© Wolfgang Wilhelm for Daimler AG
The FIA has made changes to the Safety Car regulations in response to the controversial finish of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The FIA is continuing to make changes in response to the controversial breaking of the Safety Car rules at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which led to Max Verstappen becoming the world champion.
One of these changes is directly related to the Safety Car. Article 55.13 in the previous version of the regulations said that the race can resume after a safety car period on the lap following the one on which “the last lapped car has passed the leader”.
This article has now been altered so that the restarts can be done faster. Now, after the message of “lapped cars may now overtake” has been issued, the race will restart at the end of the following lap, regardless of where the lapped cars are at the moment.
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So, in short, the lapped cars will be responsible for where they end up on the track after the race has been restarted.
The message to unlap will be sent out only after the track clerk has determined that the track is “safe”.
If for some reason the race is unable to be restarted the rule remains the same, as stated in article 55.16. which states:
“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.”
