Formula 1 is a motorsport with many rules. Some are obvious and others are far more convoluted. If you’ve not been a fan for a long time – or aren’t paying close attention during the races – certain aspects of a race can be a tad confusing. We’re hoping to help you out by discussing some of the key F1 rules and what they mean, starting with pit stops.
They form a core part of every race and involve drivers entering the pit lane to swap out their tyres. In former years, pit stops also involved refuelling the cars, but this hasn’t been done since 2009. Fans love pit stops as they create loads of jeopardy and can turn a race on its head. As a result, they’ve become one of the most popular markets at betting sites not on GamStop.
A lot revolves around pit stops in an F1 race but the big rule you need to know is how many of these stops are required during a race itself. You might wonder why some drivers to a one-stop strategy while others go for two or more. We’ll explain this throughout the post so you get to grips with the rules!
Are pit stops mandatory?
Yes and no.
It depends on the conditions of the race. For dry races, all drivers must use at least two different tyre compounds during the Grand Prix. As a recap, three tyres are allocated across the following compounds every race:
- Soft (these tyres have a red line running around them)
- Medium (these tyres have a yellow line running around them)
- Hard (these tyres have a white line running around them)
The category relates to the tyre’s firmness, which is usually an indication of how fast they’re likely to wear on the track. Soft tyres typically wear a lot faster than harder ones, but they also offer more grip and tend to be faster – we’re going on a tangent here as tyre discussions can lead you down loads of F1 rabbit holes!
To get back on track, during a dry F1 Grand Prix, all drivers would have to use two of the tyre compounds listed above. If they started with soft tyres, they’d need to use either hard or medium. This technically means that at least one pit stop is mandatory in the race – but there are caveats.
Changing tyres under a red flag
Different coloured flags could be waved throughout a Grand Prix to signify various things. Formula 1 has a great guide to all the different colours that’s worth reading if you want to learn about all the variants.
In the context of pit stops, the only one with any real bearing on the rules is a Red Flag. This is when the officials have decided to stop the race. All cars must make it back to the pit lane and park in their garages until the race resumes (if it can be resumed). Red Flags are typically shown when there’s a serious incident on the track, extensive repairs are required, or the weather worsens.
Under Red Flag conditions, teams are currently allowed to change their tyres. This doesn’t technically count as a “pit stop” but if they’ve changed from one compound to another, they won’t have to make a pit stop for the rest of the race. It’s one of the many loopholes in the F1 rulebook and that’s why we can’t say pit stops are completely mandatory. There’s a chance that, under Red Flag conditions, teams can swap tyres and finish the race without doing a proper pit stop.
What about pit stops during wet weather conditions?
You’ll notice we started things off by saying drivers need two tyre compounds in dry races. This is when the race begins with dry conditions and the three normal tyres can be used. However, there are many times when a race can start in the rain or under wet weather conditions. If the stewards say the track is “wet”, teams will have to start using special wet weather tyres.
These are:
- Intermediates (they have a green line going around the tyre)
- Wets (they have a blue line going around the tyre)
Both sets offer more grip and allow F1 cars to still race without sliding everywhere. This is where the pit stop rule gets confusing again as you don’t have to use two different tyre compounds during a wet race. In theory, you could do the whole race on wet or intermediate tyres.
Also – and this is extremely unlikely – you could do an entire wet race on the same set of tyres. It seldom happens and doing this wouldn’t break any rules.
How many pit stops do teams typically take in a race?
Right, let’s go over everything we’ve discussed already as a quick recap.
Taking a pit stop isn’t technically mandatory, but drivers will usually need to make at least one during a dry race to swap between tyre compounds (unless there’s a red flag and they change their tyres in the garage).
Even when it’s wet, drivers are highly likely to make at least one stop. This could be to change to dry tyres if the weather clears up or to swap an old set of wets for inters, etc.
For these reasons, the majority of drivers in an F1 race will make one pit stop at the very least. Additionally, there’s no limit to the maximum number of stops you make and this forms a core part of F1 strategy. Some race tracks offer more tyre wear than others, so teams may do two or three stops to maximise their pace. This opens the door for clever tactics to get ahead of rivals – like Charles Leclerc famously winning Monza with a one-stop strategy while all of his rivals lost time doing two stops.
As a very general rule, teams like to make as few stops as possible. Changing the tyres of an F1 car may only take a couple of seconds, but you often lose between 20-30 seconds due to slowing down and driving through the pit lane. It’s usually a big toss-up between saving this time on track and doing one-stop or pitting two/three times and getting fresher and faster tyres.
What happens if you don’t switch tyre compounds in a race?
Nobody actually knows. There haven’t been any documents released and the only credible source we can find mentioning this is from the Aston Martin F1 Team who state you “face a penalty for not switching”.
Seeing as nobody has tried to run a whole race without switching tyres (Alex Albon almost did in 2022 during the Australia Grand Prix, but pitted on the penultimate lap) it’s safe to assume the consequences are dire. We’d be pretty confident in saying it results in a direct disqualification from the race.
Conclusion: F1 pit stop rules explained
We apologise that things might sound confusing but that’s the way Formula 1 likes making its rules. The key points to know are that pit stops are not technically considered mandatory in the rule book. Drivers need to use at least two different tyre compounds in a dry race, and this effectively enforces at least one stop.
Races that begin under wet conditions won’t have the two-tyre-compound rule but are still likely to feature at least one stop. Most modern F1 races only have one stop as tyre degradation is so good these days. In the rare races where multiple stops are needed for the best result, you tend to see the best racing and the most twists and turns!
