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Race Director Note PDF

Race Directors Competition Notes V2

Singapore Grand Prix · 2026 · 9 October 2026 · Doc 13

2026 SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX

09 - 11 October 2026

From The FIA Formula 1 Race Director Document 13

To All Teams, All Officials Date 09 October 2026

Time 15:16

Title Race Director's Competition Notes V2

Description Race Director's Competition Notes V2

Enclosed 2026 Singapore Grand Prix Competition NotesV2.pdf

Rui Marques

The FIA Formula 1 Race Director

2026 S INGAPORE G RAND P RIX

9 – 11 October 2026

From The FIA Formula 1 Race Director

To All Officials, All Teams Date 09 October 2026

COMPETITION NOTES V2 (changes in magenta)

General Instructions

  1. Laps during Sprint Qualifying, Qualifying Session and Reconnaissance Lap(s), For the safe and orderly conduct of the Competition, other than in exceptional circumstances accepted as such by the Stewards, any driver that exceeds the maximum time from the Second Safety Car Line to the First Safety Car Line on ANY lap during and after the Sprint Qualifying, Qualifying Session, including in-laps and out-laps or during reconnaissance laps when the pit exit is opened for the Sprint and the Race, may be deemed to be going unnecessarily slowly. Teams and Drivers will be informed of the maximum time after the Practice Session. For the avoidance of doubt, this does not supersede Articles B1.8.5 and B4.1.1 of the FIA F1 Regulations, which apply to the entire Circuit, furthermore this includes the pit lane as well. Incidents will normally be investigated after the Sprint Qualifying, Qualifying Session, Sprint or the Race.

  2. Lapping during the Sprint and the Race

The International Sporting Code (ISC) requires drivers who are caught by another car to allow the faster driver past at the first available opportunity. The F1 marshalling system will be set to give a pre-warning when the faster car is within 3.0s of the car about to be lapped, this should be used by the team of the slower car to warn their driver he is soon going to be lapped and that allowing the faster car through should be considered a priority. When the faster car is within 1.2s of the car about to be lapped blue light panels will be shown to the slower car (in addition to blue light panels, blue cockpit lights and a message on the timing monitors) and the driver must allow the following driver to overtake at the first available opportunity.

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Competition Specific Instructions 3. Parc Fermé Team Personnel permitted access to the Parc Fermé area for the sole purpose of fitting cooling fans and undertaking any work required by those officials charged with supervision of parc fermé, may enter Parc Fermé using the route shown below:

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  1. Marshalling System 4.1 A car entering the Pit Lane will be subject to the marshalling state (i.e. yellow flag or double yellow flag) of the associated sector until it passes the blue line marked on the image below.

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4.2 A car leaving the Pit Lane will be subject to the marshalling system state i.e. yellow flag or double yellow flag of the sector into which it is emerging after it passes the blue line marked on the image below.

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  1. Support Races team barrier placement and movements Team barrier placement prior to and during all support category Practice Sessions and Races: No more than (1) one meters from the garage. Please ensure that your pit stop gantry arms are moved back towards the garage during all support category activities. Support Crews and Trolleys will be released into Pit Lane no earlier than 30 minutes prior to the opening of pit exit for their respective sessions.

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Support Category competition vehicles will be released from the marshalling area no earlier than 15 minutes prior to the opening of pit exit for their respective sessions.

  1. Practice starts 6.1 During the Free Practice session, practice starts may be carried out after the pit exit lights on the left- hand side using one of the painted grid boxes shown in the image below. Cars queuing to perform a practice start must keep to the left-hand side of the Pit Exit Road to allow sufficient space for cars not wishing to do a practice start to pass.

