After the conclusion of a detailed report on what happened at the end of the 2021 Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with the controversy with the resumption of the safety car, the FIA published the conclusions.
In addition to revealing an executive summary of its investigation, the FIA World Motor Sports Council also reported the main findings, which suggest that what went wrong was to blame for poor regulations and misconduct rather than by deliberate malice by Michael Masi .
The key to everything appears in articles 48.12 and 48.13 of the F1 Sporting Regulations, which detail the process of unfolding the drivers at the time of the resumption of the race.
In the conclusions, the FIA stated: “From the analysis it can be seen that there could be different interpretations of articles 48.12 and 48.13 of the Formula 1 Sporting Regulations, and that this contributed to the procedure applied.”
“It was also considered that decisions regarding the safety car at the end of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix were likely to have taken into account previous discussions which made clear the preference of Formula 1 stakeholders (FIA, F1, teams and drivers). ) to finish races under green flag conditions, rather than behind a safety car, when it was safe to do so.
“In conjunction with the goal of finishing under green flag race conditions applied throughout the 2021 season, the report finds that the race director acted in good faith and, to the best of his knowledge, given the difficult circumstances, especially acknowledging the significant time constraints in making decisions and the immense pressure exerted by the teams.”
Although the mistakes made in Abu Dhabi have generated calls for the race results to be annulled, the FIA is clear that the matter is now closed: “The results of the 2021 Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the Formula 1 World Championship FIA Formula 1 are valid, final and cannot be changed now.
“In accordance with the rules, Mercedes lodged a protest with the stewards after the test, seeking to change the classification. The stewards dismissed the protest and Mercedes then had the opportunity to appeal that decision to the FIA International Court of Appeal, but it did not”.
“There are no other mechanisms available in the regulations to modify the classification of the race.”
The FIA ended up removing Masi for the 2022 season, and has made modifications to the procedures, and that includes the process of informing that lagging cars can be automatically split.”
“The process of identifying delayed cars has so far been manual, and human error led to the fact that not all of them could make up the lap. Due to the fact that manual interventions generally carry a risk of human error, it has been developed a software that, from now on, will automate the communication of the list of single-seaters that can be split”.
“Furthermore, the 2022 Formula 1 Sporting Regulations have been updated to clarify that ‘all’ and not ‘some’ cars should be allowed to overtake the safety car,” the report concludes.
