Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era Rules

This page is potentially meta. This page governs or refers to an aspect of canon, without being in-universe itself.

Game, Entries and Narrative

Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era is a management-role-playing game on the GP Rejects forums (or any forum considered a successor or an alternative by the administration). Unofficially, Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era may also be referred to as Alternate Formula One - Current Era. Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era for the seasons 2010 to 2019 is to be referred to as Alternate Formula One - Two-Race Era and controlled by the administration.

The administration is defined as the GP Rejects forum (or any forum considered a successor or an alternative by the administration) user(s) running Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era. Running the game is defined as handling the administrative duties (controlling budgets, ensuring appliance with the rules, determining performance etc.) of Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era as well as simulating all Grand Prix weekends. The administration may only be assigned to a new user if the current administration is either permanently and irrevocably banned from the GP Rejects forums (or any forum considered a successor or an alternative by the administration), voluntarily surrenders the role of administrator, is agreed to be egregiously incompetent by all users running a team in Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era or dies in real-life. The decision on the new users is to be made by the users of the GP Rejects Discord in a matter agreed between the users.

Any change by the administration to these rules during the season must be announced unsolicited with a post on the GP Rejects forums (or any forum considered a successor or an alternative by the administration) with at least 4 Grand Prix weekends notice, unless force majeure prevents this. This announcement is not required if the wording of the rule is changed to help clarify the rule's intent or correct grammatical errors. Any rule change during the season becomes invalid if 5 or more users running a team object to the rule changes. Users running a team can request rule changes during the season once per season. The suggest rule change becomes valid if all users running a team agree to it. During the period between the final motor development phase of the previous season and the beginning of the driver market of the upcoming season, the administration can freely change rules as it sees fits. It is the responsibility of the users running a team to educate themselves on any rule changes.

Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era is simulated using Grand Prix 2. Changing the simulation method used to run Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era Grand Prix weekends must be announced by the administration 6 Grand Prix weekends before the change takes place; changing the simulation method used to run Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era Grand Prix weekends during the season is prohibited. The administration may entrust other users with simulating the Grand Prix weekends within the game, unless 5 or more users running a team object to the user chosen to simulate the races. If the responsibility of simulating the Grand Prix weekends is to be given to a third party by the administration, this must be announced by the administration 6 Grand Prix weekends before the change takes place.

The narrative period of Alternate Formula One - Current Era includes all Alternate Formula One history from 1970 onwards. "Retcons" (changes to previously simulated or role-played events) can be undertaken by the administration whenever deemed necessary, though the administration has to inform any involved users/teams of the decision and explain their reasoning unsolicited. Should no game displaying Alternate Formula One history until 1970 exist, the administration can extend the narrative period to include all of Alternate Formula One history from 1945 onwards until a new game is established.

For any gameplay element the administration has the exclusive right to invent an in-character reasoning should it be considered elemental to sustain the willing suspension of disbelief.

Any user of the GP Rejects forums (or any forum considered a successor or an alternative by the administration) and/or Grand Prix Rejects Discord may run one team in Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era. Any user running a team must have a Discord account for private messaging or must supply the administration with an option to contact them immediately should it prove necessary. A team is defined as the representation of the user in the game world, given a name, nationality and a backstory providing an in-character explanation of the source of its budget by the user at the time of entry. Should the administration consider any supplied name and/or backstory insufficient, it may deny the entry. If an entry is denied, the user may choose a different name and backstory until an acceptable entry is achieved. A team's name can be changed after the conclusion of an Alternate Formula One season if the name change is announced before the 3rd-to-last Grand Prix weekend of the season.

All teams have, at all times, a budget, representing their financial capabilities. The budgets, as well as all other financial matters in Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era, are measured in Euro. Any transfer of money from or towards teams may only be undertaken in increments of 0.5 million Euro. Teams can freely transfer their budget to other teams, but must justify their reasoning to the administration unsolicited. If the administration considers the reasoning insufficient, it can cancel the transfer as it sees fit. Any transfer between teams must be verified by both parties to the administration before it becomes valid.