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6.2 Practice starts after the Free Practice session will be performed according to Article B4.2.2 of the FIA F1 Regulations. 6.3 If the Free Practice session is resumed with less than 2 minutes remaining, for the purpose of facilitating practice starts on the grid as provided for in Article B4.2.2 of the FIA F1 Regulations, any car wishing to leave the Pit Lane must proceed down the Pit Lane without undue delay and exit the Pit Lane without leaving a significant gap to the car ahead. 6.4 For the avoidance of doubt, practice starts may not be carried out during the Sprint Qualifying and the Qualifying session. 6.5 Practice starts during the reconnaissance laps prior to the Sprint and the Race: Cars wishing to perform a practice start should leave the pit lane using the Pit Exit Road and must NOT cross either the white line painted on the right-hand side of the Pit Exit Road or the white line separating cars leaving the pit lane from those on the track. They may stop in the area immediately prior to the dashed line (painted across the Pit Exit Road) as shown in the image below and perform a practice start. All such cars MUST then join the circuit from the Pit Exit Road. Cars queuing to perform a practice must keep to the left-hand side of the Pit Exit Road to allow sufficient space for cars not wishing to do a practice start to pass. Cars NOT wishing to perform a practice start should leave the pit lane and MUST cross the white lines separating the Pit Exit Road from the track at the earliest opportunity and join the “normal” racing line. All such cars MUST NOT cross back into the Pit Exit Road.

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6.6 Under no circumstances can drivers perform a practice start if another F1 Car remains stationary in front of them. 6.7 For the safe and orderly conduct of the competition, pursuant to article B4.2.2, any driver on track when the end of session signal is shown for the Free Practice session, may complete two further laps, for the sole purpose of stopping on the grid to perform practice starts on each of these laps.

  1. Article B1.6.3d of the FIA F1 Regulations (…) Any car(s) driven to the end of the Pit Lane prior to the start or re-start of a LTCS must form up in a line in the Fast Lane and leave in the order they got there (…) It is noted that a car will be considered to be “in the fast lane” when a tyre has crossed the solid white line separating the fast lane from the inner lane, in this context crossing means that all of a tyre should be beyond the far side, with respect to the garages, of the line separating the fast lane from the inner lane.

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For the avoidance of doubt, Appendix L, Chapter IV, Article 5 b) to the ISC states that: Once a car has left its garage or pit stop position it should blend into the fast lane as soon as it is safe to do so, and without unnecessarily impeding cars which are already in the fast lane. Thus, after the start or re-start of the Free Practice session the Sprint Qualifying and/or the Qualifying Session, if there is a suitable gap in a queue of cars in the fast lane, such that a driver can blend into the fast lane safely and without unnecessarily impeding cars already in the fast lane, they are free to do so. Furthermore, it is noted that during the Free Practice sessions Sprint Qualifying and Qualifying, a car driving in the inner lane, parallel to the fast lane, will not be considered to have blended into the fast lane at the earliest opportunity. Additionally, Appendix L, Chapter IV, Article 5 d) to the ISC states that: Cars in either the fast lane or working lane may not overtake other cars in the fast lane except in exceptional circumstances. In this context a “stopped car” is one which has an obvious mechanical problem.

  1. Lines at the Pit Entry and Pit Exit 8.1 In accordance with Appendix L, Chapter IV, Articles 4 and 6 to the ISC drivers must follow the procedures at pit entry and pit exit. 8.2 Furthermore, except when passing a car which has stopped to perform a practice start during the Free Practice Session as described in Point 6.1 of these notes, for the safe and orderly conduct of the event no part of a tyre of a car exiting the pit lane may cross the white line painted on the right-hand side of the Pit Exit Road as highlighted in the images below using red arrows.

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8.3 Pertaining to Appendix L, Chapter IV, Article 4 to the ISC, any driver passing to the left-hand of the junction of the dashed white line to the solid white line (as the image bellow) at the pit entry road will be considered as entering the pit lane

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8.4 For the safe and orderly conduct of the event, during any live session and while the pit exit is open prior to the start of the sprint and race, team personnel are not allowed to cross the red line in the image below.

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8.5 If there is a white flag displayed on LHS in the pit entry road it will be a warning of an incident at the pit entry road. This flag is not intended for drivers staying on track.

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  1. Stopping the Sprint Qualifying or the Qualifying Session Pursuant to Article B4.3.1b of the FIA F1 Regulations, should any period of the Sprint Qualifying or Qualifying Session be interrupted with less than 90 seconds remaining, the relevant period of the relevant Session will not be resumed.

  2. ERS Hazard Status If the ERS is in a Hazard Status, the relevant team will be required to send mechanics to the pit entry area near race control. This will be done after the session. They will then be picked up by car and taken to their F1 car.

