Standing re-starts, new nose designs & testing changes among 2015 F1 rule changes

Standing re-starts, reductions in wind tunnel usage and in-season testing, and an extension of parc ferme conditions are among changes to have been approved by the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council for the 2015 season with a view to saving costs and enlivening the Formula 1 spectacle.

Following a host of suggestions made by the F1 Strategy Group which were approved by the wider F1 Commission ahead of last week's Austrian GP, the WMSC met on Thursday in Munich to rubber-stamp changes for next season and beyond.

Despite a largely negative response from drivers and fans to the proposal, standing re-starts will be introduced following the introduction of the Safety Car during races - although not in all scenarios. In-season testing will be cut from four to two sessions, while the three pre-season tests revert exclusively to European venues after back-to-back sessions in Bahrain this year.

A proposed ban on tyre blankets has been put on hold for now but a significant change affecting teams during race weekends will see parc ferme conditions now starting during Saturday morning’s Practice Three rather than the afternoon's qualifying session. Furthermore, the Friday night mechanics' curfew will be extended from six to seven hours in 2015 before increasing to eight hours the following year.

The F1 Show

In other cost-saving measures, teams' uses of wind tunnels and CFD technology will also be restricted further, with the former reduced from 80 hours per week to 65 hours, although "two periods of tunnel occupancy will be allowed in one day (rather than only one)". Teams will also only be able to nominate one wind tunnel per year.

The second year of F1's turbo hybrid era, and the improved reliability it is likely to bring, means drivers will now have only four penalty-free engines to use during the campaign - although that will revert to five if there are more than 20 races on the 2015 calendar. In an additional change, the penalty for a complete change of power unit will be to start the race from the back of the grid rather than the pitlane as is currently the case.

Meanwhile, a change to the Technical Regulations which is likely to be universally welcomed concerns the nose designs of cars. The WMSC stated that 2015 will see "a number of new regulations for the noses to ensure improved safety and to provide more aesthetically pleasing structures". This year's cars feature a host of ungainly interpretations to satisfy the new-for-2014 low-nose regulations, which raised safety concerns in some quarters.

Compulsory two-stage wheel fastener retaining systems and changes to ensure the skid blocks under cars are made lighter have also been approved.

While the confirmed changes are dominated by measures aimed at bringing down budgets in F1 - although by nowhere near enough to satisfy smaller teams - the main new rule to improve the 'show' concerns the introduction of standing re-starts, something which has already proved controversial.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Currently drivers run at reduced speeds in a queue behind the Safety Car while marshals clear an incident from the track, with a rolling re-start then taking place once the circuit is clear. Under the revised 2015 rules, however, drivers will line up back on the grid in race order to take the restart in the same way they traditionally start.

There are caveats, however: a rolling start will still be used if the Safety Car is "used within two laps of the start (or restart) of a race or if there are less than five laps of the race remaining".

The ban on pre-se