The 2022 F1 Italian Grand Prix experienced an anti-climactic finish under the safety car, which was on the contrary a result of the rules that many have consistently demanded to apply, know the rules and regulations
Following the controversial end to the race, team bosses to commenters on social media have poured criticism towards the FIA.
F1 FIA Safety Car Rules, Regulations, Restart And Intervention
2022 F1 Italian Grand Prix Experiences An Anti-climactic End Following Controversial Safety Car Rules
FIA states: "Mohammed Ben Sulayem is convening a meeting with race officials and Formula 1 Team Managers on the Monday following the 2022 FIA Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix to discuss a range of sporting matters."
Follows meetings with drivers this week #F1
— Chris Medland (@ChrisMedlandF1) September 11, 2022
Congrats to Aston Martin's Safety Car for winning the 2022 Italian Grand Prix! 🥳#ItalianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/ULzstrQv5L
— Ronan Murphy (@swearimnotpaul) September 11, 2022
So before picking sides, let’s understand the rules that led to how the race ended the way it did.
How exactly did the 2022 F1 Italian Grand Prix end according to the rules?
The FIA stated that there were no delays in any of the race control procedures during the F1 Italian Grand Prix.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner stated that:
It felt like the safety car picked up the wrong car. And that delayed things further for what looked like a reasonably trivial incident.
However, the safety car did not in fact pick up the ‘wrong’ driver, as stated. While this may be true, it does not mean that it was a mistake.
The sporting regulations clearly state on this:
The safety car will join the track with its orange lights illuminated and will do so regardless of where the leader is.
When officials brought out the safety car during the race, Verstappen simply happened to be halfway around the lap.
Second-place man Charles Leclerc was approaching the first Lesmo, and George Russell, in third, happened to be emerging from the pits.
It was simply unfortunate that only five cars were between the safety car and the leader. The second issue is that the cars were vastly spread out, from Russell exiting the pits and Nicholas Latifi at the second chicane.
Then the situation was intensified when Verstappen made a pitstop, further dropping him even deeper into the safety car queue.
These unfortunate series of incidents simply meant that there were three things, which needed to happen before the race resumed.
Firstly, the cars between the safety car and the leader needed to be let past. Secondly, lapped cars needed to be allowed to overtake the safety car. Lastly, the safety car will return to the pits at the end of the subsequent lap.
What has caused all the criticism?
If the safety car was simply following the rules stated by FIA, why is everyone pouring criticism on the actions? The reason why the incident has received criticism is due to how it was executed.
There is point to this as it took three laps with the safety car deployed before the signal was given for the cars between the safety car and the leader to be let past.
Horner insisted:
That one could have been sorted out in time, it was a case of picking up the wrong car. The safety car didn’t pick up the leader and that caused a huge delay for them all to have to catch up. You could have at least got one racing lap there and probably two.
The cars between the safety car and Verstappen were only released once all the cars were finally in a line behind the safety car. This happened even though race control would appear to have discretion at how quickly this can happen.
The rules don’t particularly state that the cars must line up in a queue, it only says:
When ordered to do so by the clerk of the course the observer in the car will use a green light to signal to any cars between it and the leader that they should pass.
This was however, complicated due to Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren which got stuck in gear. Since it could not be rolled away, it needed a recovery vehicle, requiring more workers and a greater hazard.
The priority during such scenarios is to maximise the gap on track between cars for recovery work. As such, race officials had to create this gap as soon as possible, rather than having cars driving around at random intervals.
And the quickest way to do so is to let the cars form a queue regardless of whether the leader was at the front of it.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff clearly put it:
There was a car on track. There were marshals. There was a crane. That’s why they didn’t let anybody overtake.
The anti-climactic end to 2022 F1 Italian Grand Prix
Once the delay was put in motion, race control could not do anything more. Though the cars were released, they only caught the back of the queue as Verstappen started the final lap.
There was no time left to allow lapped cars to overtake and for the safety car to come in at the end of the following lap.
Since there is no mechanism in the regulations for unilaterally throwing a red flag and suspending the race without just cause, there was simply no alternative but to finish behind the safety car.
Despite all the criticism surrounding how the FIA handled the situation, it found support from someone who was so badly burned by improper safety car protocol in Abu Dhabi last year – Wolff. This has added to the validation of their actions and the controversial rules.
Therefore, we can conclude that the rules were applied correctly in the case of the 2022 F1 Italian Grand Prix. However, whether or not the rules are fit for purpose is another completely different discussion.
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