Alternate Formula One Current Era rules
All rules are determined by the administration only. Suggestions for changes are very appreciated, the final decision however lies with the administration.
Entries
Any user of the GP Rejects board and/or F1 Rejects chatroom may run one team in Alternate Formula One - Current Era; any user running a team in Alternate Formula One agrees to fulfill deadlines given by the administration unless external circumstances prevent this or the administration is informed beforehand that the user is not able to fulfull said deadline. The grid size is limited to at most 13 two-car teams to at least 9 two-car teams. Any team has at all times a budget, i.e. a precise quantity of funds to use for various purposes. Budgets at all times are either €0 or seven- to nine-digit positive or negative figures. Any values added or substracted to the budget that are not a complete million are rounded up to the next full million.
Any user not in charge of one of the active teams may join the waiting list and will be given new teams in order of joining the waiting list whenever a user is excluded (either voluntarily or involuntarily) from the series if the administration decides to hand out a new entry. Should less than 9 users be running a team and should there be no users on the waiting list, the administration may ask teams chosen at its discretion to run 4 cars. Those teams will be provided with a sufficient budget to run the additional cars.
Teams are excluded from the series when they are considered bankrupt, i.e. do not have sufficient funding to pay the average price for the weakest engine, the cheapest available chassis options and the NNW of two drivers, even when accounting for sponsorship. Users may also be excluded as needed by administration if they fail to meet deadlines, are permanently banned from the #F1Rejects chatroom or show other behaviour making them unsuitable to keep their team. Users may also voluntarily exclude themselves from the game. Excluded users may join the waiting list unless the administration can provide proof that doing so would be against the best interest of GP Rejects and its users.
When a new user enters the game, he may, at the start of a new season, choose to continue using the identity of the team of the user that has left to free up his space. Should he do so, his team will be, in addition to the budget for new teams, be paid €10,000,000. The budget of the new teams is determined through calculating the average of all budgets of the teams that have not been declared bankrupt by the administration and rounding that sum down to the next full million.
Any new team must give the administration a name, a nationality and a backstory to explain its entry into Alternate Formula One. Should the administration consider any part unsufficient, it may deny the entry. If an entry is denied, the user may choose a different name, nationality and backstory until an acceptable entry is achieved. Existing entries may only change their name and nationality with approval from the administration.
Any team may once choose a pair of consecutive racing numbers from 3-120, with the exception of numbers 4, 13, 17 and 69. These racing numbers will be used for every racing weekend the team enters. Any team must give the administration an in-character reason for using their numbers and may only change their racing numbers with the approval of the administration. In case a team is asked to run four cars, the additional two cars will be given the same numbers as the original two with a 2(0) in front of it (e.g. a team running 9 and 10 would also run cars 209 and 210) The team that has the reigning World Drivers Champion under contract for the first Grand Prix weekend of the season will compete during any Alternate Formula One race of the following season with the racing numbers 1 and 2. If the reigning World Drivers Champion has left the sport, the reigning World Constructors Champions will compete with numbers 0 and 2.
Sponsorship
Each team will be offered a main sponsorship contract by two sponsors at the start of the season, which will pay certain amounts of money, depending on which driver the team hires. The two sponsors are assigned a Primary Target Region and a Secondary Target Region randomly through a method considered appropriate by the administration. The actual companies behind those sponsors are determined in accordance with the business reality of those sponsors and the necessities of the game and are chosen by the administration as it sees fit. Any team may retain the chosen sponsor two times. There are three possible driver choices.
Primary Target Region - The main focus of the sponsor's advertisement interests. Hiring a driver from this region will pay out €50,000,000 for teams finishing in P10 to P13 in last year's WCC, €35,000,000 for teams finishing in P5 to P9 in last year's WCC and €15,000,000 for teams finishing in P1 to P4 in last year's WCC.
Secondary Target Region - The secondary focus of the sponsor's advertisement interests. Hiring a driver from this region will pay out €35,000,000 for teams finishing in P10 to P13 in last year's WCC, €25,000,000 for teams finishing in P5 to P9 in last year's WCC and €5,000,000 for teams finishing in P1 to P4 in last year's WCC.
No Paydriver - The sponsor will support you without asking for anything but a spot on your car and in your team name. Not hiring a driver from either region will pay out €15,000,000 for teams finishing in P10 to P13 in last year's WCC, €5,000,000 for teams finishing in P5 to P9 in last year's WCC and €2,000,000 for teams finishing in P1 to P4 in last year's WCC.
