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Standing restarts among 2015 rule changes

ESPN Staff
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Formula One will implement standing restarts after safety car periods from next season after the FIA ratified a number of rule changes for the 2015 season.

It comes after the World Motor Sport Council gave the final sign-off to proposals at a Munich meeting this Thursday. The new rules state standing starts will take place at all times unless a safety car is deployed in the opening two laps or within five laps of the finish.

There will also be a reduction in the number of engines allowed to each driver across the season, down from five to four unless the calendar expands beyond 20 races, and a general cut down on testing. Next winter pre-season will return exclusively to Europe after holding two tests in Bahrain at the start of 2014. By 2016 pre-season will consist of two four-day tests rather than three. Meanwhile in-season testing will be cut from four tests to two from 2015, but with teams required to reserve half of the allotted running time for young drivers

There will also be a ban on the controversial nose designs of 2014 cars by rewriting technical regulations, as well as the introduction of titanium skid planks which create sparks, which were trialled by Nico Rosberg and Kimi Raikkonen during the Austrian GP. As part of the ongoing cost-cutting effort in F1 there will also be a restriction in the teams' use of windtunnels.

Parc ferme rules will now be imposed from the start of FP3 rather than the start of qualifying, while Friday night curfew has been increased from six to seven hours and will rise to a further eight by 2016. The ban on tyre blankets is one of the proposals to have been dropped, though the FIA says the issue may be "re-discussed if and when the wheel and tyre diameter increases in the future."

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