My Proposal – Technical Regulations – Chapter 17

ARTICLE 17: COMPONENTS’ CLASSIFICATION

1. Definitions
   In this Article 17:
   1. “Associate” means, with respect to a Competitor in the Championship (and any entity representing that Competitor):
      1. any other person or entity (including any corporate or unincorporated body) that (directly or indirectly):
         1. Owns share capital or business assets of the Competitor; or
         2. Can represent the Competitor as decision maker in the F1 parliament.
   2. “Outsourcing” means procuring goods or services by contract with an external supplier.
   3. “Design Specification” means, in respect of a component all design (including
      three-dimensional geometry, tolerances, materials, surface finishes and design standards), manufacturing, installation and operational information related to that component.
   4. And for the purposes of these Technical Regulations, including in this Article, Intellectual Property” means:
      1. patents, rights to inventions, designs, copyright and related rights, database rights, trade marks and trade names, rights in get-up and related goodwill and the right to sue for passing off or unfair competition (in each case whether registered, registerable or unregistered.
      2. proprietary rights in domain names.
      3. rights to use, and protect the confidentiality of, trade secrets, know-how and confidential information.
      4. applications, and rights to apply for and be granted registrations, including extensions and renewals of, such rights; and
      5. all other rights of a similar nature or having an equivalent effect anywhere in the world.
         
2. General Principles
   1. Classification:
      1. Participants to the Formula 1 World Title must design and manufacture (at least) the chassis and aerodynamic parts of the car in order to be allowed to participate.
      2. None of the above parts can be shared, sold or purchased from other competitors to the Formula 1 World Title, nor from external suppliers.
      3. All other systems (i.e. electrics, brakes, engine) can also be designed and manufactured by the competitor, but it is permitted to source them from external suppliers, with no restrictions, as long as compliant with the technical regulations.
      4. If a competitor produces both the chassis and the engine (or any other systems as per point C), they’re not allowed to sell or provide any other competitors with such systems.
      5. An external supplier can provide its products to multiple competitors, as long as he is not directly involved as a competitor himself (not owning a team, which designs and manufacture a chassis).
      6. Participants to the Formula 1 Continental Series don’t have to design and manufacture directly any component of the car.
         They can assemble components coming from World Title competitors or from external suppliers, as long as compliant with the technical rules.
      7. If a participant to a Continental Series is designing and manufacturing the chassis and aerodynamic parts, then he’s not allowed to sell them to other competitors participating to the same Series.
         The same principle applies if the competitor is designing the engine or any other system.
   2. No Competitor may use movement of personnel (whether employee, consultant, contractor, secondee or any other type of permanent or temporary personnel) with another Competitor, either directly or via an external entity.
   3. From time to time the FIA may request that a competitor shares certain information in connection with this Article 17 with the FIA so that the FIA may share with the other competitors for safety reasons only, or to assist the FIA in considering future amendments to the Technical Regulations, for safety reasons only.
   4. Except as otherwise expressly permitted by these Technical Regulations or by the FIA, no competitor may directly or indirectly disclose or transfer any Intellectual Property to another competitor that is reasonably likely to impact upon the performance of the receiving competitor, and no competitor may directly or indirectly obtain (by any means) the same from another competitor.
   5. Where a Competitor is made responsible under these Technical Regulations for raising any issues of safety, incompatibility and/or reliability of a component that it uses on its car, it shall not make any claim against any other party that is inconsistent with that responsibility.
   6. Competitors may make available to other Competitors test facilities and equipment such as (but not limited to) wind tunnels or dynamometers. The Intellectual Property involved in the operation of such shared facilities shall not be used by and/or disclosed to the sharing party including  the results of any experimental or test work carried out on such facilities.
   7. Where facilities are shared, robust processes must be put in place to ensure there is no transfer of Intellectual Property through common personnel and that all data can only be accessed by the originator of the work. Such operations will be supervised by FIA delegates.
   8. Although it is permissible to be influenced by the design or concept of a Competitor’s LTC using information that must potentially be available to all Competitors, this information may only be obtained at Events Competitions or Tests, and no Competitor may design its LTCs based on “reverse engineering” of another Competitor’s LTC. For the purpose of this Article, “reverse engineering” shall mean:
      1. The use of photographs or images, combined with software that converts them to point clouds, curves, surfaces, or allows CAD geometry to be overlaid onto or extracted from the photograph or image.
      2. The use of stereophotogrammetry, 3D cameras or any 3D stereoscopic techniques.
      3. Any form of contact or non-contact surface scanning.
      4. Any technique that projects points or curves on a surface so as to facilitate the reverse-engineering process.
         