The number of teams available for any season will be decided on by the administration before the 10th-to-last race of the previous season. At no point, Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era may have less than 9 teams or more than either 16 teams or the highest number of teams that can be supported by the simulation method, whichever number is lower. A user running a team in Alternate Formula One agrees to fulfill deadlines for all actions necessary in the game announced by the administration unless external circumstances prevent this or the administration is informed beforehand that the user is not able to fulfill said deadline. If a user fails to meet any announced deadline, the administration may either freely make the actions necessary instead of the user or exclude the user from the game.

Any user not running a team may join a waiting list and will be given new teams in order of joining the waiting list whenever a user running a team is excluded from the game. The administration can decide to not give a works team or a replacement for said works team to any user on the waiting list who has been excluded from the game at any point during the last 3 seasons. Should there be less users running a team and/or on the waiting list than there are teams available, the administration must first reduce the number of teams available. Should that lead to less than 9 teams on the grid or remove a works team, the administration is entitled to run as many team themselves for one season as is necessary. Users on the waiting list can be requested to reaffirm their interest in being on the Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era waiting list at any point if at least 12 real-life weeks have passed between the simulation of two Grand Prix weekends or the administration changes hands. The administration is entitled to re-order the waiting list in accordance to the order in which the requested reaffirmations are undertaken.

Users are excluded from the series:

• if their teams are considered bankrupt, i.e. do not have sufficient funding to pay an motor contract worth €30,000,000, their active lead designer contract or the cheapest available lead designer if no contract exists, the cheapest available chassis options and two drivers with a combined wage of €5,000,000, even when accounting for sponsorship
• if they fail to meet deadlines
• if they are irrevocably banned from the Grand Prix Rejects Discord, the Discord service as a whole or demonstrate other behaviour making them unsuitable to keep their team
• if they request to be excluded from the game

If a user is excluded mid-season, the first member of the waiting list is installed as the caretaking user. He inherits all contracts and chassis of the current team. At the end of the season, they go through the same process as described above. If there are no users on the waiting list or the sole member of the waiting list either refuses entry into Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era or is not seen as suitable for running a works team, the administration will be installed as the caretaking user until a capable user joins the waiting list. If the administration is installed as caretaking user during the season, it is not entitled to release drivers or spend money beyond hiring drivers if necessary.

Excluded users may join the waiting list unless the administration can provide evidence that doing so would be against the best interest of the GP Rejects forums (or any website considered a successor or an alternative by the administration). Any user that has voluntarily been excluded from the game on 2 separate occasion is only entitled to rejoin the waiting list with explicit permission from the administration. Should 5 or more users running a team object to the decision by the administration on whether to permit or forbid rejoining the waiting list, the decision is reversed.

Any user running a team can decide to take control of the team and drop control of his current team, which will be treated as though the old user running the game was excluded from the game. Should multiple users running a team want to take control of such a team, priority is given to the user whose team is ranked lower in the World Constructors Championship at the time the previously controlling user is excluded. A new user entering the game is awarded a new team. Any new team must give the administration a name, a nationality and a backstory to explain its entry into Alternate Formula One. Should a user decline to enter Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era when an entry becomes available, he is entitled to return to the top of the waiting list. Should a user decline to enter Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era two times, he is automatically placed at the bottom of the waiting list should he choose to return to the waiting list.

The budget of the new teams is determined through calculating the average of all budgets of the teams that are not considered bankrupt by the administration (excluding the three richest team remaining) and rounding up to the next full ten million.

