The rules -long version

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The rules -long version

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Competition Rules

Post by Da Rulemaker » Wed Apr 07, 2004 10:44 pm

This is a draft document that will probably evolve throughout the season to reflect the need for regulation as it arises. The current version of the rules are finalized.

1. For the 2022 Formula 1 championship we will be using a mod that is an edit of another mod available online.

2. You must not make any modifications that will cause inconsistencies with the server installation. Those who generate file mismatches will be asked to leave the session to rectify these issues.

2b. There are league specific additions and configuration files that are part of the league mod we will be using. Any changes to those files, without authorization from the league will be considered cheating and any driver changing these files will have serious penalties, which may include race bans or removal from the league.

3. You may drive in any View that is allowed on the server. Using "Virtual Mirrors" is allowed.

4a. (Certification based on connection quality.) To be certified to race in official competitions, your hardware (PC and connection) must pass a compatibility test with our online server. Certification is on-going, and in general, clients that cannot maintain 30fps and a good enough ping time , hopefully, under 200, will not be allowed to take part.

4b. (Certification based on attendance.) Because seating arrangements are complex and grid space is premium, to gain admittance to this competition you must guarantee attendance in at least 70% of events scheduled. You must keep up this average or your seat may be given to a new applicant. Drivers who miss events without contacting management beforehand (to arrange a replacement) will be looked upon unfavorably. The only exceptions to minimum attendance rules are league management personnel, who essentially have earned the right to some leeway through their unpaid service.

4c. (Certification based on driving safety.) It is very important to the enjoyment and reputation of the league that drivers practice safe racing techniques and do not pose a danger to the cars around them. If your driving is particularly unsafe, you may be refused membership.

4d. Substitute Drivers: Should a team's #1 or #2 driver not be able to make a race, a substitute driver can be nominated. However, notification to the league officials regarding the intended substitute driver must be made prior to the given event. It is recommended that you announce this change as soon as possible.

5. Do not indulge in needless chatter in the lobby, or react each time you spin by yelling something through your keyboard shortcut list. Keep the airwaves clear for important race messages, particularly during qualifying. We also stress that proper decorum should be observed at all times. Any drivers who use excessive foul or rude language, or who act belligerent or abusive to another driver will be at risk of being summarily booted from the server at the host's discretion.

6. We will be using/disallowing these driving aids.

7a. Tyre Wear will be set to Normal.

7b. Fuel Use will be set to Normal.

7c. Damage will be set to 75%.

7d. The race distance will be 100% as set by the server.

7e. For the 2022 season, fuel stops are banned. You may only stop to make repairs or change tires.

7f. Mechanical failures will be set to TIME SCALED.

7g. All events will be held under dry conditions and the in-game race start time will be 2pm. ( In real time, races are scheduled for 6:30 Pm Pacific )

8. Points will be awarded according to the FIA scale: The race winner takes 25 points, with 18 and 15 being awarded for second and third places respectively. The next seven finishers will score 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 point respectively.

9. We enforce a Two Wheel Rule to define the legal track boundary. Unreasonable violations will result in a warning and then disqualification if the issue continues or the driver is breaking the rule excessively in the any given race.

10. Parc Ferme - Drivers that make the final Qualifying session will be subject to Parc Ferme Rules, all others will not. Fuel loads will not be locked, therefore drivers that make Q2 may qualify with their race setup but low fuel. Top half of the grid always moves on to Q2 and will be announced by an admin before Q1 starts. Settings that are not subject to parc ferme are:

tire compound
front wing
brake bias
brake pressure


11a.The Qualifying format will be a knockout format. We will use a selected practice session as the first round of qualifying, and the qualifying round for only the top 10 drivers (or top half if there are less than 20 drivers). The race director will decide to round up on the driver count moving forward, if they choose. Please be courteous of drivers on hot laps while you are on your in or out laps.

11b. A 8 minute warm up will follow qualifying, after which the race will start. Due to certain inconsistencies (read: bugs) in the rFactor code, there will be no formation lap. The server will move directly from the warm up to the starting grid. In a grid reset situation, the session will move to a race as soon as the server admin can type in the commands to move each driver. If there is some complex changes that need to be mode, the race Admin may restart the Warmup session, to finish.

12. If you cannot find the server at the announced time, check in the forum or join our TeamSpeak channel to find out what is going on.

13a. Except in cases of force majeure (i.e. server difficulties), the 6:30pm PST qualifying start time will be strictly adhered to. The server will be up and accessible for a time period prior to this to allow members to join and prepare their setups, but members should not expect to show up at 6:30 and be able to warm up.

13b. Drivers that miss qualifying may attempt to join the server by waiting until the warm up session to join, however the warm-up session lasts only 8 minutes and can not be stalled to allow you more time!

14. Should the server be down or inaccessible within 15 minutes of the start of Qualifying, the race will be postponed to the next day, if possible. The Admin will post in e-mails, in our Discord channel and on the forum if this happens.

15. RED FLAG RULE. Drivers who are forced to exit the race on the first lap should immediately go to the chat window and broadcast to the remaining participants that they are out. In the event that 5 or more cars exit the race on the first lap, a red flag situation will be in effect and the host will restart the race. If the host fails to notice the red flag situation, those drivers should confirm this from the race time sheet (where it will show if 5 or more drivers have completed 0 laps) and proceed to announce "RED FLAG" to the field. Drivers who cause a restart by announcing a red flag incorrectly will not be allowed to restart with the rest of the field, and may receive further sanctions. Only one red flag restart will be performed per race. On Red Flag restarts, we will go directly to the grid, so please pay attention.

