Formula 1 Round 22 Abu Dhabi GP

As has been said, the track was clear on lap 56 and according to article 48.13 of the sporting regulations the safety car will be called in as soon as the track is deemed safe. There was plenty of time to let through the backmarkers including the last couple on this lap, in order to avoid what would be an utterly unprecedented step of not letting them through. If they had been allowed through at this point like they normally do and like multiple teams were on the radio expecting them to, all other arguments would have been completely null and void. Unfortunately they delayed doing this, probably due to the amount of lobbying they were dealing with, but it was by far and away the lesser of two evils to follow correct procedure a little late than to just throw it out the window because of a slight delay.

It would have gone against the rule book and gone against what all the teams agreed to, if they were to end under a safety car despite the track being clear for multiple laps. It would have thrown all precedent out the window to not allow lapped cars through. Missing the last couple of backmarkers was not ideal but ultimately it had absolutely zero impact on the outcome of the race. It cost Ricciardo a shot at 11th place perhaps, but the purpose of the rule is to get backmarkers out of the way of front runners, not to ensure backmarkers have a better chance of gaining places.

Sometimes the rules contradict each other and a call has to be made because it's impossible for the regulations to encapsulate every possible event that could ever happen.

In this case the rules are clear that the safety car should be called in as soon as it is safe. This is doubly important near the end of the race as all teams unanimously agreed beforehand that finishing under green flags should always be the priority, and it would have made a mockery of the sport to keep the safety car out for an extra two laps and end under a safety car despite the fact the track had been entirely safe for a long time.

The second rule in article 48.12, which you are homing in on and have decided is the only one that matters above all else, is that there should be a lap between the lapped cars being let by and the safety car coming in. This directly contradicts the above rule. So a judgement call needs to be made. It's worth noting that the entire reason for this rule is so the leaders don't suddenly catch a large gaggle of lapped cars 3 or 4 laps after the safety car comes in. This can't happen when there's too few laps remaining, so that justification is gone. Secondly, if they'd been quick enough off the mark the lapped cars could easily have been let past a lap earlier, which is the reason why so many teams and drivers were on the radio saying it should be happening, so to anally follow this rule at the expense of the above rule would basically have just been doubling down on that mistake, rather than correcting it.

Objectively, there were two rules in direct contradiction of each other given the circumstances and it was only physically possible to apply one of them - this is why article 15.3 exists which says the race director has full discretion in how these are applied. If it was half way through a race with plenty of time for green flag racing and the real possibility that the leaders would catch the pack of backmarkers again if they hadn't pulled out enough of a gap, delaying bringing in the safety car would probably have taken priority. But in the actual cricumstances, given the choice between applying the rule that everyone unanimously agreed in advance should be applied in order to avoid finishing behind the safety car, or applying the one who's whole purpose was moot given the number of laps remaining, and which should never have entered the equation anyway if they hadn't been so slow to let lapped cars through on the previous lap, the race director made the only logical choice. It would have been absolutely unprecedented to have done anything else.

This is such a boring conversation now...

Heard Lineker made another reference on SPOTY. What an absolute tool.

Yes so many people are only looking at this through the lens of who it helped or didn't help and are blinded by their biases. The safety car is there for safety. You can't throw a red flag when it isn't warranted. You can't keep the safety car out needlessly for extra laps long after the blockage is cleared.

Sometimes people get lucky from safety car periods and sometimes they don't. Sometimes teams and drivers make the most of them with perfectly executed strategies and sometimes they don't think quickly enough on their feet and get caught out. Any luck at Abu Dhabi was more than balanced out over the course of the season and it's really tiresome the amount of people who just don't understand F1, or think the season was only one race long, or are just plain salty because their man was beaten, all of which is of course being egged on by the Mercedes PR machine and the media trying to create a controversy out of a fairly standard safety car period.

It's really tiresome at this stage.

Saw that, plonker.

Yeah. You labelling anyone "blinded by their bias" is hilarious to everyone. That's the joke which everyone gets except yourself.

All this chat would've been moot if Hamilton had the skill to hold off Verstappen for a couple of miles, he couldn't unfortunately.

Yup, Perez managed to hold up Hamilton who was lapping multiple seconds per lap faster, whereas Hamilton couldn't hold off Verstappen who was probably less than a second a lap faster.

It's just one of those things and now in the week leading up to Christmas I'm ready to join the ceasefire and move on. The abuse Latifi is getting is pretty sad though.