There are two main types of regulations: technical and sporting. Technical regulations are related to car specifications, such as the chassis or the engine. Meanwhile, sporting regulations involve race procedures and set rules that pertain to the sport as a whole. There are also financial regulations that place restrictions on the budgets of teams and power unit manufacturers, and operational regulations that dictate factory testing procedures.
An F1 car can be no more than 190 cm wide and 95 cm tall. The car and driver must together weigh at least 724 kg as of 2026. The car must only have four wheels mounted externally of the body work with only the front 2 steered and only the back 2 driven. The maximum distance allowed between the front and rear wheels (the wheelbase) is 340 cm.
The main chassis contains a "safety cell" which includes the cockpit, a structure designed to reduce impact directly in front of the cockpit, and the fuel cell directly behind the cockpit. Additionally, the car must contain roll structures behind and ahead of the driver. Since 2018, the car must include the halo, which is a curved titanium bar placed above the driver's head that prevents it from sustaining any injuries.
Onboard electrical and computer systems, once inspected at the start of the season, may not be changed without prior approval. Electronic starters and launch control are forbidden. The computers must contain a telemetric accident data reporting system.
Continuously variable transmissions (CVTs) have been banned since 1994. A rule was added in 1994 that stated that gearboxes must have anywhere from 2 to 7 discrete gear ratios, alongside a clause that explicitly bans CVTs. Since 2014, transmissions with 8 gear ratios and 1 reverse gear ratio are required in Formula 1 cars.
The engines, now commonly referred to as power units, are divided into 6 components: the internal combustion engine (ICE); turbocharger (TC); Motor Generator Unit-Kinetic (MGU-K); Energy Store (ES); Control Electronics (CE); and Exhaust (EX). From 2014 to 2025, there was a seventh component called the MGU-H (Motor Generator Unit-Heat), which was removed from the 2026 regulations.
In 2026, each driver may use up to four ICEs, Turbochargers, and Exhaust sets, and up to three MGU-Ks, Energy Stores, and Control Electronics throughout the season. From 2027 onward, this allocation will decrease to only three and two respectively, unless it is the manufacturer's first year supplying power units since the onset of the 2026 regulations.
From 2010, refuelling is no longer permitted during the race and now every car starts with a full fuel load.
Formula 1 has contracted a single supplier of tyres since the 2007 season. The supplier (Pirelli since 2011) supplies 6 specifications of slick dry-weather tyres (C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6), of which 3 compounds are provided at each race. Pirelli introduced a softer C6 compound for the 2025 season. Additionally, 2 wet-weather compounds are provided by the supplier: intermediate and full wet.
Competitors are allowed only a limited number of tyre sets during a race weekend: 13 dry, 4 intermediate, 3 wet. However, if the race weekend includes a sprint race, only 12 sets of dry tyres are allocated. Cars must race on any 2 dry compounds during a race unless intermediate or wet tyres have been used by that car in that race.
From 2011 to 2025, the drag reduction system, which was a piece of movable aerodynamics on the car's rear wing, was mandated. In 2026, it was replaced by a system called Active Aerodynamics in which both the car's front and rear wings may rotate between two positions.
After weighing during each qualifying session, teams are required to take their cars to a place in the paddock, sectioned off by the FIA, known as parc fermé; they may not do work on the cars, other than routine maintenance, until they are released from parc fermé for the race the next morning.
The pit lane opens forty minutes before the start of a race. Drivers must be in their cars and in place on the grid by time the pit lane closes at t−30:00; otherwise they must start the race from the pits. Engines must be running by t−1:00; at fifteen seconds to the start all personnel must be clear of the track. Green lights signify the start of the formation lap, also known as the parade lap.
The Drivers' and Constructors' Championships are decided by points, which are awarded according to the place in which a driver classifies at each Grand Prix. To receive points a racer need not finish the race, but at least 90% of the winner's race distance must be completed. From 2019 to 2024, a point was awarded for fastest lap, but this was discontinued for 2025.
Many venues make use of electronic displays to indicate flags to give various messages to drivers. However, race marshals continue to use physical flags as a redundancy mechanism in the event of electronic display failure. Flags, whose specifications and usage are prescribed by Appendix H of the FIA's International Sporting Code, must measure at least 60 cm by 80 cm, excepting the red and chequered flags, which must measure at least 80 cm by 100 cm.
Penalties may be imposed on drivers for numerous offences, including jumping the start, speeding in the pit lane, causing an avoidable accident, unsportsmanlike conduct, or ignoring flags of any color. There are four types of penalty which a driver may incur for violation of on-track rules: a time penalty, a drive-through penalty, a ten-second stop-go penalty, and a black flag. The most severe penalty in common use is a black flag, which may be imposed for ignoring penalties or for technical irregularities of any sort; it signifies that the driver has been disqualified from the race.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.