Any Target Region driver must compete in all Grand Prix weekends of the respective Alternate Formula One season, unless injury or bans prevent a driver under contract to appear in a race. A driver from a Target Region condition can be released, as long as he is replaced with a driver that is from the same region. Should a team fail to replace the driver with a fitting one, they must return an amount of money equal to the difference between the money paid out for the specific condition and the money they would have recieved for fulfilling no condition.
A Target Region driver is hired when a driver has the nationality of any nation within the determined Target Region out of a 13 possible regions. In case of the administration making a factual error regarding overseas territories or similar topics or the map proving unclear, the administration will decide in which region a specific driver belongs. Same also applies to dual nationalites and other fringe cases.
Switching conditions (outside of the abovementioned "move" from a condition to no condition) and/or switching sponsors during the season is not permitted.
Cars
Every team must build a new car at the start of a new season. A car consists of two elements: the engine and the chassis.
During any time during the game, five engine manufacturers are available. Four of these are represented through so-called "works teams". Should any work team change hands and should the first user on the waiting list choose to not retain the identity of the works team, the administration may choose a new manufacturer and respective works team at their own disgression.
These are the current works teams in Alternate Formula One:
Ferrari - Ferrari (biscione)
Holden - Holden (the Masked Lapwing)
Judd - Caterham (kevinbotz)
Mercedes-Benz - Precision (Wizzie)
The four works teams are split into two manufacturers providing an I4 Turbo engine and two manufacturers providing a V10 NA engine. Every even season, the performance of all engines are randomly determined through a method considered appropriate by the administration.
Each of these four works teams is responsible for agreeing on engine contracts with the so-called "customer teams". Each engine is assigned an "Average Price". The sum of the money earned through engine contracts and the investments of the works team is, at the conclusion of the car market, compared to the result of the equation Average Price * Customers. For every million a works team takes in over that value, the engine recieves a reliability bonus of -100 CFP (capped at -800 CFP). For every million below that value, the engine gets a reliability penalty of +100 CFP (capped at +4000 CFP). This bonus/penalty applies to all customer teams and the works teams, not only those that pay too much/too little. Works teams and customer teams may also agree on clauses the customer or the works team must fulfill.
There is no upper limit to the length of an engine contract, but engine contracts can only be agreed on in full seasons. Each manufacturers is, in addition to supplying the works team, limited to three customer teams. Works teams must invest at least 70 percent of the price paid by the highest-paying customer team. Modifying an engine contract during the season is forbidden, except adding additional clauses if both the customer and the works team agree to do so. Engine deals with bankrupt teams become void, unless the new user has decided to continue a team taken over mid-season as it is.
Customer teams may also, from 2020 onwards, choose to purchase the fifth available engine, a hydrogen engine. The price for those engines is fixed. Up to three customer teams may use the fifth engine. Should more than three teams apply to use the fifth engine, priority is given to the higher-placed teams in last season's World Constructors Championship. The administration agrees to determine the teams permitted to use the fifth engine as quickly as possible.
Should a customer team fail to come to an agreement with any of the four works teams and not be eligible to use the fifth engine, the adminstration will look at all potential offers made to said team. Should it find any of those reasonable in relation to the prices other customer teams pay, it will order the customer team in question to accept the offer. Should it find none reasonable, the weakest still available engine manufacturer's works team will be requested to sell to said team at average price. The administration reserves the right to exclude users as needed if neither method results in an agreement.
Every team must build a chassis at the start of the year. Building a completely new chassis during the season is not permitted. The grip value of the chassis is determined by three seperate factors: the Lead Designer, the Design Concept and the Personnel. Lead designers can be hired at the start of a season. Any unemployed lead designer can be signed by a team with the team chosen by the designer decided by a RNG weighted on contract length and previous WCC position. Lead designers can only be signed for up to 8 years and cannot be sacked during an active contract. Every even season, the performance of all lead designers are randomly modified through a method considered appropriate by the administration. Depending on the Design Concept chosen, each team is assigned a number of Upgrade Tokens.
At the start of the year, each team hands in an upgrade plan to the administration, stating if, when and how they want to use their tokens. Tokens may be used from the start of the third Grand Prix weekend until the end of the third-to-last Grand Prix weekend. During this period, there is, outside of the total number of tokens, no restrictions on their use. Any token unused will be converted into a €15,000,000 bonus for the team, paid out at the end of the season. Should a team use tokens in a manner that improves their car performance to the point where it exceeds the performance levels possible with the game mechanics, the token that would put the team over that limit will remain unused and converted into abovementioned bonus.
