Are F1’s rules too confusing? 

Do you actually understand the F1 rules? Or does it seem like they just do whatever they want at times?

Any sport requires 2 things: 1. Rules defined before the event, that does not change during the event. 2. Arbiters rulings and reasons for said ruling clearly conveyed to participants and audience during the event.

First of all, great content. I'm feeling that the new WTF1 is slowly but steadily finding its way. As for the rules, what I have read/heard is that both FIA and Liberty have to come to an understanding whether F1 is going to be sport or entertainment. Also, they need someone with good technical knowledge there. The biggest issue with the 2nd red flag is that (as Max pointed out) the tyres were too cool, which helped creating the chaos. First laps are usually crazy, yes. But with cold tyres, they become dangerous (as it was shown). Should an actual driver to be there, giving his opinion, probably he would say "guys, it's not a good idea to start from a standing position, at least a rolling start". In the end, the race ended under a SC anyway.

While the rules are so complicated, this problem has existed for decades for all the teams looking for loopholes and weird incidents happening in all levels of racing. What becomes more problematic now is that a current fanbase with social media lacks patience and understanding of the sports. Also, they want their message to be clickbait for more interest as well, making everything more radical and controversial.

Imagine in the WC final the referee would just grant the team behind penalties for random fouls, just too make the match more thrilling towards the end…sometimes sports csn be boring, an F1 race CAN end under Safety car without a red flag before to make it „more interesting“…

What happens when "the show" is placed as priority above "the sport"

Me and my dad wondered if the cooler tyres temps this year was a factor in why so many drivers were caught out at the start after the safety car

Honestly, I've only seen the media make a big deal out of what happened in Melbourne. During the race, commentators did a stellar job of explaining what was going on and why. Agree with the rules or not, that's fine, but it wasn't confusing or complicated. I felt they did a good job considering the on-track chaos.

Drive To Survive is the worst thing that could have happened to F1. As much as DTS has raised F1s popularity, the FIA has made more and more convoluted and headscratching decisions. Honestly part of me thinks the FIA makes some of those decisions with DTS in mind.

WTF1, great video, thanks for that! Now, Melbourne GP was a joke. Yes, red flags are great entertainment, because it mixes up everything, but the use of them in this GP was a joke. Shame on FIA for doing this. I want fair races and it is FIA's job to keep them that way, not to provide entertainment to the fans. At least this is my opinion.

YES There shouldn't be that many variebles for similar situations It should be as simple and as much consistent as possible

fia is doing a total mockery of themselves 😂😂

'no please no please please please please no' 😂😂

I mean... I hate races that finish under yellow. Would much rather red flag it, and have a shoot out. That being said... There wasn't any reason why they couldn't have done a rolling start. There were 2 laps left. They could have had a lap behind the safty car. Safety car ducks off into pits, and off they go... At least then the drivers would have had SOME heat in the tires, vs stone cold tires...

i aint a expert with excell but than again that isnt my job neither to work with it . if alonso can site them while just having spined in the last lap and the race gets a red flag within seconds then i think they are not that confusing.

There will always be a trade off between strict rules and vague rules. Strict rules can state that something needs to be done even if it doesn't make sense in that case. Vague rules allow for some interpretation so a more sensible call can be made based on the specific circumstances.

0:44 mans using the push broom the wrong way lol.

Randomizing the results with red flags, particularly near the end, is randomizing "The Results" but the extra confusing downtime is not improving "The Show". If you were watching a two hour action movie and near the end they told you to watch nothing happen for an hour and then there would be an action scene where anyone could die, even the hero, would that be improving "The Show"? About the only one it helps is the people making videos about the race.

It’s funny because last year at Monza, fans didn’t want a finish behind the pace car (you obviously see I’m American). The FIA saw that and said alright we won’t finish under caution, but did it in the stupidest way possible. I think it’s time F1 left the FIA

The second and third reds were some NASCAR type flags.

Whenever things get complicated just do whatever you want, just like Masi did.