When a new user enters the game, he may, at the start of his first season, choose to continue using the identity of the team of the user that has been excluded to free up his entry. Should he do so, his team will be, in addition to the budget for new teams, be given a bonus €10,000,000. Furthermore, the team is entitled to all benefits that follow from last year's World Constructors Championship results of the identity, except for the prize money. Should World Constructors Championship prize money be higher than the budget for a new team without the bonus, the user is instead given the prize money instead of the budget. The administration is free to deny the option to continue the identity of the team should it be considered necessary. In case the team of the user that has been excluded from the game is a works team a,the new user taking entering the game is treated as if he has made this decision.

For the purposes of Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era, valid nationalities are any member or observer state of the United Nations, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (until 2047), the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, the Murrawarri Republic and the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic as well as any fictional state previously established in the series sharing a fictional universe with Alternate Formula One. Teams can freely change their nationality after the conclusion of an Alternate Formula One season.

§3 Sponsorship

1) Every team that is not a works team will be offered a main sponsorship contract by two sponsors at the start of the season, which will pay out €50,000,000 for teams finishing in P10 to P13 in last year's World Constructors Championship, €35,000,000 for teams finishing in P5 to P9 in last year's World Constructors Championship and €15,000,000 for teams finishing in P1 to P4 in last year's World Constructors Championship for hiring a driver from one out of eight possible Target Regions assigned randomly to each sponsor by the administration as it sees fit. Should the team not sign a driver from the Target Region, the sponsor will pay out €15,000,000 for teams finishing in P10 to P13 in last year's World Constructors Championship, €5,000,000 for teams finishing in P5 to P9 in last year's World Constructors Championship and €2,000,000 for teams finishing in P1 to P4 in last year's World Constructors Championship.

1.a) The actual companies behind those sponsors are chosen by the administration as it sees fit.

1.b) Any team may retain the chosen sponsor four times. This goes effect only goes back to 2019, so any sponsor retained in 2020 will be considered retained for the first time. Any team retaining its identity as defined in §2.4.c will have start the count anew.

1.c) New teams are treated like they finished P5 to P9 in last year's World Constructors Championship to determine the amount paid out as defined in §3.1.

2) 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 Grand Prix weekend. 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.

2.a) Should a team fail to sign a new Target Region driver after releasing or temporarily replacing their previous Target Region driver, they must return an amount of money equal to the difference between the money paid out for the Target Region driver and the money they would have received for not signing a Target Region driver. This repayment is independent on how many Grand Prix weekends have passed since the signing of the contract.

3) A Target Region driver is hired when a driver has the nationality of any nation within the specific Target Region.

3.a) 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 as it sees fit. This also applies to dual nationalities and other fringe cases.

3.b) Cnce during his career in Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era any fictional driver may change his nationality if a sufficient in-character reasoning is provided. This change can only be made once, may never be reversed and must be made after the end of the season before the change is to take place and before the end of the driver market of the season the change is to take place.

4) Switching sponsors during the season is prohibited.

5) Before the third-to-last Grand Prix weekend of a season, the rankings in the World Constructors Championship and the budget rankings of the teams are combined into one ranking. The two lowest teams on that ranking are entitled to hire a driver from the country hosting the final Grand Prix weekend of the season to temporarily replace one of their drivers. This driver may replace a Target Region driver without loss of the money paid out for the Target Region driver as defined in §3.2.a.

§4 Cars

1) Every team must build a new car at the start of a new season. A car consists of two elements: the chassis and the motor.

1.a) A team must provide an in-character designation for the chassis. The user running the team can entrust the administration with the task.

1.b) Any user may imply in-character that the chassis built by his team is reused from the previous seasons or purchased from another team, unless the administration decides that rule changes in or out of character would make such a decision break the willing suspension of disbelief. This does not free that team from the obligation to build a new car as defined in §4.1.

2) At least two and at most seven motor manufacturers are always available to sign engine contracts with. They are represented through so-called "works teams".

2.a) A works team is a team run by a user who has chosen to also manage the motor supply for other teams..

