© Getty ImagesBulls’ Guide To: Parc FerméAfter lots of talk about parc fermé in the aftermath of Monaco, what are the real rules and what conditions does that impose on the trackside team.
Thechequeredflaghasasymbolismthatgoeswaybeyondmotorsport.Itsignifiesanending,oraresult,whichisironicbecauseinmotorsport,andespeciallyinF1,itsorarelydoes.
We were quite happy to celebrate victory in Monaco at the chequered flag, but the victory isn’t truly yours until the scrutineers sign-off the cars as being compliant, and the stewards publish their final race result. While the cars are still held under Parc Fermé conditions, nothing is confirmed.
Red Bull Gives You Wings© Getty Images
ParcFermévsParcFerméConditions
That’s one aspect of parc fermé. In the wider sense, it comes in two distinct flavours. There’s the time-honoured physical location – in F1 terms usually to be found at the start of the pit lane, proximate to the FIA garages but in theory near to – ideally underneath – the podium.
It’s operated under the aegis of the FIA technical department and scrutineers, who own your car until they say otherwise, and then there’s parc fermé conditions when, despite the cars being in the control of the teams, they are to be treated, to all intents and purposes, as if they were in parc fermé.
The usual image conjured by the phrase ‘parc fermé conditions’ is of the cars tucked up for the night in a darkened garage under a cover– the reality is that there might be a crew of mechanics working on the car, or a driver putting in a qualifying lap while the car is under parc fermé conditions. It’s a complex set of rules.
Getting Ready For Quali© Getty Images
The basic principle of parc fermé is that, once in a parc fermé period, the scope for the teams to alter and adjust their car is very, very limited. It’s a cut-off point beyond which they can repair and prepare but not fundamentally alter their race car. In legalese, as defined in article 34.6 of the Sporting Regulations: a Competitor may not modify any part on the car or make changes to the set-up of the suspension whilst the car is being held under parc fermé conditions. In the case of a breach of this Article the relevant driver must start the race from the pit lane.
The business end of the weekend is when parc fermé kicks in. The cars are under parc fermé conditions and thus, in the spec they must qualify and race – from the moment they cross the pit lane exit line for the first time in Q1. The parc fermé conditions extend until the start of the race. Any car that doesn’t take part in Q1 will be placed under parc fermé conditions at the end of Q1.
Cars that take the chequered flag at the end of Q3 will return to parc fermé for scrutineering, rather than to their garage. This tends to make teams nervous because the very hot cars don’t do well if simply turned off and left alone, thus three mechanics are permitted into the cordoned-off area to do various shut down jobs – such as fitting cooling fans to brake ducts and airboxes. While that’s going on, the scrutineers will begin to check the legality of various components across the field of cars.
Cars Parked Up In Parc Fermé© Getty Images
Scrutineering is a mix of standard checks and random tests. The cars are self-scrutinised by the teams on Thursday and declared to be in compliance. The FIA will do random checks to ensure that’s the case, and will select at least six cars for in-depth checks at the end of practice. The rest will simply have key measurements taken. If a car is chosen but isn’t already in parc fermé, it has to be hurried down there as soon as possible.
The hours after qualifying see cars moving to and fro between parc fermé and their garages, as they undergo various scrutineering checks. It tends to be a busy time for the crews because they have to inspect, repair and generally prepare a car that’s just been pushed very, very hard in a qualifying session – and they only have a limited amount of time in which to do it.
While there isn’t a curfew on Saturday night, three and a half hours after qualifying ends, work on the cars has to cease, at which point the cars are covered and the crew either departs or eats, then departs. There are caveats to that: by arrangement, a team might be able to wheel its car out of the garage for promotion purposes (a photoshoot, or TV spot, for instance) after the cut-off – but it can’t receive any more work. On Sunday, five hours before the formation lap, the teams are allowed to work on the cars again – but parc fermé conditions still apply.
The list of what teams can do during parc fermé – other than when the cars are sealed overnight – is long. The Sporting Regulations cover this in article 34.2. It has 22 subclauses.
Teams are allowed to start engines; add or remove fuel and fit a fuel breather; remove wheels; take out the spark plugs to better inspect the engine; fit the aforementioned cooling fans or – in extreme cases – fit heaters (COTA, we’re looking at you). The team can fit a jump battery to access and test electronic systems, and can charge/discharge the energy store. Brakes can be bled, engine oil drained, the various compressed gasses can be drained or added, as can the various fluids – providing they are replaced with the same specification.
Working Hard In The Garage© Getty Images
The front wing angle can be changed – this is really the only adjustable piece of bodywork once parc fermé has begun – but the rest of the bodywork can be removed and cleaned along with the rest of the car. This, obviously is an aesthetic consideration but also a practical one.
Up close, an F1 car isn’t always the sleek, pristine artform it appears from a distance: it gets coated in mud and covered in rubber, all of which gets into places it really shouldn’t. There’s various driver-specific items that can be adjusted – such as wing mirrors, pedals and seat belts – and the driver’s drinks bottle may be topped-up.