The problem is ever since Jean-Marie Balestre managed the FIA, rules drawn up governing Formula 1 were always open to interpretation so much so that depending on what Driver or what Team had infringed the rules, the penalty or lack of a penalty would be imposed, not imposed or something just made up sporadically usually followed by a brown envelope. From a Team principal. Then we had Max Mosley & Jon Todt two excellent presidents of the FIA, but unfortunately rule obscurity’s, multifaceted open ended F1 rule book was only beneficial to constructors who petted Bernie Ecclestone ego as the commercial right holder, and even bigger brown envelopes exchanged. Todays FIA F1 rule book is obviously going through rewrite under Sulayem, unfortunately they have chosen to do this dress rehearsal under the glare of guise of the past two seasons, instead of compiling a new definitive A-Z rule book behind the scenes and implement it at the starts of a season. Currently this makey upy rules & penalty as you go along approach, makes F1 feel like WWE Wrestling made worse by liberty Media’s Americanisation of F1 , one must ask how far will Liberty Media go to push or not push the envelope controlling unpredictability when it comes to rules and penalties.

I think the rule that must be abondoned is the do-over of track positions in case of red flags just after (re)starts. It is unneccessarily confusing for the audience and removes a lot of drama but also success stories that F1 is about, just like the would-be podium for Hülkenberg, massive points for McLaren and gbreat points for Alfa. Instead, we got about the same result we were expecting the whole time, with small improvements for some due to DNFs.

The F1 rules have been getting more ridiculous for decades. Not to mention the application of the rules seems to be based on attracting TV viewers more than facilitating a good race for the fans at the event. Even the rules about tires are just annoying and seems to be for no reason other than "because we can" and not to make it fairer for the poorer teams. If a team can't afford tires they shouldn't be in F1. I have been losing interest in F1 for years because of the constant rules that seems to be trying to turn F1 into NASCAR and make all the cars the same.

There should only be red flags when there is absolute mayhem and a section of track is impassable. Otherwise, sector yellow or full course yellow if it's going to be a while to remove damaged cars.

2:20-2:41 sounds cocky but as a motorsport fan i can watch an endurance race nonstop w/out clicking away like 24hr le mans

0:15 we saw very well why it wasn't pointless, with kmag not making it to the end. when we have a race , it should be until the end , bruh

More fuel to make sure all cars can race a few more laps, and don't count laps with SC if there are less than 10 laps remaining. The problem is when regulations are tested and there is no margin due to the race ending. Then you see FI improvising because they didn't consider all possible scenarios and the regulations are too general in a complex sport (and it gets more and more complex as technology evolves)

Albons red flag was the wall needing to be checked not the gravel outright. you could see it in the video where he pushed it in. I personally hope we have more 3 lap finish shoot outs this season, the count back side of it was correct and should have been done, from a rules point of view and on track racing. at what point do you say the red was flown and where people are at? dispite having GPS in the car does the gps really tell who was ahead? what about around a corner? It a whole can of worms thats best left simple to last timing line all the cars passed. With RB19 being what it is, we need more restarts vs rolling starts. Depending on who is p2-p4 we could see overtakes for the lead and cause some drama. CS was at fault just as much as PG should have gotten his 12th point for hitting his teammate. With the cost cap of F1 i would bet that bailing out on that incident is what most drivers are told to do. I feel bad for Haas loosing what P4 at the red flag but at the end of the day we want racing not we called red flag at xxx time and here is your standings. Lets just hope the FIA gets rulling done faster then 12 hours after the race is complete.

1. The rules are confusing, because the competitors race to the letter of the rules, instead of racing to the intent of the rules. 2. The confusing part is as a result of the SkySports english language commentators lack of understanding of the rules, their bias for Mercedes, their expressed opinions rather than waiting for the officials to make their decisions. Personally the standing restart from the grid after a red flag is a mistake. Yes have the red flag, then send the cars out in order single file at their own speed without the safety car, maximum 100km/h in the last sector and no overtaking or overlapping until after the start finish line. Af restart from the grid should only occur if there is a red flag on the first lap.

the picture show how much of berie was on the track i think the safest thing was the red flag but maybe a rollin+g start would be better and the first on ewas also the right thing to do to clean the tracks and repair the barrier if needed

im sorry, but despite all the fia stumbles, australia gp 2023 was not one of them. they erred on the side of caution with the red flags and if you are still confused about the restart grid positions thing, even after silverstone last year, the problem is on you and not the fia.

