Impound

Impound in motorsport refers to a secure, restricted area where race cars are held under official supervision to prevent teams from making any modifications or adjustments to their vehicles.

Think of impound like a high-security parking garage for race cars. Once a car enters this area, it's essentially "locked down" – teams can't touch it except for very basic maintenance tasks, and only under the watchful eye of race officials.

The most common time cars go into impound is right after qualifying sessions. This prevents teams from making sneaky changes to their cars between qualifying and the actual race. For example, a team might want to adjust their car's suspension or engine settings after seeing how fast their competitors went, but impound rules stop this from happening.

In Formula 1, this system is called "parc fermé," which is French for "closed park." The concept is the same – cars are essentially frozen in their qualifying setup. Teams can only do basic things like change tires, add fuel, or fix broken parts, but they can't make performance improvements.

Race officials use impound areas to conduct detailed technical inspections. They check that cars meet all the rules and regulations, measuring everything from engine specifications to safety equipment. This helps ensure fair competition across all teams.

Some racing series also use overnight impound rules. This means cars must stay in the secure area between practice sessions or overnight before race day. This prevents teams from working around the clock to gain advantages, which helps control costs and creates more equal competition.

The impound system serves three main purposes: keeping competition fair by preventing last-minute modifications, allowing thorough safety and rule compliance checks, and helping control the enormous costs of professional motorsport by limiting how much work teams can do on their cars.