A lot has changed in Formula 1 in recent years. Dwelling into the new rules which should be inducted in F1 come the 2022 season
Since the sport was bought in 2017, it has accepted a wider range of sponsors who feature on the sides of the track and as part of the TV graphics. iGaming companies have been quick to get involved with the sport, adding sponsorship to their broad marketing mix that includes free spins promotions and social media campaigns. The sport’s new owners also did a deal to help sports betting brands offer a wider selection of wagers to their customers by connecting to the wealth of data that is generated during a race.
Another change has been the new Race Director. After the sad passing of the much-loved Charlie Whiting just days before the 2019 Australian Grand Prix. Australian Michael Masi stepped into the very large shoes that Charlie left behind and has held the key position ever since.
He has been criticised by some in the sport several times since taking over as Race Director, most notably in late 2020 when cars were sent out on track while a crane was still recovering another car. While problematic, Masi defended the situation by saying that he’d been told that the crane would have been out of position by the time cars arrived at Turn 8, but that this clearly wasn’t the case and that he and the FIA would learn lessons from the incident.
F1 2022: Time For New Rules To End Controversial Decisions
However, the ending to the 2021 Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship, which saw Max Verstappen overtake Lewis Hamilton on the final lap has overshadowed any previous incidents.
“It’s Ending! And it’s Ending! WOW!”
With five laps to go before the end of the final race, Lewis Hamilton had led from the start with Max Verstappen following in second. Whoever finished in front of the other would win the World Championship and it looked set for Hamilton to take a record-breaking 8th title.
However, after a battle with Mick Schumacher, Nicholas Latifi crashed his car at turn 14, spraying debris across the track.
As was necessary, Masi deployed the safety car to bunch up the pack while marshals cleared away the mess. Verstappen pitted for a fresh set of softs, falling behind some cars he’d previously lapped but keeping second.
After some confusion, Masi released these cars out of the way before the start of the penultimate lap and immediately announced “safety car in this lap”. Commentating for Sky, former driver Martin Brundle exclaimed “it’s ending! And it’s ending! WOW!” while Mercedes’ Toto Wolf radioed Masi pleading “No Michael! No no Michael! That was so not right!”.
Verstappen overtook Hamilton on this final lap showdown much to the delight of the army of orange-clad Dutch fans in stands. The two duelled for several more corners before Verstappen managed to eke out a short lead, crossing the line to end a crazy season and an even crazier race.
Much has been said about the decision to end the safety car period in the way that it was, though Masi summed it up himself in reply to Toto’s radio message saying “it’s called a motor race…we went car racing”.
It’s clear the exact letters of article 48.12 of the FIA’s sporting regulations were not followed, though the legal wranglings and post-race protests against the decision did not put the sport or the teams in a good light.
While this is true, it’s clear that a final lap(s) sprint would be preferable to ending a race behind the safety car. For this reason, there are some solutions F1 could implement in 2022 to avoid this happening again.
Red Flag
If a safety car is needed in the final 5-10 laps of a race, it could be agreed that the race should be stopped. This would have a similar effect as what we saw in Abu Dhabi but would give the race director more time to ensure the track is clear without any frantic calls to get everything ready for a last-lap sprint.
It would, however, mean that strategy wouldn’t come into play as much as all drivers could change tyres for free, which wasn’t what happened in Abu Dhabi. This may or may not be a good thing, as it would remove some strategic elements from the racing.
Green-White-Chequer Finish
In North America, a green-white-chequer finish (GWC) has been adopted for many years. It means that a race gets extended by a certain number of laps if a race is put under caution (similar to a safety car) in the final part of the race.
This essentially means the race restarts for a couple of extra laps, with the green flag signifying the resumption of race conditions, the white used (in America) to signify the start of the last lap, and the chequered flag telling drivers it was over.
Both solutions would be preferable to watching grown men and women throwing tantrums on live TV and still deliver an exciting end to a race for fans.