FIA confirms F1 grid formation rule tweak for engine penalties

The FIA has tweaked the Formula 1 sporting regulations ahead of the 2019 season in order to encourage drivers with engine penalties to take part in more of qualifying.

A new rule for the 2018 season saw drivers receiving more than 15 places worth of grid penalties be sent to the back of the grid in order to prevent sizeable grid drops being racked up.

However, when more than one driver was sent to 'the back of the grid', their positions would be formed by the order in which the cars first headed out at the start of FP1.

This resulted in many drivers sitting at the end of the pit lane before the end of FP1, and also meant that many would only take minimal part in qualifying as their grid position had already been defined.

For 2019, this will no longer be the case after the FIA issued the updated set of sporting regulations earlier this week, detailing that penalised drivers sent to the back of the grid will now line up in the order they qualified.

This will encourage drivers to take more of a part in qualifying when there are multiple power unit penalties issued at events.