There is plenty new in Formula One in 2014, not just in technical regulations but in the numbering on the cars and the sport’s penalty system for drivers.
Here is a look at the key changes ahead of the season's opening race, the Australian Grand Prix, on Sunday.
Driver numbers
In an attempt to give crowds and TV audiences an easier way to identify drivers, each of the 22 drivers on the grid were asked to pick a number that will be one they race with for the rest of their careers.
Previously, numbers were assigned in order of a team’s finish in the constructors’ championship the previous season.
Only the No 1 was unavailable, which will be available to the previous season’s champion to have on his car, instead of his selected number.
Sebastian Vettel chose to take that number, but in the future, when he starts a season not as champion, he will have the No 5 on his car, having selected that one.
Adrian Sutil, the Sauber driver, has chosen No 99, while Lewis Hamilton, the 2008 world champion, has picked No 44 in tribute to his karting days, when he drove with that number.
The scheme, which is already used in American racing series Nascar and IndyCar, has more commercial opportunities too, with drivers and teams able to sell merchandise, that will not be out of date at the end of the season.
Double points
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the final race of the 2014 season, on November 23, will be the first in F1 history to have double points on offer.
Rather than 25 points for a win, it will be instead a maximum of 50 available at the Yas Marina Circuit, and anyone within 50 points of the championship leader after the Brazilian Grand Prix on November 9 will be a title contender for the season finale.
Penalties
In an attempt to be more consistent, race stewards will punish drivers with penalty points for rules infractions. If any driver receives more than 12 points on their FIA Superlicence they will be banned for one race.
Any points picked up will sit on the driver’s record for 12 months before they are expunged, though it has yet to be announced how many points will be awarded per incident, and how many will be given for regular misdemeanours, such as causing an avoidable collision or ignoring yellow flags.
In a move to prevent incidents such as that at the German Grand Prix last July when Mark Webber was released from his pit box without all four wheels safely attached, any driver who is seen to have been unsafely released during a race, will be given a 10-place grid penalty for the next round of the season.
Qualifying
A negative aspect of F1’s show in recent years has been cars and drivers sitting in the garage during the final part of qualifying, all in the name of tyre preservation.
To combat that, this season each driver in the top 10 in early stages of qualifying will have an additional set of tyres made available for the period that decides who takes pole position.
Since the format was adopted in 2007 in F1, the final period had been set for 10 minutes, but that has been extended to 12, instead, to give drivers the chance to two full-timed runs in the session.
A non-championship pole award will be given at the end of the season for the driver who posts the highest number of top times during the 19-race campaign.
gcaygill@thenational.ae
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