Mandatory Requirements and Optional Rules

Minimum Driving Requirement

The key minimum requirement of every team race is for each driver specified in the entry list must drive at least a single stint.

IMPORTANT: If this mandatory requirement is not met by the end of the race (before the checkered flag), the entry is disqualified at the moment of crossing the finish line.

If you participate with a team with flexible entries (e.g. varying driver count per event), make sure the entry list only contains the drivers that are expected to participate in any given event (at the organizer’s discretion and within the regulations of the series at hand).

Additionally to this ever-present requirement, In most driver swap races, there is a likelihood of having limited stint times or mandatory pitstop(s) with various requirements.

Maximum Driving Time

As a mandatory requirement when driving time rules are used, there is always a maximum driving time that regulates how much each driver of the car may drive.

Drivers who have completed the minimum driving requirement (i.e. driven at least one stint) are shown bright green in the Maximum Driving Time widget, the active driver is shown darker green and the driver(s) who have not yet driven the car are shown with a red box next to their name.

NOTE: During regular pit stops, the Driving Time counter is frozen, however when performing a penalty the counter continues to click down in the background even while the car is in pitlane.

IMPORTANT: Similarly to not complying with the minimum driving requirement, exceeding the maximum driving time will result in a disqualification at the end of the race.

It is highly recommended to have the Pit Info page of the MFD enabled at all times (via the HUD settings). This shows requirements, driving and stint times and track cut warnings in a compact widget for the active driver, allowing the player to disable all other HUD elements if they wish.

Stint Time

An optional rule is the regulation of the maximum driver stint time. When the stint time is regulated, there is a timer in the top left corner on the driving HUD showing when the car needs to enter the pit once again. The stint timer is also visible in the Pit Info widget inside the MFD.

NOTE: You can only see this stint timer when you are the active driver. Stint and maximum driving time information is also shown by the Racelogic device (where available).

Driver stints do not require a pitstop, nor does it require a driver swap, the timer is reset when a car enters and restarts when the car exits the pitlane, thus driving through the pitlane is already sufficient to reset the timer (except when serving a penalty).

10 minutes before the end of the stint the engineer warns for stint time ending. 5 minutes before the end of the stint the widget turns yellow and the race engineer calls for the driver to enter the pits, while with 2 minutes left the widget turns red as a final warning to the player.

Exceeding the stint time will result in a drive-through penalty. Exceeding the stint-time in the final lap(s) will convert the drive-through penalty into a post-race time penalty (usually 30 seconds or 80 seconds at Spa).

If the active driver’s maximum driving time remaining is less than the current stint time left, the HUD Stint Timer will be overridden to show the maximum driving time instead, making sure the player does not exceed his/her maximum allowed driving time.

For example, a driver with 40 minutes left on his/her maximum driving quota starting a new 65-minute stint will see the Stint Timer starting from 40 minutes on the HUD instead of 65. In such cases the stint timer widget will also turn red.

NOTE: The Racelogic device does not do this override mentioned above, it will always show the raw stint data.

NOTE: The driver Stint Timer is not reset when performing a penalty, the timer will freeze but continue as the car exits pitlane. Serving a penalty can be delayed to follow a regular pitstop by unchecking the “Serve Penalty” checkbox in the pitstop MFD before entering pitlane (it is always pre-selected automatically when a penalty is applied).

NOTE for Organizers: The Stint Time rule must be used in parallel with Maximum Driving time requirement. Beyond that, event rules can be defined for any number of drivers per car. Stint and driving time rules for cars with a different driver count will be automatically calculated by the server. It is generally recommended to include some headroom when it comes to stint and driving times. For more information, please see the Server Handbook document.

Mandatory Pitstop Requirements

Depending on the format, certain events might have optional mandatory requirements, which can be the following:

A set number of mandatory pit stops to be performed (minimum 1)
Pit Window requirement, meaning that the single pitstop must be performed in a predefined pit window phase (only works with 1 mandatory pitstop). Additional pit stops may be performed outside of the pit window but they will not count towards the mandatory requirement.
Mandatory driver swap requirement for each stop
Mandatory tyre change requirement for each stop
Mandatory refuelling requirement for each stop
Prohibition of refuelling in the race

Mandatory requirements may be combined with Driver Stint and Maximum Driving Time rules as well. Mandatory pitstop requirements are shown in the garage screen:

In this example there is 1 mandatory pitstop, to be performed during a designated pit window in the middle of the race, and the car must perform a tyre change and a driver swap, while no refuelling is allowed. Maximum driving times are also shown (there is no stint time at play here in this example).

Pitstop rules are visible on the driving HUD as part of the Pitstop MFD page as part of the driving time information:

When the currently selected pit strategy is sufficient to meet the mandatory requirements, the widget will show a green Valid ribbon.

In this example above Mr. Honzik has 1 mandatory pitstop left to perform (note the orange “1” next to his name), and the only mandatory requirement is to refuel the car during the pitstop (see under Requirements). The green VALID ribbon above the requirement field indicates that the strategy selected complies with the requirement.