neck Support

The Head and Neck Support (HANS) device was first invented by Doctor Robert Hubbard in the 1980s and is designed to reduce the risk of drivers suffering a basilar skull fracture. These, usually fatal, injuries occur when the head is thrown around violently during an accident while the rest of the body is restrained by seatbelts. F1 drivers Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna both suffered this type of injury in their fatal accidents at Imola in 1994, but it was nearly another ten years before the use of this protective device was mandated by the F1 authorities.

The HANS device is now a common sight in motor racing and consists of a piece of U-shaped carbon fibre that sits on a driver's shoulders and is attached by straps to both sides of the helmet.

7. In F1, back markers are expected to get out of the way when the leaders come around to lap them. A flag of a which colour is waved at them to tell them to move?

Answer: Blue

Flags of all of these colours are used in F1 with different meanings, but it is the blue flag that is waved at slower drivers to both warn them that faster cars are approaching them from behind and that they are expected to get out of their way as soon as it is safe to do so. That usually means moving aside on the straights or not taking the racing line around the corners. If a driver does not follow this directive quickly enough and passes more than three blue flags without yielding then they can expect to receive a penalty - usually in the form of a time penalty or being required to drive through the pits.

A yellow flag indicates danger on the track, a green flag indicates normal racing conditions (and is usually waved to indicate the end of a yellow-flag area) and a red flag means the race has been stopped.

8. The FIA technical regulations for F1 include what might seem like a rather unusual rule - that every F1 car must have four wheels. This rule was introduced in 1983, seven years after the 1976 Swedish Grand Prix was won by a car with how many wheels? (Don't include the steering wheel in your count!)

Answer: 6

The Tyrrell P34, which had four small front wheels and two larger wheels at the rear, first raced in the 1976 Spanish Grand Prix and took its only victory three races later in Sweden. It proved to be highly competitive and took a total of ten podium finishes during that season. It had less success the following year and the concept was eventually dropped in favour of a more traditional four-wheeled car.

It wasn't the only six-wheeled car to be developed as Ferrari, Williams and March also tried out the concept but never actually raced their somewhat wacky creations.

9. In 1952, F1 races were actually run to the rules and regulations of a different type of motorsport event in order to increase the number of cars available to compete. Whose rules were used?

Answer: Formula Two

Formula Two rules and regulations were used in both 1952 and 1953 to increase the pool of cars available to race following the withdrawal of Alfa Romeo and BRM from the sport, which would have pretty much just left a small grid of Ferrari cars able to compete. Formula Two used cars that had smaller engines and were cheaper to develop and race, making it more accessible to a wider range of manufacturers and independent teams.

Despite changing the rules to prevent F1 from consisting solely of Ferraris, the famous Italian team still dominated "F1" in both these years, with Alberto Ascari taking the drivers' title on both occasions.

10. 2013 saw the introduction of a new rule for F1 car design that allowed teams to fit what became known as a "modesty" or "vanity" panel to the car. This improved the appearance of which part of the car, that had been rendered particularly ugly by previous rules imposed on its design?

Answer: Nose

In the early part of the 2010s, F1 car design rules dictated maximum and minimum heights for different sections of an F1 car's chassis and nose cone. This tended to result in cars running with noses that were relatively high off the ground and contained an ugly step change in height part of the way down. The 2013 rules didn't change the underlying requirements of the design but allowed teams to fit a bit of bodywork to cover up the step and produce a smoother look.

Source: Author Fifiona81

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor gtho4 before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

All sports need rules to function fairly and safely - but sometimes you get rules that, frankly, seem odd or ridiculous. This quiz is about 10 rules seen in F1 over the years - I leave it to you to judge what category they fall in.

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