An engineer moving from a restricted non-F1 division into a Formula 1 team will no longer be able to switch departments and start work straight away. Under the FIA’s new rules for 2027, that move requires at least three consecutive months away from both programmes, with no access to either side’s restricted technical data.
It is one of several changes approved by the FIA World Motor Sport Council on 19 October. The 2027 Formula 1 Operational Regulations also set tougher conditions for shared engineering facilities, factory access and IT systems.
The idea is to stop work funded outside a team’s F1 operation from giving its racing programme a benefit that is not properly accounted for under the cost cap. The new rules address that possibility; they do not establish that any team has broken the existing regulations.
Why work outside F1 is such a concern
A Formula 1 team may be part of a much bigger engineering organisation. Alongside the racing operation, its parent group might develop road-car technology, work for outside customers or compete in other championships.
Engineers in those businesses can have skills that are valuable in F1. They may also use wind tunnels, simulators and test equipment that the race team relies on. Sharing a site or specialist equipment is not, by itself, evidence of anything improper.
The difficulty comes when technical work moves between projects. If a separate division pays for research that ultimately helps an F1 car, the FIA needs to know whether the cost has been dealt with correctly.
Article F6 adds a practical layer of oversight. It looks at where people work and what they can access, rather than relying on financial records alone.
Separate work areas — but not necessarily separate factories
Teams will have to keep designated F1 and non-F1 working areas apart. Restricted employees from one side cannot enter the other’s restricted workspace, even if both departments operate in the same building.
Some of the most expensive facilities can still be shared. The regulations specifically allow controlled use of wind tunnels, driver-in-the-loop simulators, dynamometers, test benches, data centres and meeting rooms. The restriction is on simultaneous use: the two restricted workforces cannot occupy those areas together.
There are limited exceptions for approved operational-support personnel. For example, someone may need to enter a shared technical area during non-F1 use for an essential safety or equipment task that cannot reasonably be handled by the non-F1 team or left until later. That access must be limited to the work needed; it cannot become an opportunity to exchange development findings.
Ordinary communal spaces, including corridors, canteens and car parks, can remain shared. Certain manufacturing, assembly and storage areas can also be used by both groups under the rules, although restricted staff cannot carry out their designated work from those communal areas.
From 1 January 2027, the required electronic access controls must be backed by detailed logs. Records of permissions and entry to restricted areas must be retained for a rolling three years, with site plans and other evidence available for FIA inspection.
Engineering files face tighter controls too
Keeping departments in different rooms would achieve little if their staff could still browse the same design files. The FIA is therefore requiring separation within the computer systems used for restricted F1 and non-F1 work.
Teams may use access-controlled sections of shared software where that genuinely prevents data crossing the boundary. If the necessary separation cannot be achieved virtually, they must use separate systems instead. Changes to permissions need to be recorded.
Each affected team must also maintain a written IT segregation policy, signed by its team principal, chief financial officer and chief information officer. The FIA can inspect the facilities and use forensic IT audits to check compliance.
The regulations do not stop every technical transfer. Certain outputs developed within F1 can be passed to qualifying non-F1 projects, but only through an approved, documented process. Any permitted discussion to explain those outputs must take place over video, be recorded and transcribed, and stay within strict limits.
The reverse is not allowed: outputs produced by restricted non-F1 employees cannot be passed to the restricted F1 workforce. This one-way rule is one of the main safeguards against development paid for elsewhere feeding back into the race team.
The staff-transfer rules could be the hardest adjustment
Moving an engineer into F1 from a restricted non-F1 role now involves more than issuing a new security pass.
For at least three consecutive months before the move, the employee must undertake neither F1 nor non-F1 activities and must not access restricted IT systems or technical outputs from either workforce. Existing permissions have to be withdrawn, a new contractual arrangement is required, and access to F1 systems cannot begin before the transfer date.
Once transferred, the engineer must remain on qualifying F1-side duties for at least 12 consecutive months. Those duties may include specified power-unit supply, customer-team support or FIA project work.
A move out of F1 follows different rules. It does not carry that same three-month pre-transfer restriction, but the employee needs a new contract and replacement IT permissions, followed by at least 12 consecutive months on the permitted non-F1 assignment.
In both directions, the regulations also set how remuneration is treated in the F1 team’s relevant costs for the reporting period in which the transfer takes place, subject to the applicable financial provisions. Records of changed access permissions must be kept for three years.
For groups that routinely move specialists between programmes, the combination of restricted access and year-long assignments could make staffing decisions much less flexible.
What changes before the 2027 season?
The effect will vary from one team to another. An organisation with already separate facilities and IT may have relatively little to change. Others could need new access systems, reorganised office space, tighter software permissions or different arrangements for booking shared test equipment.
The FIA has left room for legitimate shared facilities and support services. The challenge for teams will be proving that those arrangements work as intended, rather than merely describing the separation in a policy document.
The changes sit alongside a wider rewrite of the 2027 rulebook. We have also covered the F1 Commission’s approval of shorter, 290km standard Grand Prix distances for 2027. That will be visible on race weekends; the cost-cap controls will mostly play out inside engineering departments.
Tech Torque Verdict
The FIA is asking teams to prove more than where they spend their money. They will have to show who can enter a room, open a file or move from one engineering project to another.
That level of control adds work, particularly for companies running several technical programmes under one roof. But it is a more convincing approach than expecting financial declarations alone to reveal whether outside research has helped an F1 car.
The important part will be consistent enforcement. Shared facilities should remain usable where the rules allow them, without creating a route for technical work to cross into F1 unnoticed.
