FIA change F1 safety car rule to avoid repeat of Abu Dhabi 2021 Grand Prix chaos which saw Max Verstappen win title

The FIA have taken steps to ensure there will be no repeat of last year's controversial Formula 1 season finale by changing the wording of their safety car rules. Red Bull's Max Verstappen sensationally landed his first F1 crown in Abu Dhabi last December, but many felt Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton was unfairly robbed of what would've been his eighth title by then race director Michael Masi's polemical decision to only allow the cars between the two drivers to un-lap themselves, leaving Verstappen with enough time to pass the Brit on the final lap.

Ad/> That will no longer be allowed under the new law, which now stipulates that «all» lapped cars must un-lap themselves before a race can be restarted, rather than the previous wording which — more ambiguously — used the word «any». Bahrain Grand PrixMercedes have 'a lot of problems' ahead of season opener, says HamiltonA DAY AGO As well as the controversy around the un-lapping, Masi's decision to let cars — and most crucially, Verstappen — overtake on the same lap as he had let cars un-lap themselves, rather than the following lap as the rules state, was also met with confusion, especially in the Mercedes garage.

In a tacit admission of the Australian's mistake, the FIA have left this rule unchanged. There have already been other changes in the paddock for 2022, with Masi removed from his role to be replaced by the alternating pair of Eduardo Freitas and Niels Wittich, who will be supervised by Herbie Blash, a former assistant of Charlie Whiting, the F1 race director who died in 2019.