A number of Formula 1 rule changes for the 2019 season have been approved by the FIA World Motor Sport Council, including making the chequered flag redundant.
The end of the race will officially be marked by a chequered light panel next year, but the waving of the chequered flag will still take place.
There are also technical changes with the addition of rain lights on the tail of rear wing endplates and a shift in onboard camera positions due to the introduction of the halo.
The WMSC also approved the F1 calendar as released in draft form at the end of August.
Australia will again open the season with the first grand prix of 2019 to take place at Albert Park on March 17.
The full list of changes
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The Council approved changes to the 2019 Sporting Regulations including:
- Changes to the Safety Car regulations to ensure there is a consistent point at which drivers may overtake when the Safety Car returns to the pits. This will now be the same in all three types of restart
- The teams will now be responsible for initial scrutineering of their cars. Before the cars go on track for the first time, teams must declare conformity with all safety related matters
- The official end-of-race signal will now be a chequered light panel, although the chequered flag will still be shown
For 2020, the team personnel curfew – the amount of time for which all team personnel must be away from the track – will increase from eight to nine hours.
Formula 1 Strategy Group and Commission proposals concerning the 2019 Technical Regulations were agreed, including:
- Changes to the mirror regulations and also associated rear wing changes (height) for rear view visibility and safety (Articles 3.6 and 14.3)
- The on-board camera regulations will be modified to improve the TV spectacle (Article 21)
- Rear endplate lights are to be added for safety (Article 14.5)
- Minor modifications to the halo fairing (Article 15.2.6) are to be made for safety reasons during a potential driver extraction
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