21/02/2022
NEWS STORY
As part of the fall-out after Abu Dhabi, the FIA has tweaked the Safety Car procedure.
In an as yet to be explained move, in the wake of Nicholas Latifi's crash, as the field continued behind the Safety Car, race director, Michael Masi went against the established rules and rather than allowing all lapped drivers to un-lap themselves ahead of the restart ordered only those separating the title protagonists - Lewis Verstappen and Max Verstappen - to pass the race leading Mercedes.
On fresh rubber, and with no traffic in his way, this allowed Verstappen to get a clean run on Hamilton, who was on old tyres, when the race resumed.
You know what happened next.
In the latest update to the Sporting Regulations, issued in the wake of the news that Masi has been relieved of his position, the wording has been tweaked in order to avoid future 'confusion'.
Article 55.13, which had previously read: "Unless the clerk of the course considers the presence of the safety car is still necessary, once the last lapped car has passed the leader the safety car will return to the pits at the end of the following lap."
Now reads
"Unless the clerk of the course considers the presence of the safety car is still necessary, once the message 'LAPPED CARS MAY NOW OVERTAKE' has been sent to all Competitors using the official messaging system, the safety car will return to the pits at the end of the following lap."
While the move is not a direct response to what happened in Abu Dhabi, the tweak should speed up the restart process as the Safety Car no longer has to wait on the last lapped car to pass before it can withdraw.
Had Masi followed the existing rules it is unlikely there would have been time for a final racing lap, however it was allegedly the lobbying of Red Bull (and others?) that caused the race director make the fateful decision to only allow those five cars separating the leaders to un-lap themselves.
While Red Bull clearly had the motive to have the one racing lap at the end it is beyond comprehension that either F1's owners of the likes of Netflix would have wanted to witness such a dramatic season conclude behind the anonymous flashing lights of the Aston Martin Vantage at the head of the pack.