  3. Leaving the garage before and during all Sessions 11.1 Before the start of the Free Practice session, Sprint Qualifying and Qualifying, or prior to the pit exit opening for the reconnaissance laps, no cars may enter the pit lane to proceed to pit exit until 5 minutes before the scheduled start time or announced start time in the case of a delayed session. 11.2 If the Free Practice session, the Sprint Qualifying or the Qualifying, or any period thereof is delayed or stopped, cars may only enter the Fast Lane after the re-start time is confirmed via the official messaging system.

  4. Removing cars from the grid Cars may be removed from the grid through the gate adjacent to the start line and grid position 13.

  5. Sprint Suspension, Race Suspension or Starting Procedure Suspension 13.1 In case of Sprint and/or Race suspension or Starting Procedure suspension, (except in case of Article B5.14.3 of the FIA F1 Regulations – stopping on the grid), cars will be stopped in the fast lane. The first car must stop in the vicinity of the pit exit lights. 13.2 Safety Car Resumption Point: Safety Car will leave the pit lane before the resumption and wait for the F1 cars after Turn 13. (as per the image below).

  6. Grid Panel Placement On the right-hand side of the grid.

  7. Grid Procedure Article B5.2.4 of the FIA F1 Regulations states that “Any F1 Car which does not complete a reconnaissance lap and reach the grid under its own power will not be permitted to start the TTCS from the grid.”. In the context of this article the grid shall be considered to be the section of track starting from the front of marked grid box #1 until grid box #29 as per the picture below.

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  1. Light panels: In case of an incident, double yellow light panel will be mirrored on the following panels:

• Panel 11 will be mirrored on panel 10.

  1. Track Limits 17.1 During any LTCS, each time a driver fails to negotiate Turns 18 or 19, this will result in that lap time and the immediately following lap time may be invalidated by the Stewards. 17.2 Run-off in Turn 1-2-3 Any driver who fails to negotiate Turn 2 by using the track, and who passes completely to the right of the orange kerb/line element, must keep to the right of the red and white polystyrene block, and re- join the track on the outside of Turn 3.

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  1. Safety Car Procedures For the safe and orderly conduct of the Competition, and specifically to ensure that all Competitors receive consistent information regarding any Safety Car deployment, pursuant to Articles B5.13.1 [Deployment of Safety Car] and B5.13.6 [Withdrawal of Safety Car] of the FIA F1 Regulations, “waved yellow flags and “SC” boards” will NOT be used at this Competition. For the avoidance of doubt, when the order is given to deploy the Safety Car the message “SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED” will be sent to all Competitors and all Trackside Light Panels will display “SC”. Furthermore, to ensure that all Competitors receive consistent information regarding the withdrawal of the Safety Car, when the instruction to extinguish the orange lights on the Safety Car is given, the message “SAFETY CAR LIGHTS OFF” will be sent to all Competitors. For the avoidance of doubt, as the leader approaches the Control Line a green light panel will be displayed at the Control Line and all other Trackside Lights Panel will clear i.e. will cease to display “SC”. Pursuant to Article B5.13.8, if the Safety Car is still deployed at the beginning of the last lap, or is deployed during the last lap, unless the Race Director deems the continued presence of the Safety Car after the end-of-session signal is required, it will enter the Pit Lane at the end of the lap and the F1 Cars must proceed to take the end-of-session signal without overtaking before the Control Line. In such circumstance, the Trackside Light Panels will continue to display “SC” but, as the Safety Car is approaching the Pit Entry Road, the orange lights on the Safety Car will be extinguished and the message “SAFETY CAR LIGHTS OFF” will be sent to all Competitors. This will be the signal to all Competitors and drivers that the Safety Car will be entering the Pit Lane at the end of that lap.

  2. Changes to the circuit - Pit wall moved 1 meter to widen the pit lane. - Bigger polystyrene block at the runoff of Turn 3 right hand side. - Realignment of the barrier at the right-hand side approaching Turn 9. - Realign the wall before Turn 10 on the right-hand side. - White line realigned at Turn 13 right hand side and Turn 14 left hand side. - The orange kerbs at the apex of Turn 1, Turn 3 and Turn 16, Turn 17 and Turn 18 have been removed. - Main straight resurfaced due to the pit wall change. - Various small surface repairs in all track.

Rui Marques

The FIA Formula 1 Race Director

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