16. All results are provisional until the race replay has been scrutinized. Drivers will receive time penalties or disqualification for dangerous or unsporting behavior. It is the responsibility of the drivers in the race to appeal to the judging panel if they view another competitor driving recklessly or repeatedly committing 2WR violations. The judging panel reserves the right to review any driver's race without an appeal having been lodged.

17a. On those tracks where there is a clearly delineated pit entry lane, or a pit exit line, placing more that two wheels outside of that lane or over that line will be counted as a 2WR infraction.

17b. The pit lane speed limit shall be adhered to at all times and in all sessions. Additionally, cars leaving their garages should wait until their pit crew tells them that it is clear to do so by waving them out. Failure to adhere could result in competition penalties.

17c. At pit-exit there is a light tree with green, red, and blue lights. The blue lights, when flashing, indicate that there is a car coming up the start/finish straight at full speed. This is your indication as a driver to take extra care when re-entering the racetrack. Any incident involving a car re-entering the race from the pits will be considered a violation of Rule 23 and will invite penalty.

18. Driving significantly outside the track boundary or cutting chicanes in order to gain time will result in automatic disqualification.

19. Drivers who are penalized by the judging panel will be informed of the decision privately and given 24 hours to dispute the ruling and provide supporting evidence (such as their own recorded replay) in their defense. The judges' ruling on their appeal will be final, and drivers who instigate public debates or polls designed to put pressure on judges or rule makers may be summarily ruled against. This league can only function if respect for its volunteer judges is upheld by members, and so for its own protection, any further discussion or venting by the driver after the publication of the results (especially publicly) may lead to future competition penalties and disciplinary action.

20. While internet lag is now less of an issue, driver errors make approaching another car very closely a risky and unpredictable thing. Make sure you have not seen and warping or other lag issues before getting close to the rear of another car. It is also advised that you do not assume to know where they will begin braking for corners. Contact due to internet lag or unexpected braking can happen in this situation. If this sort of contact occurs, the following driver will be held responsible, unless there is clear evidence that the front driver slowed suddenly and unpredictably.

21a. If you are shown the blue flag, move off the racing line as soon as reasonably possible and make no erratic moves. Pay attention to your mirrors to determine which side the pass will occur. Once the faster car has a clear lane to pass, and looks to be taking this route, decrease your speed to allow the pass to occur as quickly as possible. Do not lift until you have made certain the chasing car has moved into an adjacent lane.

21b. If you are overtaking a back marker, the safest method is to hold position behind and to one side of the slower car so that they can see you fully in one mirror. Do not commit to a pass until you have given them ample time to know where you are and which side you intend to pass. Remember that because they are much slower and may lift at any time, you slipstream them at your own risk

22. Drivers must make sure the track is completely clear before re-entering the track or the racing line after recovering from a spin or otherwise losing control of their car to such a degree as to significantly reduce their racing speed. This includes, but is not limited to: half-spins; running wide into the grass; or temporarily losing control of the car over kerbs. In any accident involving cars re-joining the race, the re-joining car will be deemed at fault.

23. In an accident involving a car exiting the pits, the exiting car will be deemed at fault if it crosses the white line marking an extension of the pit lane onto the track proper.

24. Under normal circumstances, any car that hits another will be given a penalty appropriate to the dangerousness of the driving and the damage caused.

25. It is each driver’s responsibility to drive cleanly whatever the situation. If you can't stay on the track (whether through car damage, computer, connection ,or controller problems) then you are a safety hazard and should park your car and press the ESC key to jump to the pits.

26a. Controller failure and in general, any hardware, software or connection problems related to your PC is viewed as car trouble. Should it be severe enough to end your race, you will be counted as a mechanical DNF.

26b. Sometimes, mainly in very high-load server situations, some drivers' cars may show up as invisible to other drivers, or one may not be able to see one or more of his or her competitors' cars. The most likely time for this to happen is at the start. This is why all drivers are told to give the other drivers room and not drive aggressively one the first lap. Contact on any lap is dealt with the same way and has the same penalties.

27. Drivers who punt an opponent stand a much better chance of avoiding penalty if they wait for the other car to retake its position. The salient point that will be judged upon is that no one should take some one's place illegally. Whenever a car spins off in front of you and you're close enough to that car to think that there might be the slightest possibility that you punted them due to a lag hit, or contact outside your view, it is your responsibility to slow and wait for that driver to regain the position. Failure to do so will invite penalty by the judging panel.

28. Client replays can be taken into account as evidence, but in all disputes, the server replay will take precedence.

29. To ensure that no driver is left "in limbo" due to a connection dropout at the instant of a session change, all drivers are encouraged to perform some action (e.g. announce "present" or "in") to let everyone else know that they are still present and have not lagged out. This should not be limited to simply taking to the track and running laps, as it is possible to be lagged out to the point of not hearing any other drivers' messages while still being able to race with them. The league relies on all drivers to keep an eye out for each other, and should not assume that the server is performing an attendance check at each session change. The host cannot be held responsible if one driver has lagged out and nobody noticed that he was not responding. The driver causing this restart will be treated as if he were not able to begin the formation lap with with the rest of the field, and as such will be placed at the back of the grid for the race start.

30. Participation implies knowledge of the rules and consent to follow them. Dangerous driving, persistent unrealistic driving or flagrant abuse of the rules can result in time penalties, disqualification, race bans and exclusion from the competition. Generally we prefer to warn drivers before taking serious action, but we do intend to enforce them.

31. In the absence of appropriate rules for a given situation, our default policy is to follow FIA rules where practical. The decision of the judges will be final. The judges reserve the right to apply discretion when enforcing the rules.
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