Formula One - Laws in a Lawless Sport

Formula One has a reputation for being, as the title of this article suggests, something of a lawless sport. This is mainly due to the fact that F1 cars are not required to meet the road requirements of any country - for those like me who know nothing about road requirements, that means F1 cars don't need to have rear view mirrors, indicator lights, a certain level of clearance from the ground, airbags, horns or sound mufflers, leading to streamlined designs that favor aerodynamics and high acceleration over any of these mod-cons, as shown below.

Used under noncommercial reuse policy

However, despite not having to follow national laws on road safety, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile imposes strict rules of their own on nearly every aspect of a car's workings, from its brakes to its aerodynamic design. For instance, did you know that every F1 car is currently required to be less than two meters wide, and 95 centimeters tall? And anyone having ideas of putting more than four wheels on their car would find a very explicit road-block waiting for them in the FIA's regulations. Don't worry about the lack of airbags either, regulation testing includes a 48 km/h crash into a steel wall to make sure nothing past the nose of the car buckles from the impact.

I could go into a lot more detail, and the FIA already has, revamping their rules every year to account for edge-cases exposed in the past year's racing and to ensure races stay competitive and close. Adding too much detail into this post is practically asking for the FIA to change the numbers out from underneath me, especially since they've announced a total overhaul to the design specifications to arrive in the 2021 season. Suffice it to say that they're strict, well-tested and changing with the times.

So what? Does having rules make Formula One any less exhilarating? Obviously not! While the rules are there primarily to keep drivers and spectators safe, drivers and designers are in a constant bid to push their cars to the limit in every race, scraping closer to the theoretical perfect machine inch by inch. All this means is that next time you watch a high-octane race, you don't have to wonder why everyone's cars end up looking so alike.