Who were the people calling for standing restarts? I don't know of anyone who wanted it. Given the chaos around the race start, doing it multiple times is just insane as Australia proved.

I'm shock about the question," Do F1's rules actually make sense anymore?" I thought everybody knows that out of ten words that F1 says eleven is wrong.

Well..Masi would know what to do in those situations. Ever since he's gone, racing director a bit like chaotic just to appease certain group of fans.

I dont get it. F1 fans dont like it when a race finishes under a safety car but they also hate when there is a red flag with 3 laps to go. without the red flag there was 0 chance of getting any more racing. So my question is. What do f1 fans want????

Excellent analyse de la situation avec un beau travail de recherche pour nous expliquer et proposer des avenues intéressantes en F1. Ce genre de format est à privilégier dans les futurs vidéos. Merci beaucoup!

As long as any decision that FIA make effects any driver, fans will be mad. There's no winning for them.

I think this race was one of the biggest shit that FIA made in years. This much of red flags are just ruining the whole race's entertainment. They should use it sometimes, but not 3 times in a race. And I also think FIA should make some changes to their employees that manage the race. They don't even know what they are doing. I hope they will fix it in a few races.

The issue with following the letter of the rules is both no one understands the rules, and they usually boil down to the FIA does what it wants when it comes to any grey areas. Remember the flex wing controversy, where they just changed the rulebook halfway through the season claiming a safety issue when there wasnt one? Or them essentially just writing off red bull's budget overrun despite the rules being built to punish that heavily to prevent teams from just overspending and taking the fine?

I think that of 3 accident I the final restart only a minor one was sanctioned with penalty and was actually the only one with no consequences.

Interesting point about Formula E and WEC

The red flag restart was a joke in Australia. Made zero sense compared to the other situations that should have been red flagged but instead ended up with drivers and/or others dying or nearly dying from running into field crew. Slap in the face of those that raced before.

They aren't too confusing, they are too inconsistent. If there was one rule book and we stuck to it I would have no complaints. The stewards need to be quicker and more consistent (see MotoGP)

Who was the presenter/voiceover for this video?

This was all brought upon by Monza 2022. The FIA got a lot of stick from that so to avoid races ending under safety car, they would just throw a red flag for the fans. Not professional in my opinion

Yes, they do make sense. Sadly the internet is filled with all these loud new fans who have no clue about this sport but run their mouths on the internet.

Um...y'all need to proofread your graphics for spelling errors.

I dont think they are. Just the people in charge are picking and choosing stuff that they think fits best for tv... and thats what is wrong

It was even 4 red flags.

Under red flag no repairs or tyre changes should be carried out it is not fair for others who have not made their stops

Get your facts right. 🤦🏻‍♂️ Yes, a race can be finished “one lap before the end”. Red flag finishes are quite allowed under the regulations.

I think that the FIA should be more reasonable to judge the race! I mean using the Red flag 🚩 at the end of the race is not going to be the best solution every race! We all saw they were struggling to set a proper flying lap in qualifying the day before due to the very cold tires! They were not able to put heat on their tires after two or three warm up laps, how on earth they should’ve abled to warm their tires in one messy lap behind the SC?! For me personally it was obvious that they were going to make a mess at the end of it! This race in particular should’ve ended behind the SC in the first place!

what i don't understand is how they keep being unclear on what needs to be done in some situations. there still isn't a clear rule on what to do if there is an incident within 5 laps of the end, just make one? if you want to start using red flags for less serious incidents, change the rules to reflect that?? if you want to bring the teams even closer together for drama, maybe increase the difference in cost cap for first and last in the constructors? make it a exponential scale down instead of a linear one? there's so many ways to add drama to the sport without LITERAL match fixing. it's stupid the way these monkeys run things. i will never understand the fia's idiotic stubborness in wanting to seem like a deified organisation that can't get any calls wrong and can sit content behind the sunglasses without ever actually communicating what goes on in their puny brains. try different rules out and see which are more fun. it sounds like a quick way to send things into chaos, but gen z is the chaos generation. if you want new fans that's a good market to tap into

Just ban crashes in the last three laps

Why should they make a difference when an incident occurs in lap 7 or 57? If it's a SC situation bring out the SC and if it's a red flag situation bring out the red flag. Ehy can't we just go back to pure racing and not making a show out of F1. Damn LM.

