With New F1 Rules, 2017 Races Could Be A Lot More Exciting

Every year, some rules are tweaked or introduced in Formula1 to make the sport safer. But, this time around, a change introduced to the rule book would encourage drivers to make some aggressive manoeuvres. The new rules suggest that the drivers will only be penalised if the stewards believe that the "driver was wholly or predominantly to blame" in an incidence. 

Earlier, the stewards would monitor if a driver was forcing another off the track or was impeding another driver during overtakes and so on. But now, these categories have been removed and have been brought under a common umbrella. The new rule - article 38.2 states, "It shall be at the discretion of the stewards to decide if any driver involved in an incident should be penalised". It adds, "Unless it is clear to the stewards that a driver was wholly or predominantly to blame for an incident no penalty will be imposed."

There are changes in the way stewards operate as well. Earlier, they had to launch an investigation if an incidence was reported by the race director Charlie Whiting. But now, they will have a choice whether to launch an investigation or not. Also, stewards can now investigate an incident during the race, which they feel has violated the rules contrary to the prior norms where they had to wait until the race was over. 

In other penalty changes, drivers who retire during the race and are unable to serve an imposed time, stop-and-go or drive-through penalty may have to undergo a grid penalty at the next event.

These changes are aimed to "encourage drivers to attempt more overtaking moves, without the fear that they may be punished for minor contact." This will result in drivers going for smaller gaps and aggressive overtaking manoeuvres, from which they withdrew in the past seasons to avoid penalties.

From the 2016 season - Nico Rosberg Clinches His First Ever Formula 1 World Championship Title