© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
In the revised 2022 Safety Car regulations, the FIA changed the wording that was previously used as justification for Michael Masi’s controversial Abu Dhabi Grand Prix decisions.
At the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix race director Michael Masi decided not to follow the regulations that govern the use of the Safety Car, which led to Max Verstappen being crowned the 2021 champion.
More specifically, on the penultimate lap of the race, which was run under the Safety Car, Masi allowed only the lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to unlap themselves, while others were not allowed to do so, before the race was restarted on the very next lap.
However, Article 48.12 of the 2021 sporting regulations says that: “If the clerk of the course considers it safe to do so, and the message ‘lapped cars may now overtake’ has been sent to all competitors via the official messaging system, any cars that have been lapped by the leader will be required to pass the cars on the lead lap and the safety car.”
So, this obviously means that every lapped car was required to unlap itself, before the race could be restarted. Not only that, but it is also required that one additional lap has to be driven before the restart.
This means that had the rules been followed, the race would have ended under the Safety Car, because there was no time to complete the full procedure, and Lewis Hamilton would have been declared the winner.
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After the race, Mercedes understandably protested Masi’s decisions, but although the stewards admitted that the sporting regulations “may not have been applied fully”, the protest was dismissed.
One of the arguments that representatives of Red Bull reportedly used during the meeting with the stewards to validate Masi’s decisions, was that the phrase “any cars” does not necessarily mean “all cars”.
As ludicrous as this explanation sounds, the FIA has now actually decided to change the 2022 equivalent article [55.13] so that it now says “all cars” instead of “any cars”.
This means that in 2022 the aforementioned explanation could not be used in an attempt to justify Masi’s obvious disregard for the rules.
However, unfortunately, the FIA would probably again use the infamous Article 15.3 (which supposedly gives the Race Director “overriding authority” over the use of the Safety Car) as an argument to dismiss any protests. But that, is a different story.