2.b) Before the start of the development system defined in §4.2.e, any team can apply to the administration to either become a works team or stop being a works team, depending on its current status. The administration is entitled to decide whether the application is accepted or not as it sees fit. If the application is accepted, another application may not be handed in for six seasons after the approved application.

2.c) The works teams provide a hydrogen fuel cell electric motor.

2.d) Every season, the performance of all engines are determined through a development system which begins with the tenth-to-last Grand Prix weekend of the season.

3) Each works team is responsible for agreeing on engine contracts with the so-called "customer teams".

3.a) There is no upper limit to the length of an engine contract, but engine contracts can only be agreed on in full seasons.

3.b) Works teams have an infinite engine contract with themselves for an engine price of €0.

3.c) Engine contracts may contain clauses that specify additional conditions and privileges.

3.d) Any financial clauses will exclusively be accounted for at the start of the season following the point the clause is fulfilled, regardless of whether the contract is still active at that time.

3.e) If the administration considers a clause unclear, the administration will read the clause in the most advantageous way for the works team.

3.d) 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.

3.f) If a user is excluded from Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era, engine deals of the user's team are voided before the start of the Lead Designer Market of the following season, unless new user decides to keep the identity of the team of the user excluded as defined in §2.5.c., in which case the works team may unilaterally decide to continue the contract.

3.f) After the eleventh-to-last Grand Prix weekend of the season, 10% of the engine price is added to the budget of the works team to be used as funding for the development system as defined in §4.2.d.

3.g) Should a customer team fail to come to an agreement with any works team, the administration 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 of the offers reasonable, the works team with the highest amount of customers will be ordered to sell to said team at the price paid by the lowest team under contract, excluding the contract as defined in §4.3.b.

4) Every team must build a chassis at the start of the year. Building a completely new chassis during the season is prohibited. The grip value of the chassis is determined by three separate factors: the Lead Designer, the Design Concept and the Personnel.

4.a) If a user is asked to run a second team as defined by §2.3.b, he is to build a chassis for each of his teams and can pick one of them which is used for both teams.

5) Lead designers can only be hired at the start of a season.

5.a) Any unemployed lead designer can be signed by a team with the team chosen by the designer decided by a RNG weighted by in accordance to the following formula "100/(Offering Team's Last Year's World Constructors Championship position/Years Offered)"; new teams as defined in §4 are for the purpose of this formula treated as if they finished P14.

5.b) Lead designers can be signed for up to eight years and cannot be sacked during an active contract.

5.c) Every even season, the performance of all lead designers is randomly modified by the administration.

6) At the start of the year, each team hands in an upgrade plan to the administration, stating if, when and how they want to apply upgrades. Any upgrade takes three Grand Prix weekends from either building the chassis or the last upgrade to develop.

6.a) The cost of any upgrade is only subtracted from the budget of the team applying it at the point where its effect becomes active.

6.b) Any team may, during the seventh-to-last Grand Prix weekend of the season, cancel the remaining upgrades on their upgrade plan at no cost, move any outstanding upgrades unless a move would cause a violation of the development period as defined in §4.6 and add upgrades of any type for the fifth-to-last and/or the second-to-last Grand Prix weekend of the season, unless that would cause a violation of the development period as defined in §4.6.

6.c) Should a team use upgrades in a manner that improves their car performance to the point where it exceeds the performance levels possible with the game mechanics, the difference between the mathematical performance and the actual performance is paid out to the team at the start of the following season.

7) No team can build a new car that is, by grip, more than five places below their previous year's World Constructors Championship position. Should this occur, the car is boosted as needed to move the team by raw performance into the nearest eligible position (e.g. the winners of last year's World Constructors Championship cannot possibly build any worse than the sixth-best car).

