7 important rule changes ahead of the 2025 F1 season

With the new major overhaul of technical regulations set to kick in in 2026, not many people expected much to change ahead of the 2025 year. Nevertheless, the FIA has implemented several tweaks to the rules for the 2025 season. Let's take a look at the 7 rule changes you need to know before the season starts.

The FIA will implement a mule test car during the usual end-of-season driving tests in Abu Dhabi. A second car will be used to test the 2026 tires.

The 2026 tires have different dimensions and specifications than the 2025 Pirelli rubber tires, reports Motorsport. Performance characteristics will be different coming into 2026, allowing teams some room to modify and tweak cars ahead of the major reform.

Want to see more like this? Follow us here for daily sports news, profiles and analysis!

Stewards also added a new qualifying rule to avoid the scenes from the São Paulo GP in 2024. If a qualifying session can't happen, the grid for the race will be defined on the Drivers' Championship standings.

FIA stewards will be applying the same criteria to Sprint Qualifying sessions. However, if the Drivers' Championship standings can't be used, the FIA will draw its own grid.

Another big change, ahead of the 2025 season, are the technical changes surrounding the DRS system (Drag Reduction System).

Like this, stewards seek to reduce the 'mini-DRS' pockets around tracks and simplify its use to two basic functions (open and closed). The FIA is hoping to reduce DRS trains during tight races.

There are also some big changes coming in for rookies, who will now enjoy double the amount of track time during race weekends.

The FIA is now demanding teams run a rookie at least once in each of their cars. Each team will be granted four practice sessions for the inexperienced driver, exposing rookies to more track time.

More changes to the TPC (Testing of Previous Car) rules state that teams will have to cut down their testing to a maximum of 20 days.

The FIA now only allows race drivers to take part in four days of testing, in which they can't drive more than 1000 km in total. According to Motorsport, all teams on the grid are allowed one TPC car to test at any time.

A new cooling system will be in place to help F1 drivers experience extreme heat during races. In the Singapore GP, "Ambient temperatures are usually in the mid-thirties with a high level of humidity, making cooling inside the car very hard and cockpit temperatures reaching 50-60 degrees," reports Haas F1.

This was a major point to address by the FIA, who won't hesitate to call in a heat hazard if temperatures rise over 31℃ before a race. In return, weight limits for cars have been increased with "an additional 2kg for practice, Qualifying and Sprint Qualifying sessions, but a total of +5kg for a Sprint or Grand Prix," the official F1 website reports.

Drivers were eligible for extra points simply by setting fast laps around the track. This was implemented to add another layer of competitiveness on the track. This would push teams to focus on the fastest lap points as a last resort to gather points in a GP.

It became a controversial topic for the FIA, as teams would completely detach themselves from the race in an attempt to cash in a desperate extra point. The FIA took the decision to remove it from the scoring system coming 2025.

Want to see more like this? Follow us here for daily sports news, profiles and analysis!