         In cases where isolated features of a Competitor’s LTC(s) may closely resemble the features of another Competitor’s LTC(s), it will be the role of the FIA to determine whether this resemblance is the result of reverse engineering or of legitimate independent work. The following further provisions apply:
      5. All Competitors must provide to the FIA, upon request, any data or other information that is required to demonstrate compliance with this Article.
      6. For all LTCs used during the Championship, the restrictions described in this Article apply to their entire design process, including actions carried out before the calendar year of the Championship.
      7. The FIA may issue guidance from time to time to define more specifically the requirements and constraints of this Article.
         
   9. No Competitor may, either directly or via a third party:
      1. pass on any information in respect of its LTC (including but not limited to data, designs, drawings, or any other Intellectual Property) to another Competitor or receive any information from another Competitor in respect of that Competitor’s LTC; or
      2. receive consultancy or any other kind of services from another Competitor in relation to LTC, or supply any such services to another Competitor; or
      3. pass any methodology which can be used to enhance the performance of LTC (including but not limited to simulation software, analysis tools, etc.) to another Competitor, or receive any such methodology from another Competitor.
         
   10. A Competitor (or its agents) must have exclusive ownership of (or the Competitor must have the exclusive right to use in the Championship) any and all rights, information or data of any nature (including but not limited to all aspects of the design, manufacturing, know-how, operating procedures, properties and calibrations) in respect of the LTC in its Formula One cars. However, notwithstanding the foregoing:
       1. the use of specialist Intellectual Property or technology of third parties is permitted in respect of LTC, provided that this Intellectual Property or technology is commercially available to all Competitors. The principal parameters of such components must in any case be determined by the Competitor and not be available to other Competitors.
       2. Similarly, it is permitted to use commercially available sub-components or sub-assemblies in respect of LTC, provided these are commercially available to all Competitors. This provision applies if these components or sub-assemblies are not specifically listed as LTC. The FIA may request Competitors to provide a list of such sub-components and their technical specification. The FIA may classify such sub-components or sub-assemblies as LTC if it deems that they are being contrived to circumvent the purpose of this Article 17.
          
3. Standard Supply Components (SSC)
   1. “Standard Supply Components” (SSC) are components whose design and manufacture will be carried out by a supplier appointed by the FIA, to be supplied on an identical technical and commercial basis to each Competitor.
   2. Should a selection process fail to lead to appointment of a supplier of a component classified as a SSC, or should the arrangement with such supplier be terminated for whatever reason, the FIA reserves the right to re-classify the SSC as an LTC, TRC, or OSC and to introduce appropriate technical rules.
   3. Components supplied as SSC must not be modified, and they must be installed and operated exactly as specified by the supplier. However, each Competitor is responsible for communicating directly to the relevant SSC supplier, while keeping the FIA informed at all times, regarding any issues of compatibility, reliability or safety in respect of a SSC. This may include submitting proposals for modifications to the SSC that a Competitor considers should be made to ensure the necessary levels of safety, compatibility and reliability while at all times having due regard to cost and performance implications. In consultation with the relevant SSC supplier, the FIA will consider in good faith all issues raised (and modifications proposed) during the consultation process, and shall determine in its sole discretion whether or not to take any action. In exceptional circumstances, where a Competitor establishes that a SSC is critically incompatible, unreliable or unsafe, the FIA may, at its sole discretion, authorise such Competitor to carry out modifications to the SSC in question or use an alternative component in order to resolve the compatibility, reliability or safety issue. Permission for such a modification or usage of an alternative component will be communicated to all Competitors, and will continue to be applied until the relevant supplier introduces a new specification that resolves the reliability, compatibility or safety concern.
   4. The use of a SSC is mandatory and the particular function of that SSC must not be by-passed, replaced, duplicated or complemented by another component.
   5. No Competitor may, either directly or via a third party pass any information (including but not limited to data, know how, operating procedures, properties and calibrations) or methodology (including but not limited to simulation software, analysis tools, etc.) which can be used to enhance the performance of a SSC to another Competitor, or receive any such methodology from another Competitor.
      
