SPORT Formula 1®: Mastering the Rules, Mastering Precision

At TAG Heuer, our passion for Formula 1® runs deep — it’s part of our DNA. Welcome to this special series where we share what every true enthusiast should know about this thrilling sport. 

In 1911, almost forty years before the first ever FIA Formula One World Championship™ event in 1950, TAG Heuer introduced the Trip of Time, the first dashboard chronograph.

Less than sixty years later, in 1969, TAG Heuer became the first watchmaker to have its logo emblazoned on a Formula 1® car. That shared heritage is present in both F1® and TAG Heuer’s modern-day creations: methodical sophistication and design philosophy met by intricate nature and uncompromised detail.

When TAG Heuer returned to F1® as its Official Timekeeper at the start of the 2025, it was not just the dawn of a new era for the championship, it was a joint legacy reunited and reborn. Because whilst Formula 1® is underpinned by sporting, technical and financial regulations, TAG Heuer is honour-bound by the law of time and the pursuit of high precision; two gifts the latter bestows the former to bring meaning to its rulebook and a point from which to measure.

There are three sets of overarching regulations that govern Formula 1®: Its sporting rules, its technical rules and its financial rules – all three working in concert. 

The first ranges from how points are allocated each race to how safety car restarts are properly conducted and everything in between.

The second is comprised of 17 articles that mandate the specific requirements of an F1® car – from the front wing through the chassis and power unit to the rear wing.

The third, more important than ever in the cost cap era, dictates how much teams can spend – and how that is restricted.

Three distinct areas, all interlinked and woven together by one shared principle: Time.

Every decision an F1® team makes across that trident of regulations is shown by the TAG Heuer timing board. From a thousandth of a second to a tenth of a second, what an F1® car can achieve, and the finishing position a driver can attain is determined by a comprehensive appreciation of the Formula 1® rulebook. Although unseen once the lights go out on race day, the journey to every millisecond gained begins long before the TAG Heuer stopwatch starts.

In extension of the myriads of often-unseen regulations in F1® before a car reaches the circuit, there are a plethora of rules that command a Grand Prix weekend. Time is a critical factor in them all.

Safety cars, for example, can shake up an entire F1® race. They can see a once-healthy advantage eradicated in a split-second.

But they also create opportunity. A pitstop completed under such conditions is considerably more time efficient. Understanding how doing so will affect your race and position is crucial. It can be, and often is, the difference between winning or losing valuable seconds on the opposition.

That is none-more evident than when it comes to the rules that oversee the outer limits of an F1® circuit, and the punishments for exceeding them.

In qualifying, a track limits violation will see that lap being deleted. In the race, the fourth time a driver breaks that rule, a five-second time penalty is awarded. A fifth indiscretion comes with a 10-second punishment.

Reflected directly by the timing board, maximising the limit of the circuit without allowing all four wheels to cross over the white lines that define it is the ultimate act of mastering time without ever compromising it – a guiding belief that encapsulates TAG Heuer’s enduring pursuit of excellence.

To the watchmaker and the racing driver alike, it is a form of art, for an F1® car dancing on the edge shares the intricacy and beauty of a TAG Heuer timepiece; mastering the rules is mastering precision.