Drivers
Each team must employ at least two racing drivers and may employ one "third driver"; both real-life drivers and fictional drivers are permitted.
Any real-life driver that is to compete in Alternate Formula One must have taken part in at least 30 real-life car races above the karting level and furthermore have successfully completed one of the following achievements:
Finish amongst the first three in the Drivers Championship of any international series above the karting level in the last five years
Finish amongst the first fifteen of the drivers championship of the FIA Formula 2 World Championship or the FIA Formula E Championship in the last year
Finish amongst the first five in the Drivers Championship of the FIA Formula 3 Eurasian Championship or FIA Prototype Challenge in the last year
Finish first in the Drivers Championship of any national series above the karting level at least once in the last five years
Finished first in at least one Alternate Formula One race in the last ten years
Finish first in the Indianapolis 500, in qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 or any class of the 24 Hours of Le Mans at least once in the last five years
Finish first total in any other 24 Hour race in the last year
Have achieved a total of pole positions and race wins in any international series above the karting level that adds up to 18 in the last three years
Has entered at least five Alternate Formula One races in the last two years
Has worked the last three seasons as Simulator or the last season as Friday Tester for one Alternate Formula One team
Any fictional driver that is to compete in Alternate Formula One must have taken part in at least 20 canon car races above the karting level and furthermore have successfully completed one of the following achievements:
Finish amongst the first three in the Drivers Championship of any canon series above the karting level at least once in the last two years
Finish amongst the first fifteen of the Drivers Championship of the FIA Formula 2 World Championship or FIA Formula E Championship in the last year
Finish amongst the first five in the Drivers Championship of the FIA Formula 3 Eurasian Championship or FIA Prototype Challenge in the last year
Finish amongst the first ten in the Drivers Championship of the AutoReject World Series at least once in the last four years
Finished first in at least one Alternate Formula One race in the last ten years
Finish first in the Indianapolis 500 or any class of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the last four years
Finish first total in any other 24 Hour race in the last year
Has achieved a total of pole positions and race wins in any canon series above the karting level that adds up to 8 in the last year
Has entered at least five Alternate Formula One races in the last two years
Has worked the last two seasons as Simulator or as Friday Tester for one Alternate Formula One team
The definition of national and international follow the usual FIA standards. In series with multi-class racing, class pole positions, class wins and class titles qualify in fulfilling these conditions unless mentioned otherwise above. In series with multiple "heats" per weekend, each heat is treated as a seperate race.
Drivers can be signed at the start of the year as well as at any point during the season, except during a Grand Prix weekend. However, no driver can be hired whilst the position he is to be hired for is still occupied by another driver. Furthermore, each team is limited to 5 drivers unless force majeure forces a team to hire more drivers. Due to the method of execution, a third driver serving as Friday Tester cannot be hired after the seventh Grand Prix weekend of any Alternate Formula One season. There is no limit to the amounts of offers a team can make to free agents except the mental and time limits of the administration.
During the Driver Market at the start of the year, each team may offer contracts to any number of drivers for each of the three driver spots available to each team. These contracts must specify the role of the driver, the driver's wage, the contract duration and state additional clauses. Each driver, regardless of contract length, role or other factors is entitled to a non-negotiable wage (NNW). The NNW is based of average position of all finished races of the last two seasons (at least 10 races, drivers below that are treated as rookies).
1.0-5.0: €5m
5.0-10.0: €3m
10.0+/Rookies: €1m
Any driver that ever achieved a top 4 championship finish in Alternate Formula One, the AR World Series, the IndyCar Series, Formula E or the FIA Prototype Challenge gets €2m added to their NNW.
Beyond the NNW, any driver may earn an additional negotiable wage (NW). Contract duration must be stated in a number of races. If the contract goes longer than a year, the agreed wage must be paid again at the start of each season the driver is under contract. Clauses specify additional conditions and privilieges of the contract sides not covered in other parts of the contract. Teams may only offer a financial bonus to a driver for WDC and/or WCC position. Furthermore, if the administration considers a clause unclear or otherwise difficult to execute, it can order the respective user to use a predetermined, driver-friendly wording. This order may also be retroactively applied to existing contracts.
For real-life drivers, a RNG will determine whether he signs the contract. The RNG values will be determined by the administration. Any RNG result is final, unless there is reasonable doubt about the quality of the RNG values. For fictional drivers, the respective DEC holder determines whether a contract offer is accepted.
