Formula 5
Formula 5 Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Material
- 5 car cards
- 70 race cards: 14 × 5 colours, back pit stop
- 6 pit stop cards, back pit stop
Idea and Goal of the Game
The theme of the game is a car race. The player who finishes the race in the better position will be the winner.
Setup
After assigning each player ONE CAR, shuffle ALL 5 car cards and place them RANDOMLY on the table in succession, from first to fifth position. These are the starting positions.
Shuffle the race cards. Depending on the starting position of their car, each player receives a hand of 12 cards, hidden from the other players, made up as follows:
- 1st and 2nd position: 2 pit stop cards + 10 race cards
- 3rd and 4th position: 1 pit stop card + 11 race cards
- 5th position: 12 race cards
The remaining race cards form a drawing deck. Should it run out, shuffle the discarded cards to form it again.
5 race cards are drawn from the drawing deck and placed FACE UP, next to (below) each car card, to form 5 columns.
Fig. 1: Example of setup — the five car cards in positions 5., 4., 3., 2., 1., each with a face-up race card below it.
If playing with less than 5 players, cars without a player do not receive cards at the start of the game. On their turn, they draw from the drawing deck, and do not pit stop.
How to Play
The game is played in turns. The car in first position plays first, the car in second position plays second, and so on.
The active player MUST:
- PLAY a race card from their hand (or draw it from the drawing deck in case of cars without a player) and place it in the column corresponding to their CAR, overlapped, so that all race cards are always visible.
- DETERMINE THE SPEED of the car by counting all race cards of the SAME COLOUR AS THE LAST RACE CARD PLAYED IN THE WHOLE COLUMN.
- RESOLVE any overtaking by swapping the position of their car card with the car card preceding it, only if its SPEED is GREATER than the SPEED of the car preceding it. In the case of a lower or same speed, overtaking does not happen.
Fig. 2: Example of overtaking (a speed of 3 beats a speed of 2).
You may overtake a SINGLE CAR per turn.
When a car is overtaken, it moves back one position and thus changes column. Consequently, its speed changes, since the speed is always relative to the column the car is in. A car may therefore be overtaken more than once in the same round.
Pit Stop
INSTEAD OF playing a race card (race side), each player, during their turn, MAY decide to make a PIT STOP by playing a pit stop card or a race card FACE DOWN (pit stop side) in the column of their car.
The PIT STOP allows the active player to discard as many race cards from their hand as they wish (but no pit stop cards) and to draw the same number from the drawing deck, to try to improve their hand.
The pit stop cards in the hands of some players represent obligatory pit stops. But ALL players are FREE TO MAKE PIT STOPS whenever they wish.
During a pit stop the SPEED of the car is 0 (zero).
If there are several CONSECUTIVE cars stopped for pit stops you are allowed to overtake them all.
Fig. 3: The white player makes a pit stop.
Fig. 4: The blue player takes advantage of this and overtakes with a speed of 1.
The positions in the race are ALWAYS formed from first to fifth place, there is no gap between cars. If a car in fifth position makes a pit stop it will still be in fifth position.
End of the Round
When all cars have played their turn, the round ends. The new round starts considering the new positions. The car in first position plays first, the car in second position plays second, and so on.
End of the Game
At the end of the round when the cards in the players' hands run out, the game ends.
The player whose car is in the better position (among players) at the end of the game wins the game.
Fig. 5: Example of the end of the game.