The FIA has updated regulations surrounding a safety car period for the up coming new season after the controversial end of 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The F1 governing body has confirmed a number of changes to the sporting regulations on February 18th ahead of pre-season testing with revisions to the safety car rules made to speed up the restart procedure.
In the previous version of the regulations, article 55.13 detailed that a race could only resume at the end of the lap following the one on which “the last lapped car has passed the leader”. This clause has now been altered to allow for swifter restarts.
Instead, this season will see the same message of “lapped cars may now overtake” being sent to teams, but the safety car will now be recalled to the pits at the end of the following lap regardless of whether all lapped traffic has cleared the leaders.
In order for the message to unlap to be sent to teams, the clerk of the course must have declared the track to be “safe”.
The change does not directly address any of the failings of last year’s championship-deciding race but it will allow for swifter restarts for the coming year.
In the case of a race being concluded behind the safety car, the rules remain unchanged as clarified in article 55.16.
The regulation reads:
“If the safety car is still deployed at the beginning of the last lap, or is deployed during the last lap, it will enter the pit lane at the end of the lap and the cars will take the end-of race signal as normal without overtaking.”
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