F1 Makes Rule Change After Controversial Max Verstappen Move
Australian Grand Prix race director, Niels Wittich, has issued a diagram showing changes to the rules for safety car restarts.
We are all familiar with Red Bull driver, Max Verstappen’s recent tactic for safety car restarts which we have seen in the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, followed by the 2022 Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grand Prixs. Verstappen tends to move up as far alongside the leading car as he can just before the restart.
However, the new FIA rules state that there must be enough time between the lead car and safety car to ensure it has sufficient time to get into the pits.
A very fascinating addition to the FIA Event Notes this morning by Niels Wittich. pic.twitter.com/Rc3fVK2rrl
— Junaid #JB17 (@JunaidSamodien_) April 9, 2022
The safety car restart is an important moment for the drivers as the previously gained gaps in between cars will now be gone.
The released image clearly shows that cars will not be allowed to be alongside each other at a restart, they will not even be allowed to have half a car length beside the other.
All eyes will be on Verstappen as we know this is a tactic he previously used, especially when he has already said that he has not been feeling as comfortable in his car this weekend when asked by Johnny Herbert on the track:
“Not good. I didn’t really feel good in the car the whole weekend so far.
“I think there’s not been one lap when I actually felt confident, so a bit of a struggle.
“Of course, second is still a good result, but just not feeling that great to go to the limit. We’ll try to analyse it.
“Probably in the race pace everything stabilises a bit, but for me this weekend so far it’s been all over the place. I think also as a team we want more.”