Drivers

Each team must employ 2 racing drivers and may employ either 1 sim driver or 1 driver coach; both real-life drivers and fictional drivers are permitted. The performance of a driver is determined by the administration on basis of previous achievements in Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era, any series sharing a fictional universe with Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era and real-life performance for real-life drivers. The two racing drivers are the drivers that actively compete during the Grand Prix weekend. Hiring a driver as sim tester gives your team a qualifying performance boost of 30 grip points and improves future RNG values for real-life drivers. Hiring a driver as a driver coach reduces the random grip range of the racing drivers by 30 points.

Only drivers that have been under contract with an Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era team, an ARWS team or a Rolex GT Series team for at least ninety percent of the season in at least 1 of the last 2 seasons, have won 4 races and/or scored 4 pole positions in other series sharing a fictional universe with Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era during the last 4 seasons and/or have won 5 races and/or scored 5 pole positions in any real-life series in the last 3 seasons, finished in the top 6 of the Formula 2 World Championship in the last season or, in the case of real-life drivers, are at the beginning of the driver market of the current Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era season under contract with a Formula One or FIA Formula E team in real-life are eligible to compete in Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era. A driver may be hired despite not meeting any of these conditions if the offer falls in a period where a fictional

Fictional drivers must be at least 17 years old and must not be older than 43 years at the start of the calendar year of the current Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era season. A fictional driver that turns 44 during a running contract is entitled to compete for the remaining seasons of his contract, but all potential team or driver options are automatically declined.

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 racing drivers throughout the season unless force majeure forces a team to hire more drivers. There is no limit to the amounts of offers a team can make to free agents. These contracts must specify the role of the driver, the driver's wage, the contract duration and state additional clauses. Teams may only offer a financial bonus as additional clause to a driver for WDC and/or WCC position.

Contract duration must be stated in a number of years. The minimum contract length is 1 year, the maximum contract length is 6 years (including any driver or team options). Contracts may not be prematurely extended. Teams may clarify through the use of an additional clause if they do not plan to use a driver for an entire season. Wages are separately agreed on for every year of a multi-year contract. Clauses specify additional conditions and privileges 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. Any bonus may not be staggered and can only be paid out a lump sum for any given achievement. If the administration considers a clause unclear, the administration will read the clause in the most advantageous way for the driver.

For real-life drivers, a RNG will determine whether they sign the contract. The RNG values will be determined by the administration on the real-life public persona if the driver. After posting their offers, any team looking to re-sign a driver that was under contract with the team in the previous season can request the administration to assess the offer from the point of view of the real-life driver and offer advice to improve their RNG odds. Any RNG result is final, unless there is reasonable doubt about the quality of the RNG values and 5 or more users running a team request a reroll. For fictional drivers, the respective DEC holder determines whether a contract offer is accepted. Should a fictional driver that has either contemporary narrative importance to Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era or achieved exceptional results in other series have its DEC abandoned, the administration can accept a contract in place of the DEC holder. Drivers signed in that way may only sign 1-year contracts without any option years.

Should a previously signed contract violate any rules or a new contract be found to violate these rules, the administration is entitled to unilaterally change the contract without informing the team owner or the DEC holder in case of fictional drivers. The administration can modify contracts and contract offers with fictional drivers if it considers the contract either unfairly advantageous to the team hiring the driver or egregiously inconsistent with the actions of the character in previous appearances. The team owner must be informed of those changes.

A driver can be terminated before the start of any Grand Prix weekend. Any driver terminated must be paid a compensation, which equals the lump sum of the wages a driver in future seasons (driver option years included) and all possible bonus payments. 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. Either compensation can be voided if the driver has scored less than 10% of the points of his teammate after seven Grand Prix weekends after the start of his contract if said teammate has scored at least 25 points or if the DEC owner of a fictional driver 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. 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 as if they were a free agent. The original team is given €5,000,000 as compensation by the administration in case the driver is signed. The rules regarding temporary replacement do not apply if 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 will not be paid any wage. 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.

A team that is in the minus during the season may additionally hire a free practice tester for 3 races. That driver will be assigned to the team by the administration and will provide €3,000,000. If one of the racing drivers of the team that hired the free practice tester is unavailable to compete due to injury, bans or force majeure, the free practice tester must be used as replacement.