A driver can have one of two roles: racing driver or third driver. The two racing drivers are the drivers that actively compete during the Grand Prix weekend. The third driver has one out of three specific, predetermined jobs. A third driver may either be a Driver Coach, Friday Tester or Simulator Driver. The job of the third driver must be determined at the start of the contract and may only be changed once the contract has concluded or has been terminated.
These are the possible jobs of third drivers and the requirements to serve in that job:
Driver Coach - improves the performance of any driver under the age of 25 (requirement: third driver must be 30 years or older at the start of the calendar year he is under contract).
Friday Tester - improves the grip of your chassis with a random grip bonus from 100-350, added 10 Grand Prix weekends after signing the third driver to a permanent contract, in exchange for a drop in performance for the racing drivers during the 10 Grand Prix weekends (requirement: driver must have taken part in at least 25 Alternate Formula One Grands Prix in the last 5 years or been a Friday Tester at any point during the last 2 years).
Simulator Tester - improves the performance of the driver when used as racing driver in the following seasons (requirement: third driver must be 25 years or younger at the start of the calendar year he is under contract; requirements for F1 drivers mentioned above do not apply).
If a team releases a driver before his contract is over, he is entitled to compensation unless a clause justifies his release or states there is no compensation to be paid. The compensation is calculated according to this formula: NNW for the season of sacking * 1.5. If a team temporarily replaces a driver before his contract is over, he is entitled to the same compensation, unless a clause justifies his replacement. However, to return a driver to his role, no additional wage must be paid. During an unjustified temporary replacement, any other team may sign the driver to a contract if the original team is given €2,000,000 as compensation.
Regardless of any clauses, any real-life driver can be sacked without paying compensation if the driver has scored less than 20 % of the points of his teammate after 7 Grand Prix weekends after the start of his contract if said teammate has scored at least 55 points. Any fictional driver can be sacked without paying compensation if the DEC owner has made in-character comments that can be interpreted as a desire to leave the team or excessive criticism of the team as defined by the administration. Driver contracts of bankrupt teams with real-life drivers can be terminated by the new user if he decides to keep the identity of the bankrupt team, driver contracts of bankrupt teams with fictional drivers can be terminated by both sides if the fictional driver is offered a contract by another team. If the user chooses to enter a new team, any existing contracts are void.
Any rules regarding temporary replacement do not apply when the driver is unavailable to compete due to injury, bans or force majeure. Any replacement driver signed to replace a driver that is unavailable to compete due to injury, bans or acts of god do not need to be paid any wage, insurance covering those costs. Should a mid-weekend replacement be required, any team may either use their third driver if he was predetermined to be either a Driver Coach or a Friday Tester or acquire the services of a third driver in either of those jobs from another team. Should no replacement be determined in time, the car of the driver to be replaced will not compete in the second Grand Prix of the weekend. Any driver that is to compete in Alternate Formula One and is below 21 years old at the start of the calendar year he is to compete in will be subject to a 10%-chance injury RNG to account for the massive physical strain at the conclusion of each Grand Prix weekend.
Active Alternate Formula One drivers can freely participate in other series as well. It is the responsibilty of the involved users to avoid schedule conflicts. Any time paradoxes resulting as a consequence of double-dutying will be punished by having said driver banned from Alternate Formula One for 5 years and any other DECs (in case of fictional drivers) by said user being banned for the rest of the currently running season. In case of a real-life driver having an unresolved schedule conflict, the team-owning user in question will be excluded from the game, regardless of whether he owns the team in the other series causing the paradox unless the series owner of that series has caused the paradox by allowing the driver in question to sign in the series despite having known about the driver's Alternate Formula One commitment, running the real-life driver in a race he was not supposed to and refusing to rerun the race or modifying their schedule to deal with the time paradox.
FIA and FOM offer financial support for teams signing certain drivers: signing last year's F2 World Champion or Formula E World Champion earns a team an €8,000,000 bonus, signing the second-placed driver of the F2 World Championship a team a €6,000,000 bonus, signing the third-placed driver of the F2 World Championship a team a €4,000,000 bonus. Signing last year's F3 Eurasian Champion or Africa Racing League champion earns a team a €3,000,000 bonus. Signing last year's FIA Protoype Challenge champion earns a team a €2,000,000 bonus. All bonuses are only paid out when the driver in question is signed to a contract for at least 30 races and must be refunded if the driver is unjustifiedly sacked.
Season
Alternate Formula One is currently run using Grand Prix 2. Changing the PC game used to run Alternate Formula One must be announced by the administration two seasons before the change takes place. Each Alternate Formula One season consists of 19 Grand Prix weekends with two races (= 38 Grands Prix a year) running over the nearest lap above 160 km (≈ 100 miles). Of those 19 Grand Prix weekends, 8 are to be held in Europe. The definition of Europe as far as this rule is concerned is determined by the administration.
