There are so many rules to racing an F1 car, so I will explain here the important ones that would help you understand the sport more and enjoy watching the races. This will give you an idea of why drivers do what they do on the track.

So first of all, there are two white lines that dictates the racing area on the track, the drivers are not allowed to have more than two side wheels outside these lines during the race. These are called Track Limits. If a driver exceeds track limits, they get notified and if they continue to do so after the second notification they are disqualified from the race and will be asked to stop the car.

For sure during the race and to avoid accidents sometimes drivers do go outside the track limits and that is fine and is not punishable by the rules. But if a driver gains any advantage by exceeding the track limit, they would be asked to give back that advantage. So, if a driver uses the area outside the track to overtake another car, they would be asked to give that position back and if they don’t, they would be subject to further penalties.

A very important racing rule governs how drivers can defend their position from being overtaken. They can change direction twice only. This tends to happen a lot at the end of a straight part of the track when most overtaking happens. The driver ahead can change their direction twice only and can’t keep zigzagging to prevent the car behind from overtaking.

Additionally, there is a rule to govern how to pass cars that are one or more laps behind. (Cars being Overlapped). These cars would be shown a Blue Flag indicating that the car behind is one full lap ahead and they need to give way. They have 3 corners to leave the racing line to the car behind or they would be subject to a time penalty as well.

Causing a collision is also a very serious offence on the track and is penalized by the racing director often by a 5 or 10 second time penalty. A drive through the pit (very time consuming due to the speed limit in the pit lane). A stop and go penalty, the driver would be asked to stop at the Pit Box for a specific time then can leave and continue racing. While the driver is serving the stop and go penalty, the team can’t perform any activity on the car like changing tyres or any modifications.

The race director can even disqualify a driver for causing a collision as the maximum punishment.

While the cars are at a pit stop, they are not allowed to be released into the pit lane unless it is safe to do so, so if a car was released into the lane unsafely the team and driver can also face a punishment for the same.