ESPLAR Series Rules and Regulations

As a racing organization, ESPLAR makes and enforces rules that apply to all of its many divisions (ESPLAR Elite Series, ESPLAR Lites Series, Tier 3 and Tier 4 regional series).

As of 2019, ESPLAR has a rulebook for all series, which is made available to the public.

Car Livery
ESPLAR does not have a rule specifying what livery teams should use; all teams are free to design their liveries in whatever they choose. However, the only restriction that is in place is that liveries that may offend certain audiences are strictly prohibited.

Each car is required to display its number on the doors and roof. However, due to driver changes that may occur during the season, drivers' names do not have to be displayed on the car. Starting in 2020, all cars in Tier 2 or lower are now required to display the driver's last name on the rear windshield, although due to chassis restrictions the requirement does not apply in ESPLAR Elite Series.

Liveries can be submitted for approval at any time and will apply for the next race after ESPLAR approves it. There is a certain timeframe that ESPLAR requires that liveries be made in order to apply for certain races; if a team submits a livery and is approved for full-time season use, it must be approved a week before the Evanshire Test Race, but usually ESPLAR does not give penalties for late approval.

ESPLAR technically owns and controls the legal rights to all car numbers, however if a car number earns association with a driver, ESPLAR usually grants the team exclusive rights to use the number as they wish. The #5, for example, has been associated with Lucian Croft and Hennivan Racing since 2000, and Hennivan has since attained exclusive rights to the #5, and since 2018 the #5 was driven by Matt Croft, Lucian's son. The #21 has been associated with Saihara Motorsports since Kazuichi Saihara's only title with Team Nitra in 2011, and #21 has since remained with the team. The provisional #1 number usually applies to the champion of the previous season; however in recent years the #1 number has been less used; both Lean Campana and Kazuichi Saihara never used the #1 as both remain committed to using the #32 and #21 respectively. The last 2 to use it are Julia Truong in 2019 and Hayato Kitanami in 2020. Laura Kerrivan and Matt Croft have indicated that they will not use #1 if they win the Morson-Austin Trophy this season.

Sponsorship
Usually, ESPLAR is very lenient in terms of sponsorship. However, sponsorship in ESPLAR usually follows this set of rules:


 * No tobacco sponsorship (in effect since 2005)
 * No political sponsorship (existed since the start of the series)
 * No sponsorship by any military branch of any country (this is pretty obvious)
 * No musician/band sponsorship
 * This was added in 2021 after a popular Cascadian musician who sponsored a Tier 4 driver went bankrupt.
 * No NSFW sponsors (pretty obvious here as well)

Racing Flags
ESPLAR has the same flag system as FIA-sanctioned races in real life, but with some differences.

Code 60 flags are not used in ESPLAR, which indicates a hazard and required drivers to slow to 60 kph and cannot overtake cars. Code 60 is now replaced by the new "Code Purple" flag which is used only in ovals; yellow flags with a white circle are used instead in road courses to indicate a safety car, and yellow flags to indicate slowdown/no overtaking at certain areas.

Penalty System
As of 2020, ESPLAR has few in-race penalties, and are enforced in a per-race basis. Some penalties are cumulative, others are not.

ESPLAR mandates a post-qualifying and post-race inspection. Previous ESPLAR mandated a pre-qualifying inspection but to save costs for teams, the organization removed the mandate. Any infractions for post-qualifying usually result in qualifying times wiped and the driver starting at the rear of the field for the race. Rarely there are post-race disqualifications-the last time a driver was disqualified for post-race infraction was in 2006.

During the ESPLAR summer break, all teams' engines are tested by the organization to better improve racing and decide on rule changes for future seasons.

During the race, the following penalties can be given by ESPLAR:
 * Time penalty: Given for crashing a car on purpose or for passing a car under yellow flags and not giving the position back within allotted time. Usually given if the corner in question is not known for causing accidents.
 * Stop and Go: Given for passing cars on the same line before the start/finish line on starts/restarts.
 * Grid penalty: Given for post-qualifying infractions or for other infractions during the race if the car in question is out of the race after the specified incident.