Two rules to change immediately to make F1 slightly less boring than a daily soap opera: eliminate track limits. Dumb and silly rule that results in not knowing who won a race for half an hour, and get rid of the 1 second DNS rule. Let the drivers drive the cars as they see fit. If they tank their energy, too bad. And if they all could hit DNS at the beginning of straights or even in turns whenever they wanted to, the racing would be MUCH more fun, colorful and competitive. F1 rules are just silly and destroy the enjoyment of competition. The only thing exciting about F1 is a Safety Car. Oh. So exciting. They changed tires. OOooooo....now the boring race now includes different tires. LET THE DRIVERS DRIVE. I have been watching since 1969 and have gravitated to IMSA, WEC and Indy. Much more exciting races on shitty tracks.

ngl i think the fia and f1 have both reached their peaks, and will only go down. f1 will just become one team dominating everything, and the fia is going to collapse

How has wtf1 got jack nicholls 😭 think they realised the majority of the ppl didn't like the new hosts

Yes

I think F1 needs to go back to be a motorsport and engineering competition and not a show. You can’t force great races they come naturally.

They over regulate the sport and they are inconsistent with the application of the penalties or rules. All to artificially spice up the show! Pathetic. I have been watching F1 for 40 years. They have always created controversy but lately it’s blatantly obvious

I understand SCCA rules and fudge it the rest of the way. Lol

i miss mat

Whatever F1 does, the people who disagree with it will moan about it

If Formula 1 is a sport, then why don't we hear directly from the race director/stewards in real time like with the referees and judges of every other sport ? If he's doing a bad job, it needs to be seen and reflected upon.

No they aren't...the new "fans" couldn't be arsed reading them or trying to find what are the rules.

Jack Nicholls?

Italy last year finished behind a safety car and was a total buzzkill, Nascar strives to finish under green and so should f1

Each driver should have a separate 5-lights when restarting so they all restart with the same time difference between each other

I'm pretty convinced the rules are just made up on the spot now..

The problem is, FIA is trying hard to make the sport entertaining by manufacturing things in the race. By doing this they are making a mockery of the DNA of Formula 1. And by trying to gain new viewers, they are going to lose the old viewers. Yes it is a complex and a wonderful motorsport but that is the beauty of it. I Love it! And Netflix! 🤐

Sprint races are not my favorites. Australia was a mess. Those are pilots, not kids in karts. Let them race

Not much.

As Toto sayed last year. The clock Never lies. Its more paperwork than Racing. How often do you get notification about a change of the final race Order.

It’s live sport, it’s unpredictable, there’s infinite variables. Who cares if it was messy, it was an incredible spectacle. Every decision made the stewards is going to adversely affect some drivers and not the others. It’s not a conspiracy. F1 and the FIA do not owe each and every fan the perfect race.

Whats the problem with it though, I watch sports to be entertained. Red flag restarts are better

Verstappen false restart still not given penalty and nobody talking abt it

I went swimming on a coral reef off the coast of Jedda. It's more like a dream I had now than a memory. The water is absolutely clear and uncorrupted. Heavenly

To be honest I dont like fia because so confuse on there rules actually

You know what let mercs dominate the whole race and no more chaos like see before the 2021 season everything was peace

Lol. New wrf1 people. I'm late.

Formula One is longer a sport. It's just entertainment (like it or not)

Red flags are funny

The main reason for all of this is the attempts to raise the safety level as high as possible to avoid injuries and deaths. I think we need to be patient because this is a sport that is evolving all the time. Sometimes makes no sense, sometimes it makes sense, sometimes rules are too strict. We need to calm down a bit

Slow it down.

Boss Hog Massi is turning in his grave as we speak.

Plzz man you only alone should run this channel , the new host who makes unfunny joke shouldn't make vid. You should continue and keep the original wtf1

sporting integrity and F1 bwhahahah

Everything makes sense to me🤷‍♂️ Is it so hard to understand? Nobody wants a safety car finish so they red flagged it.

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