Formula 1 has made changes to its rules following incidents involving Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz Jnr earlier this year.
The incidents took place during the Chinese Grand Prix weekend in April. The first incident occurred during a sprint race when Alonso clashed with Sainz.
Alonso received a 10-second time penalty for the incident. Even though the penalty did not affect his finishing position as he retired from the race.
Typically, drivers who receive penalties and then retire from races are given grid drops for future rounds. However, Alonso’s incident happened during a sprint race and the existing F1 rules did not allow for his penalty to be adjusted in this scenario.
The stewards recognized this issue with the regulations at the time and recommended changes for greater clarity on the matter.
This has been rectified in an update to the Sporting Regulations released today. The revised clause now addresses situations where a driver is unable to serve a penalty due to retirement or being unclassified in a race or sprint session.
Aston Martin challenged Alonso’s penalty and also protested when Sainz was allowed to continue after a crash during qualifying. The rules have now been revised in response to these incidents.
Additionally, a new rule has been added to define procedures for stopping a race when the pit entrance is blocked, preventing drivers from entering the pit lane as usual.
The FIA World Motorsport Council has approved other updates to the regulations, including allowing teams to test ‘mule cars’ for the 2026 season.
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