Before the start of a Alternate Formula One season, the following business stages are to be done in this order:
Sponsorship Choice
Lead Designer Market
Car Market
Driver Market
Upgrade Plans
At the conclusion of the driver market, sponsor income is added to the balance of all teams. After that step is completed, all budgets of the teams must be either at or above €0. During the season, teams may only be in the minus as consequence of executing an upgrade plan. Drivers of teams that are in the minus during the season suffer a loss of performance. Prize money will be applied to the budget of all teams both for individual race results as well as position in the World Constructors Championship. The key for the prize money for the latter will be determined at the end of each season to account for budget developments due to rule changes, general sportive developments or other factors. The key for race prinze money is based on the position of the better-placed car of the team and is as follows:
Winner: €4,000,000
P2-P10: €3,000,000
P11-P15: €2,000,000
P16-P26: €1,000,000
DNF: €0
Pole Position: €1,000,000
A Grand Prix weekend consists of two two-hour free practices on Friday (beginning at 10:00 and 15:00 local time), a three-stage knockout qualifying on Saturday (10:00 local time), the first Grand Prix on Saturday (15:00 local time) and another three-stage knockout qualifying and Grand Prix on Sunday (same times as Saturday). Starting hours can be modified for commercial reasons on certain tracks. Each Grand Prix has a 120-minute time limit. During either race, all cars must complete two pitstops (defined as changing all four tyres in the pitlane) between the end of the first and the end of the second-to-last lap. Any car failing to do so will be excluded from the race results.
After the race, the steward's panel will apply penalties for infringements commited during the race. These penalties can be applied as either fines for the team of the offender (which may be paid directly to the team damaged), warnings, time penalties for this and/or the next race, exclusions from the race result, grid penaltes for the next race or bans for any number of races up to 10, depending on the severity of the infringement. Regardless of the severity of the infringement, any driver collecting a number warnings, bans, time penalties and/or grid penalties that add up to 10 in one season will be banned from Alternate Formula One for the next 18 calendar months from the end of the weekend in which the final infringement was undertaken.
In addition to any grid penalties applied for sportive infringements, a five-place grid penalty will be applied to any car which uses more than four engines and gearboxes in a season, i.e. suffers four engine-destroying retirements or four transmission failures. Unlike penalties for sportive infringements, these are transfered even when the driver in the car changes. During qualifying, success ballast is added to the top 5 cars that finished the previous race on the road (ignoring post-race penalties). This success ballast accumulates for 3 Grand Prix weekends before being reset. Success ballast is also being reset if the driver in a car changes. No success ballast or grid penalties are applied during the final Grand Prix weekend of the season.
Championship points are handed out to the first 10 finishers after penalties and exclusions have been applied. The points system is 15-12-10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1. The driver with the most points after all races have been completed is the Alternate Formula One World Drivers Champion of that season. In case of a tie, the number of wins decide. If the number of wins is equal, the amount of second places decides and so on. Should all positions be equally shared between the tying parties, the number of pole positions decide. Should those be equal as well, the position is decided by a coin toss. The team with the most points after all races have been completed are the Alternate Formula One World Constructors Champions of that season. All drivers entered by a team can score points for the team in the World Constructors Championship. In case of a tie, the same principle as in the World Drivers Championship is applied for the tiebreaker with one exception: in case the number of pole positions does not break the tie, the higher-placed team in the World Constructors Championship of the previous year gets the position.
After each the fifth and the fourteenth Grand Prix weekend of the year, a mid-season test occurs. During that test, teams can use track time to work on one of four tasks each day, each session costing €5,000,000 with up to three sessions available:
Short Runs - improves qualifying pace. For every day invested into car development, the maximum qualifying grip of a car will be raised by 0-50 points.
Long Runs - improves race pace. For every day invested into long runs, the maximum race grip of a car will be raised by 0-50 points.
Driver Performance - allows your drivers to improve. For every day invested into driver performance, the driver chosen will improve his performance by a small bit for the rest of the season.
Talent Evaluation - enables your team to assess a driver. This focus must be chosen when you use a driver not currently employed by your team.
Only with the Talent Evaluation focus can drivers that are currently not under contract be used by your team. Every team must take part in at least one session during any mid-season test.
For any gameplay element the administration reserves the right to invent an in-character reasoning should it be considered elemental to sustain the willing suspension of disbelief.