Active Alternate Formula One drivers can freely participate in other series as well. It is the responsibility 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 - Hydrogen Era 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 - Hydrogen Era 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.

Any driver, at the start of their career in Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era can pick freely any unused racing number from 2-99 to represent them for the entirety of their entire career. The number selection for real-life drivers is undertaken by the administration. Fictional drivers have their number selected by the team owner of the team they begin their career with. Any driver's number is reserved for his use up to three years after the driver leaves Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era. A new driver starting his career in Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era may pick a reserved racing number. Should a driver for whom a racing number is reserved for return to Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era, the procedure depends on the status of the driver:

• Real-life drivers will be returned their number if the driver with the racing number is a fictional driver
  
• Fictional drivers will not be returned their number if the driver with the racing number is a real-life driver
  
• Real-life drivers will not be returned their number if the driver with the racing number is a real-life driver unless the administration decides to execute a number swap
  
• Fictional drivers will be returned their number if the driver with the racing number is a fictional driver unless both DEC owners agree to execute a number swap
  

The reigning World Drivers Champion will run racing number 1 for the entirety of the season after winning the World Drivers Championship. His standard racing number will not be available for use by any driver beginning their career in Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era. Any replacement driver that is to replace the World Drivers Champion is treated as if he has signed his first contract or uses his reserved racing number, regardless of the length of the replacement.

Before the fifth-to-last race of the current Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era season, all real-life drivers at the age of 36 years or older in the final year of their contract will be subject to a retirement RNG. The RNG values will be determined by the administration on the real-life public persona of the driver as well as their current position in the World Drivers Championship. Any RNG result is final, unless there is reasonable doubt about the quality of the RNG values and 5 or more users running a team request a reroll. A real-life driver that is rolled to retire is not eligible to compete in Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era for the next two Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era seasons.

Season

Each Alternate Formula One season consists of at least 13 and at most 26 Grands Prix weekends. Each Grand Prix weekend represents a separate region or a nation; a region or nation may be represented by a venue outside of said region or nation, but only if the venue is in a country that already has a Grand Prix. Any nation may only have up to 3 venues on the calendar and only up to 2 nations may have more than one venue on the calendar at any time. The Grand Prix weekends of the upcoming season must be announced by the time of the fourth-to-last Grand Prix weekend of the previous season and may not be changed after that, with the exception of Grand Prix weekend order, which may be changed until the start of the first Grand Prix weekend of the season. Any Grand Prix weekend can be canceled by the administration for any reason at any point unless the cancelation would cause the number of Grand Prix weekends in a season to sink below 13. If 5 or more users running a team in Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era object to the announced Grand Prix weekends for the upcoming season or a cancelation of a Grand Prix weekend, the administration must change the Grand Prix weekends for the upcoming season immediately.

A Grand Prix weekend consists of three 60-minute practice sessions on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (beginning in-character at 11:00 local time), two forty-minute qualifying sessions on Friday and Saturday (beginning in-character at 14:10 local time), and a race on Sunday running over the nearest lap above 185 km (≈ 115 miles) or 120 minutes, whichever arrives first (beginning in-character at 14:10 local time). Practice sessions are not simulated, but fictional results can be supplied as the administration sees fit. The in-character times for any qualifying session and any race can be changed to 21:40 local time at venues with floodlights. If that change is made, the practice sessions begin at 14:30 local time. All qualifying sessions and races have climate conditions determined by the administration as it sees fit. Any session can be canceled in progress ("red-flagged") by the administration as it sees fit. If less than 75 percent of the scheduled race distance is completed before the race is canceled, the championship points as defined in §6.2.a are halved.

