Analysis of changes to the (mainly technical) rules and regulations has been done by
cider_and_toast.
| Year | Changes | Average Passes Per GP |
| 1983 | End of ground effect era, all cars have flat bottoms. Minimum car weight 540 kg | 40.47 |
| 1984 | Fuel consumption restricted to a maximum of 220 litres per race. Refuelling prohibited | 41.63 |
| 1985 | Introduction of crash tests | 41.06 |
| 1986 | Fuel consumption restricted to a maximum of 195 litres per race | 36.31 |
| 1987 | Turbo boost pressure restricted to 4.0 bar | 34.88 |
| 1988 | Turbo boost pressure restricted to 2.5 bar. Fuel consumption restricted to a maximum of 155 litres per race. Drivers feet must be behind front axle line | 30.81 |
| 1989 | Turbocharged engines banned. Engines limited to 3500 cc in size and 8 to 12 cylinders. Fuel consumption restrictions removed | 34.19 |
| 1990 | Large mirrors | 30.88 |
| 1991 | Increased safety cell testing | 30.94 |
| 1992 | Rear impact tests and increased safety testing standards | 25.38 |
| 1993 | Rear tyre width reduced. Rear wing height reduced. Mid season testing restrictions introduced. Number of race tyres over a weekend limited. Number of practice laps limited | 24.50 |
| 1994 | Ban on all electronic driver aids; active suspension, traction control, launch control, ABS. Mid race refuelling permitted. Rear wing height reduced. Front wing height increased. Wooden plank fitted to the under tray | 18.06 |
| 1995 | Engine capacity reduced from 3500 cc to 3000. Ride height increased. Increased crash test performance | 17.47 |
| 1996 | 107% rule introduced | 11.63 |
| 1997 | No changes | 15.59 |
| 1998 | Car width reduced from 2 metres to 1.8 metres. Grooved tyres mandatory. Asymetric braking banned. X-wings banned | 12.94 |
| 1999 | Grooves in front tyres increased from 3 to 4. Flexible wings banned | 16.25 |
| 2000 | V10 engines mandatory, although all teams had been using V10 engines since 1998 | 16.41 |
| 2001 | Traction control permitted. Use of beryllium alloys in chassis or engine construction banned | 13.53 |
| 2002 | Team orders banned | 13.82 |
| 2003 | Friday testing permitted. Single lap qualifying introduced. Refuelling between final qualifying and race start prohibited. Bi-directional telemetry banned. One type of wet tyre | 18.94 |
| 2004 | Engines must last 1 race weekend. Launch control banned. Fully automatic transmission banned. Minimum car weight 600 kg. Use of Friday test drivers prohibited | 15.94 |
| 2005 | Engines must last 2 race weekends. Rear diffuser size reduced. Front and rear wing dimensions changed. Tyre changes restricted. New qualifying rules | 10.89 |
| 2006 | Engine capacity reduced from 3000 cc to 2400. Engine configuration restriced to 90' V8. Tyre changes permitted. New qualifying format | 16.17 |
| 2007 | Tuned mass damper system banned. Engine rev limit of 19,000 rpm introduced. Single tyre supplier. Hard and soft tyre compounds must be used during a race. Engine development frozen. Friday practice times increased. Annual testing limited to 30,000 km | 15.88 |
| 2008 | Traction control banned. Launch control banned. Standard ECU. Engine development freeze increased to 5 years. Gearboxes must last 4 races. Restrictions on the use of spare cars. Restrictions on aero details. Strict limits placed on wind tunnel and CFD testing. New qualifying rules | 14.83 |
| 2009 | Only 8 engines per car permitted for the whole season. Engine rev limit reduced to 18,000 rpm. All aerodynamic devices except front and rear wings banned. Slick tryes permitted. Front and rear wing size and dimensions changed. Rear diffuser size and dimensions changed. KERS introduced. Moveable front wings permitted | 12.59 |
Red text denotes a decrease from the previous year
Qualifying format changes have been included as this has an effect on the fuel, tyres and set up
Points or scoring changes have not been includedLooking into the rule and regulation changes futher we can divide the information down into several distinct periods as follows:
1984 - 1988 (Average passes down from 42 to 31) From a peak of 42 the average number of overtakes per race fell to 31 by the end of 1988. The reason for this could be two fold. Firstly, the controlling of the speeds of turbo charged cars by restricting fuel and turbo boost pressure. This led to more conservative racing where cars would have to back off towards the end of races to avoid running out of fuel. Secondly, in 1987 and19 88 there was a rise in the number of cars using normally aspirated engines and these were way off the pace of the turbo charged cars.
1989 - 1993 (Average passes down from 34 to 25) This period saw the advancement of driver aids. We see a brief spike up to an average of 34 for the 1989 season which is almost certainly due to the leveller of all teams switching to normally aspirated 3.5 litre engines. This was the time when former race-winning teams such as Williams and Lotus were stuck with using Judd engines. By 1993 almost every car on the grid had traction control, ABS, power steering, paddle shift semi-automatic gearboxes and active suspension. Though there were virtually no changes in the rules it was during this period that the technical experts of the haves proved their worth over the have-nots. During this period and the year after, more teams dropped out of F1 than at any other time in the sports’ history.
