F1 | 24-match calendar: curfew rules loosened

The 2024 Formula 1 season will kick off in exactly less than two weeks in Bahrain, home of the first round of the season, but also of the winter tests, which will start in just five days in Sakhir. Behind the scenes, the teams and category leaders are working to draw up the latest regulatory changes together with the FIA ​​before the start of the championship.

Some of these innovations have already been announced at the end of the last F1 Commission held last February 5th: the activation of the DRS was brought forward by one lap, both at the start of the race and after a Safety Car, the return was approved to four Power Units for each driver over the course of the season and the format of the sprint weekends has been revised. Furthermore, as anticipated a few days ago, the allocation of the sets of wet tires has also been revised, with one more set of intermediates and one less set of full wets.

However, in reality there are other changes for the 2024 season which, although not announced at the end of the last F1 Commission, will have an impact on the teams' work during the race weekends.

F1 takes a step back: more freedom on curfew

In addition to those already mentioned, the most important change is undoubtedly the one that concerns the easing of curfew regulations for teams. In 2022, in anticipation of an expansion of the calendar, F1 and the FIA ​​had decided to regulate working hours during race weekends more stringently. The objective was to guarantee greater rest opportunities for the mechanics, who in previous years arrived until late hours to complete all the ritual checks on the cars.

For this reason it was decided to limit activity on the track from Wednesday, with a curfew starting at 7pm. The programs for the following days have also been revised: workers can only enter the paddock after 9:00, while the exit time varies according to the day, still imposing 8:00 pm as the deadline. A discussion which, naturally, must then be adapted according to the events of the world championship, such as for the night stages.

However, although it was rightly decided to review the timetables to guarantee more rest for the teams, this meant that on several occasions the teams violated the curfew to work on the single-seaters, perhaps after an accident or due to a technical problem to be resolved in a short time to send the car to the track the following day.

Mechanics working on the car in the Alpine garage

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

For example, last year Haas in Mexico was forced to break the curfew after noticing a problem with the oil tank. Given the complexity of the operation, given that it also took the mechanics some time to understand the nature of the problem, the technicians had to work through the night to fix everything, otherwise the car would not have been able to take to the track for free practice.

In cases like these, which can happen to any team during the season, the regulation provides for a system of exceptions which, however, has been progressively revised over the years. The curfew is in fact divided into three periods based on the weekend phase and, for each of these, the teams had a number of “jokers” available to work outside the scheduled hours.

That number was initially expected to drop further in 2024, bringing the number of exceptions allowed in each of the three curfew periods to two. On the contrary, with an expanding calendar, which this year will consist of 24 races, it was decided to also review this aspect: for the period before the start of FP1, useful above all for reassembling the cars from a Grand Prize to the other, we are back to four “jokers”, while for the second curfew period the number of exceptions allowed has risen to three.

Pre-departure procedures have also been revised

The latest draft includes further changes to other aspects of the regulations, such as when cars are given the green light to enter the track. In fact, last year the rule was revised which indicated that, on certain occasions, the pit lane would be opened 50 minutes before the formation lap, thus bringing the procedure forward by ten minutes.

Mechanics on the starting grid

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

This change was made so that, in selected events such as the American stages, there was time to leave space for driver presentations with dedicated shows. Given the limited success of this experiment, little appreciated even by the drivers on the grid, it was decided to take a step back: as in previous years, the pit lane will return to being open 40 minutes before the formation lap, closing ten minutes later.

The latest significant news concerns abortive departures. Until last year, the regulation provided that, after re-establishing the departure time, the procedure would resume at the five minute signal, in order to speed up operations. From this season, however, five more minutes will be granted, which means that teams will have more time to prepare.

This is a change which, although very specific, is not secondary, because in the past there have been cases in which teams remained stationary on the grid, perhaps in case of rain, without the possibility of changing tyres. In the event of an aborted or postponed start, as happened a few years ago in Spa in 2021, the teams could not change the covers on the grid, instead having to wait for instructions from the race direction. From this year the teams will have greater freedom, being able to freely change tires on the grid, even switching to another compound.