The clause which tends to cause the most interest is u) repair of genuine accident damage. There are varying degrees to this because, frankly, it’s a rare day when the car doesn’t come back from a qualifying session without some sort of ding. Hopefully, that’s something minor to the floor, or diffuser or underside of the front wing, fixable with a small pot of hot glue and a large dollop of experience.
On other days, it’s a more involved process than that, when the car has crashed heavily in qualifying, requiring a corner – or more – to be rebuilt. A damaged part can be repaired, or replaced with one that is ‘the same in design and similar in mass, inertia and function to the original’ – though as is the case with any other parc fermé job, it’s expected to be done around the car and under the watchful gaze of the assigned scrutineer.
A New Front Nose Is Carried To The Grid© Getty Images
Repairs and replacements are detailed in the technical delegate’s report which is submitted to all teams an hour before the start of the race. These usually tell a story. In Monaco, Charles Leclerc required so much work that the report dealt in generalities rather than specifics: ‘rear wing assembly, right-hand side front corner assembly, etc.,’
There can, of course, be damage that requires a replacement system that does incur a penalty – though in most cases the penalty isn’t for infringing parc fermé regulations. Changing a gearbox, for example, will incur a penalty if it’s done before that gearbox has completed six races. Likewise, swapping a power unit component or an exhaust system may provoke a penalty if the replacement takes the team beyond its allocation. However, this would be classed as breaking parc fermé – and thus be punished by a pit lane start – if the replacement part was of a different specification.
The significance is that teams aren’t able to avoid a parc fermé penalty by fitting an older spec of power unit component – doing so would break the ‘the same in design and similar in mass, inertia and function to the original’ stipulation. Thus, later in the season, to keep on the right side of the parc fermé rules, a team may have to accept the lesser punishment of a grid drop if they have damage or a failure. Meanwhile, changing a chassis in parc fermé is an automatic pit lane start – as in the philosophical sense it means the driver will be starting the race in a different car to the one in which he qualified.
Any parts not on the list may still be changed, with the permission of the technical delegate after a written request is submitted. However, practicality means that with 20 cars and only one technical delegate there’s not always time to submit that request, hence teams can make changes during qualifying or between the reconnaissance and formation laps (garage or grid) without permission if they believe such permission would be granted.
Our prime example would be fixing Max’s car on the grid in Hungary last year. The car is still under parc fermé conditions – but obviously requires repairs and with no time to write a formal request. Under those circumstances the team is free to do the work immediately and defend it later – though as a measure of prudence, chief mechanic Phil Turner and senior engineer, car engineering Rich Wolverson, made sure one of the FIA technical department was on hand to witness everything they did.
Mechanics Work On Max's Car© F1
The biggest caveat to the parc fermé rules occurs when the weather changes – or, at least, when the weather is widely expected to be changing – usually from wet to dry or vice versa. Race Control will use the messaging system to declare a ‘change in climatic conditions’, at which point the parc fermé regulations are liberalised a little, allowing teams to make changes to their brake and radiator ducts and cover/uncover pitot tubes.
The other, more common change it to the cockpit headrest. F1 has three difference specifications of foam to be used in the headrests, each with energy absorption properties most effective within a defined temperature range. The pink foam headrests you will usually see work best in the range 15°C-30°C. Above 30°C there’s a blue foam headrest, and below 15°C there’s the rarely seen light blue foam headrest (though we needed these on Friday morning in Imola this year). Swapping these out takes a matter of seconds – and Race Control always post a note before a session on the messaging system, to tell teams which one to use.
Beyond these things, there’s a couple of there’s a couple of other clauses that may cause a team to work on the car during parc fermé. The most all-encompassing is covered in clause r) which requires a team to do any work that the FIA technical delegate requests they do. There’s many things that could be, ranging from minor compliance housekeeping (perhaps a logo the FIA has taken umbrage with) to significant safety revisions.
Parking Up In Parc Fermé© Getty Images
In comparison to the pre-race Parc Fermé regulations, the post-race equivalent is relatively straightforward. After the chequered flag, the cars that finish the race (or, at least, complete 90 per cent of it and thus are classified) must go directly to parc fermé. Once in parc fermé the cars are again under the control of the technical department and the scrutineers who will carry out their post-race checks. The team will again have mechanics on hand to minister the cars and, depending on what random checks the scrutineers request, may call for garage equipment required to carry out those checks.
While for many people the race ends with the chequered flag: properly, it isn’t over until the stewards release the final classification, typically a couple of hours after the flag – longer if there’s a particularly thorny decision, or other controversial element requiring analysis and discussion – but not until the scrutineers have examined all of the cars in parc fermé and released them back to their owners.
A new wrinkle for 2021, however, is a deeper inspection of one car at random, which may stay under parc fermé conditions until much later in the evening – which isn’t ideal for a crew keen to pack up and head home.