1994 This year can be taken in isolation since most of the rule changes introduced were as a result of the tragic weekend at Imola. By the end of this year the average overtake per race was down to 18, a reduction of 7 on the previous year and the biggest single drop in the year-on-year average to date.
1995 - 1997 (Average passes down from 17 to 16, with a dip down to 12 in 1996) This is an interesting period because after a further round of safety related rules and a reduction in engine capacity down to 3 litres in 1995, there were no other rule changes until the start of the 1998 season. For some reason though there was a large dip down to 12 for average overtakes in 1996 and the following year the average number of overtakes per race was back up to 17 again.
1998 - 2003 (Average passes up from 13 to 19) The fact that there is a rise in overtaking by the end of this period should not be taken as an improvement. From the average of 17 in 1997, the average number of overtakes fell to 13 by the end of 1998. This was the beginning of the "narrow track" era of F1 which saw narrower cars and the introduction of grooved tyres. Surprisingly, during this period there were very few technical rule changes and by 2002 the average number of overtakes had fallen from 16 in 1999 down to 14. There was another spike in 2003 up to 19 that may have been due to cars qualifying out of position, thanks to the new one lap qualification format.
2004 - 2009 (Average passes down from 16 to 13) This period can best be described as the "cost cutting" era. First and foremost each rule change was made on the primary basis of reducing the cost of running an F1 team. From 2003's average of 19, which was the highest number since 1993, at the end of 2004 it had fallen back to 15. The main rule change was the use of a single engine in a race weekend. In 2005 we see the lowest number of overtakes in the whole period of our data. The failed experiment of no tyre changes at pit stops and yet another round of aerodynamic rules which ironically were supposed to improve overtaking, were coupled with a 1 engine per 2 race rule. For the next 2 years it didn't matter how many rules were brought in, including changes to engine size and capacity and aero packages the number of overtakes were stuck at an average of 16 per race. This fell to 15 for 2008 which may have been cause by the introduction of yet more rules on preserving engine and gearboxes for more races and development freezes. Finally, this season the average number of overtakes is 13, thus proving that the 5 years of persistent rule changes to reduce costs and increase overtaking have actually achieved the opposite.
So what can we see from this?
- The greatest increase in the average number of overtakes from one season to the next was 5, between 2002 and 2003.
- The greatest decrease in the average number of overtakes from one season to the next was 7, between 1993 and 1994.
- During a period of pretty much unchecked technical development from 1989 to 1993 there was a decrease of 9 in the average number of overtakes over the whole period.
- During a period of constant FIA rule changes from 2004 to 2008 there was an overall reduction of 1 overtake per race.
Significant increases in average overtakes per season on season have occured after:
- 1984: Fuel tank capacity reduced
- 1989 & 2006: Engine capacity changed
- 1997: No changes
- 1999: Flexible wings banned
- 2003: Single lap qualification
The following table is a comparison of 1984 and 2005 which have the highest and lowest average number of passes per race respectively.
Looking at 2005 we can see that the 2 best qualifiers on average finished 1st and 2nd overall.
In 1984 the 2 drivers with the best average qualifiying position finished 2nd and 5th overall.
| Description | 1984 | 2005 |
| Number of races per season | 16 | 19 |
| Number of teams | 15 | 10 |
| Number of qualifiers per race | 26 | 20 |
| Average passes per GP | 41.63 | 10.89 |
| Number of teams who won a race1 | 4 | 3 |
| Number of teams who scored a point2 | 12 | 10 |
| Average number of non finishers per race3 | 14.50 | 4.74 |
| Race 1 | 19 | 3 |
| Race 2 | 15 | 7 |
| Race 3 | 16 | 7 |
| Race 4 | 16 | 7 |
| Race 5 | 11 | 5 |
| Race 6 | 11 | 4 |
| Race 7 | 13 | 2 |
| Race 8 | 19 | 4 |
| Race 9 | 17 | 14 |
| Race 10 | 13 | 5 |
| Race 11 | 16 | 1 |
| Race 12 | 13 | 2 |
| Race 13 | 12 | 6 |
| Race 14 | 16 | 5 |
| Race 15 | 15 | 0 |
| Race 16 | 10 | 5 |
| Race 17 | - | 5 |
| Race 18 | - | 4 |
| Race 19 | - | 4 |
| Average qualification of top 6 finishers4 | 6.9 | 6.6 |
| 1st place | 8.0 | 3.9 |
| 2nd place | 3.0 | 5.7 |
| 3rd place | 8.6 | 7.8 |
| 4th place | 7.4 | 6.8 |
| 5th place | 3.5 | 5.9 |
| 6th place | 10.0 | 12.0 |
2005: Mclaren 10, Renault 8, Ferrari 1
2Placed 6th or higher
3DSQ and DNS included
41984: Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Elio de Angelis, Michele Alboreto, Nelson Piquet, René Arnoux
2005: Fernando Alonso, Kimi Räikkönen, Michael Schumacher, Juan Pablo Montoya, Giancarlo Fisichella, Ralf Schumacher