After any race, the administration runs a RNG for any crash regarding potential injuries as it sees fit. An injury is defined as a period of time (in Grand Prix weekends) in which a driver is incapable of competing. These periods can range from one Grand Prix weekend to the number of Grand Prix weekends equivalent to three calendar years. If the crash is considered severe enough, instead of an injury, the driver is outright declared incapable of competing in Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era anymore. This does not affect the driver's ability to compete in other series sharing a fictional universe. If at least six users running a team in Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era object to an injury, it is removed and the driver is able to compete again.

The administration will apply penalties for rule violations committed before, during or after the race. Penalties can be applied as either fines for the team of the offender, warnings, time penalties for this Grand Prix, exclusion from the Grand Prix result, grid penalties for the next Grand Prix weekend or exclusion from any number of Grand Prix weekends up to four, depending on the severity of the infringement. Penalties are always assigned to a driver, regardless of whether the driver or his team committed the rule violation. If a driver is replaced, any penalties assigned to the driver will not be transmitted to the new driver, but the replaced driver must serve his penalty when they are returned to his seat or signed to a new team within the season. If a driver is considered to have committed an unacceptable number of rule violations by the administration, the driver in question will be excluded from the remainder of the current season as well as the next two seasons. If 5 or more users running a team in Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era object to the exclusion, it is reversed and the driver is entitled to rejoin Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era before the start of the next Grand Prix weekend.

Championship points are handed out to the ten best-placed classified drivers of the race after penalties and exclusions as defined have been applied. A driver is considered classified if he has completed at least ninety percent of the race distance. Should less than ten drivers have completed at least ninety percent of the race distance, that value is reduced until ten drivers can be considered classified. The current points system is 15-12-10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1. Sessions are only re-run if the administration has violated any rule during the running of the session. If 5 or more users running a team in Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era consider the rule violation too insignificant to require rerunning the session, the session will not be re-run.

The driver with the most points after all Grand Prix weekends have been completed is the Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era World Drivers Champions 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 given to the driver whose team has the lower World Constructors Championship position. The team with the most points after all Grand Prix weekends have been completed are the Alternate Formula One - Hydrogen Era 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 tie-breaking approach used for the World Drivers Championship is applied for with one exception: in case the number of pole positions does not break the tie, the position is given to the team that had the higher average position in qualifying.

Before the start of a Alternate Formula One season, the following business stages are to be done in this order:
Sponsorship Choice
Driver Market
Lead Designer Market
Car Market

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 always remain at or above €0. During the season, teams may only be in the minus as consequence of executing an upgrade, as a result of fines or failing to sign a new Target Region driver after releasing or temporarily replacing their previous Target Region driver. Drivers of teams that are in the minus during the season suffer a loss of performance reflected in a doubled random grip range.

Before two selected Grand Prix weekends within the season, which must be announced by the administration before the fourth Grand Prix weekend of the season, mid-season tests are held. During a mid-season test teams can work an upgrade in three separate sessions. A session in the mid-season costs €5,000,000. Each session needs to have a driver under contract to the team assigned to it. The choice of driver does not influence the outcome of the session. Following sessions are available:

• Short Runs - improves pace. For every day invested into long runs, the base grip of a car will be raised by 0-50 points.
• Long Runs - decreases random grip range. For every day invested into short runs, the random grip range of a driver will be reduced by 0-50 points.

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. Prize money for the position in the World Constructors Championship is to be assigned as follows:

Position	Prize + TV money
1	€160,000,000
2	€150,000,000
3	€140,000,000
4	€130,000,000
5	€120,000,000
6	€110,000,000
7	€100,000,000
8	€90,000,000
9	€80,000,000
10	€70,000,000
11	€60,000,000
12	€50,000,000

Prize money for each Grand Prix weekend, based on the position of the best-positioned car of the team, is to be assigned as follows::

Position	Prize money
1	€4,000,000
2-10	€3,000,000
11-17	€2,000,000
18-24	€1,000,000
DNF/NC/DNS	€0
Pole position:	€1,000,000