Curfews in Formula One are a mandatory period when teams are prohibited from having mechanics or engineers working on their cars. Formula One has rigid working hours on race weekends, limiting team members’ hours to work on the vehicle; however, many exceptions are made before reprimanding a team. As a result, teams want to put in as much time on the car as possible, and that means breaking the curfews of Formula 1. On a Thursday and a Friday, teams are allowed to employ pranksters, representing that they can violate F1s curfew and get away with it.
Teams decided to support the effort as they strive to decrease the stress on staff employees as the season approaches, which is projected to be 24 races in 2023. Operational employees are subject to three curfews on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights, known as Restricted Periods one, two, and three, throughout which they are not permitted to work on the vehicles and must vacate the paddock.
RP3 is now scheduled to begin 13 hours before FP3 on Friday. Nevertheless, the most recent 2023 FIA Sporting Rules clarify that starting next year, team members will end 14 hours before FP3, with a further transition to 15 hours in 2024. By then, groups will be faced with the problem of doing the same Friday evening preparatory chores they undertake now, but in a two-hour shorter time frame. Furthermore, the number of curfew exceptions – or jokers – that teams may use will be reduced.
The exclusions were designed to be used in a necessity, and a liberal level was set at the beginning of the current timetable. They are, nevertheless, frequently utilised whenever new update kits come late and are installed on race vehicles during race weekends. In effect, the teams consented to be “rescued from themselves” by lowering the number of exemptions, removing the desire to utilise them on a regular basis. Teams can now use eight exclusions for RP1 on Wednesday evenings. That number will be lowered to four in 2023, then to two by 2024. The amount of RP2 exclusions on Thursday nights will be reduced from six to three in 2023 and subsequently to two in 2024.
According to the guidelines, “during certain periods, these staff must discontinue the operational activity.” The modification to the curfew regulations proposed early in the COVID era to relieve traffic at the paddock turnstiles, when staff members were permitted half an hour earlier to take breakfast but couldn’t collaborate in the garage during that time, has stayed – but a reference to promoting social distancing has been removed.
