The FIA has released an updated version of the 2014 Sporting Regulations to include a new penalty points system which could lead to more race bans.
Article 4.2 states that any driver who accrues 12 points on his Superlicence will face a one-race ban at the next event. After that, their licence will be cleared of points.
Points will last a period of 12 months and will be removed after that time has expired. Therefore they can carry across seasons.
The system is aimed at punishing persistent rule breakers whilst cutting some slack for those who commit a minor offence which can now be dealt with by the way of points rather than a penalty if the stewards see fit.
The penalties given for unsafe releases have been toughened up and could now see a driver incur a grid or time penalty depending on the severity.
The changes also include penalties for using additions outside of the current engine allocation of five units, or five separate modules.
The new 1.6-litre V6 turbo-charged engines are made up of six elements: the internal combustion engine, the motor generator unit-kinetic, the motor generator unit-heat, the energy store, the turbocharger and the control electronics.
Should one of these fail, they can be replaced up to a limit of five times. If a sixth module is used, a 10-place penalty will be incurred, but subsequent sixth modules will only incur a five-place penalty.
This is the same for a seventh module and so on.
Should the entire power unit be replaced, the car must start from the pits.
Gearbox usage is stricter too, with each unit having to last six consecutive events.
Finally, should a driver incur a grid-penalty and is unable to drop the necessary places, i.e. he qualifies 20th and is awarded a five-place drop, he will start 22nd and then drop three-places at the next race.
