Te EG-FIA has published its new technical regulations in advance of next weeks round 1 race in Australia. The headline change is that a number of technologies that some teams have been relying on are now outlawed.
Banned from this weekend are:
Expect to see a few more lock-ups, spins and wayward rear ends as a result of these changes.
December 15, 2011 in Rules
Penalties and fair driving
Unfortunately, F1 2011 can still be a little temperamental regarding penalties and will occasionally give out a time penalty for something that perhaps doesn’t warrant it. If you feel this is the case then make state your case after the race with, if possible, video evidence and/or back up from other racers who saw the incident in question. If we think something was handed out unfairly then the penalty will be scrubbed and the person in question placed where they originally finished in the running order.
On the other hand, it’s often incredibly difficult to make decisions on collisions (especially with no replays available), so these should be self-policed. Handing our penalties post-race will just make people unhappy and angry. If you feel like you’ve been a bit of a numpty and slapped into someone to gain a position, seriously consider letting off the gas and allowing them to resume their position ahead. We’ve seen countless times on both F1 2010 and F1 2011 that you guys are a fair and reasonable bunch, so we have no issues with this being a problem.
Restarts
If two or more people disconnect from a qualifying session in the first 5 minutes, the session will be restarted up to a maximum of two times. Likewise, if two or more people are disconnected before the completion of Lap 3 of a race, it will be restarted up to a maximum of twice. Ideally we’d like to restart as many times as needed, but obviously this could lead to sessions lasting nearly two hours and that will be no good for anyone.
In case of a race restart, the pack will leave the grid and shuffle into order on a mutually agreed section of circuit on the opening ‘parade’ lap. This parade lap should be undertaken at 1/2 – 3/4 racing speed to avoid blocking penalties. At the end of the first lap the pole-sitter (and hence leader) will have control over the field and resume a normal race into or out of the final corner of the circuit.
There will be no restarts for collisions – these have in the past proven far too difficult to gauge in terms of what would be restart-worthy. General advice: remember that you have cold tyres, lots of fuel and that the race isn’t won at the first corner! 
Assists
All assists are allowed, although we do encourage people with steering wheels to use as few assists as possible as it makes the cars immense fun to drive and makes you look less like a boy, more like a man.
Last of all, have fun 
