F1 Info - 2007 Rule Changes

The key rule changes which take effect in 2007 are summarised below.

Index

Engines

To keep a lid on escalating development costs, engines must remain fundamentally unchanged until the end of the 2010 season.

Limited development is allowed in certain specified areas, but the specification of the engine each team will use for the next four years was effectively fixed after last year's Japanese Grand Prix.

In a bid to improve efficiency and to stop the endless quest for more revs as a way of finding extra power, the 2.4-litre V8s will no longer be permitted to develop more than 19,000rpm.

Following an agreement to limit testing between races, the two Friday practice sessions have been extended from 60 minutes to 90, and teams will be allowed to do unlimited mileage.

When the Safety Car is deployed, drivers will no longer be allowed to dive into the pit lane for a quick fuel-and-tyre stop until they are all lined up behind the safety car and the message "pit lane is open" is deployed on the timing monitors.

Any driver doing so will be hit with a 10-second time penalty - although there are likely to be cases when teams judge the advantage to be won from an early pit stop will outweigh the penalty.

Although the FIA had planned to introduce a regulation single tyre manufacturer from 2008, there will be a sole supplier (Bridgestone) from 2007 to 2010, since Bridgestone's only rival, Michelin, ended their participation in Formula 1 after the 2006 season.

Tyres will be supplied in accordance with the revised Sporting Regulations, which provide for a total of 14 sets of dry weather tyres per driver over the race weekend: four sets for Friday only, and 10 for the rest of the weekend.

Teams will be required to use each of the two types of dry tyre supplied by Bridgestone at each race at least once during that race. The idea behind this is to improve the spectacle by adding unpredictability and an extra layer of tactics to the racing.

Of the two types of tyre, one will always be better suited to the track - and therefore faster - than the other. Forcing the teams to use both in the course of a race theoretically heightens the prospect of overtaking as the gaps between drivers see-saw depending on which tyre they are using.