Section 7: Violations/Penalties
Technical Non-Compliance
- A car that fails pre-event, post-qualifying, or post-race technical inspection can lose its qualifying time, be sent to the rear of the grid, lose points, or be disqualified, depending on the severity of the breach.
- Use of non-homologated or modified components outside the rulebook's allowances is a serious technical violation.
On-Track Violations
- Avoidable contact: Contact judged to be avoidable that affects another competitor draws penalties ranging from a position penalty to a drive-through.
- Blocking: Reactive moves to defend position that force another driver to take evasive action are penalized.
- Jumping a start or restart / passing before the line: Improving position before the start/finish line or restart zone draws a penalty.
- Ignoring flags or the black flag / failing to follow Race Director instructions: Penalized, and continued non-compliance can lead to disqualification.
- Track limits: Repeatedly exceeding track limits to gain an advantage is penalized on road and street courses.
Pit-Lane Violations
- Pit speeding: Exceeding the pit-lane speed limit draws a time or drive-through penalty.
- Unsafe release: Releasing a car into the path of another, or work done outside the assigned box, is penalized.
- Equipment, fueling, and crew-over-the-wall infractions carry defined penalties.
Penalty Toolkit
- In-race penalties include drive-through penalties, stop-and-hold penalties, and time penalties; grid penalties apply to qualifying offenses.
- Post-event sanctions include fines, points deductions, probation, suspension, and disqualification.
- The Race Director may apply penalties during the race; the stewards review incidents and certain penalties may be appealed under the rulebook's procedures.