4. Open Source Components (OSC)
   1. “Open Source Components” (OSC) are components whose Design Specification and Intellectual Property is made available to all Competitors through the mechanisms defined in this Article.
   2. For all OSC in use by all Competitors, the Design Specification must reside on a designated server specified by the FIA, and be accessible by all Competitors.
   3. Any Competitor who designs a new OSC or modifies the Design Specification of a previous OSC must upload the new Design Specification to the designated server before the first track usage of this OSC in either a Competition or a test.
   4. Any Competitor who creates a new, or modifies an existing, Design Specification of an OSC or any OSC manufactured to a Design Specification grants an irrevocable, royalty-free, non-exclusive, worldwide licence to all other Competitors to use and modify any of its Intellectual Property subsisting in such OSCs or Design Specifications to the extent contemplated by these Technical Regulations..
   5. Any Competitor wishing to access the server referred to in point 2, or to exercise its rights under the licence described in point 3, may only do so if it has agreed to be bound by the terms of the terms and conditions applicable to the FIA’s designated server, by accepting the FIA Open Source Component Licence (“FOSCL”), as provided by the FIA from time to time.
   6. In the event the OSC or the Design Specification of any OSC contains proprietary information and/or Intellectual Property of a third party supplier, this must be made clear by the Competitor when uploading the Design Specification of the OSC, and use of the uploaded Design Specification (and any OSC manufactured to that Design Specification) by any other Competitor exercising its rights in accordance with these Technical Regulations must be approved in writing by the third party supplier, with a copy of such approval to be available to the FIA on request. Should it become necessary to remove any sensitive information, then the uploaded Design Specification must:
      1. Contain a clear reference to the supplier in question.
      2. Contain sufficient information for another Competitor to be able to order an identical component from the supplier.
      3. Contain all the necessary information to permit another Competitor to install the OSC in their own car.
   7. All Competitors are obliged to declare to the FIA the version of each OSC that gets used on their car. This information will be made available to all Competitors.
   8. The complete responsibility for the installation and operation of an OSC (including any matters related to its function, performance, reliability, compatibility or safety) resides with the Competitor who uses this version of the OSC. Notwithstanding this provision, any Competitor who encounters a functionality, reliability, compatibility or safety issue with a particular version of an OSC is obliged to provide such information to the FIA and all other Competitors via the designated server.
   9. OSC’s may be provided from one Competitor to another, provided that the specification supplied from the Supplying Competitor to the Customer Competitor is of the same specification utilized by the Supplying Competitor.
   10. No Competitor may, either directly or via a third party pass any information (including but not limited to data, know how, operating procedures, properties and calibrations) or methodology (including but not limited to simulation software, analysis tools, etc.) which can be used to enhance the performance of an OSC to another Competitor, or receive any such information or methodology from another Competitor.
       
5. Components which are part of an assembly will assume the classification status of that assembly unless otherwise specified.
   
6. With exceptions for safety components or devices as decribed in all previous articles, which require Homologation, no other item part of the car (i.e. aerodynamics, engine, gearbox, suspensions) will need to be homologated.
   
7. There are no limitations in the number of parts, items or components that can be used within a season and/or within a weekend of Competition, as long as each Competitor respects the financial contraints and rules.
   
8. There are no limitation in the number of upgrades that a Competitor, or a supplier of a Competitor, can introduce during a season, as long as they are compliant with the Technical Regulations and they all respect the financial rules.
   
9. All parts used as part of the Formula 1 Competition by the Competitor, including simulations and tests, will be considered as a cost to be included in the financial report of each year for each Competitor.
   
10. Unless otherwise stated (for specific components or items), the final deadline to submit the complete version of the car for safety certification is 1 month before the first race of the season.
    This deadline is intended valid for both the World Title Series and each Continental Series.
    All parts, included the supplied ones, needs to be certified.
    
11. A Competitor of a Continental Series, who is purchasing the chassis and the body of the car from a supplier or a Competitor of the World Series, is allowed to change supplier even after the 1 month deadline if any of the parts or components is purchasing are not certified or homolgated during the Safety Assessments and Tests.
    
12. If a part require Homologation (i.e. standard safety devices) the FIA will endevour to homolgate it at least six month before the first race of the following season, to allow proper design integration with the new cars.
    
13. The FIA will release two dossiers:
    1. The first one including all Homologated parts and their specs, six months before the first race of the upcoming season, is shared with all Competitors at all levels.
    2. The second one, providing Safety Certification of all components of a car, released after the Safety Assessments and Tests (not later than 1 month before the first race), is shared only with the Competitor and suppliers involved in the certification of a single car, including other Competitors from Continental Series who are purchasing chassis and/or other aerodynamics parts.
       If a supplier is supplying more competitors, he shouldn’t share any information other than the ones referred to the parts supplied by him with other Competitors.
       
14. Other than parts who are Homologated by the FIA, for safety reasons, classified as SSC, and for those who are made available by the Competitors (or suppliers) as Open Source (OSC), all cars parts and components, including the supplied ones are considered Listed Team Components (LTC), which are components whose design, manufacture and Intellectual Property is owned and/or controlled by a single Competitor or its agents or suppliers on an exclusive basis.