Surprisingly long Safety Car periods interrupted the action during the closing stages of two of the last three grands prix.
In both cases the interruptions were caused by a single lapped car (coincidentally, it was Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes each time). And on both occasions the race restart was delayed due to the decision to allow lapped cars to rejoin the lead lap.
“It’s going to take forever,” complained Lewis Hamilton as the Safety Car period dragged on during the last race at the Circuit de Catalunya. “They do love wasting laps.”
The drivers’ patience was tested two weeks earlier at Imola, where the Safety Car spent the best part of a quarter of an hour on-track. The Spanish Grand Prix interruption lasted 10 minutes. A substantial chunk of this was spent sending the lapped cars around.
Moving the lapped drivers aside is a long-established practice. But it is a more time-consuming process these days as the process cannot begin until the track is clear. This became practice to avoid a repeat of the kind of dangerous situation which occured at Imola in 2020.
Does sending the lapped cars around now waste too much time? Or is it worth reducing the number of racing laps in order to ensure drivers who are fighting for position restart next to each other?
For
The Safety Car should be on-track for the least amount of time possible. Sending the lapped cars around drags the procedure out. At Catalunya the track was clear within six minutes of Antonelli stopping but the unlapping procedure added another four minutes, needlessly extending the delay by two-thirds.
F1 already has some of the strictest blue flag rules in motor racing, far tougher than in series like IndyCar. Even if lapped cars remained in place, they would quickly be waved aside, so wasting potential racing laps moving them out of the way simply isn’t necessary.
Against
The long Safety Car periods seen at recent races were not solely caused by lapped cars. At Imola it took an unusually long amount of time to move Antonelli’s car aside due to the lack of room to recover vehicles at that point on the track. It took 11 minutes to clear the hazard and just three to sort out the restart order.
Leaving lapped cars in position inhibits racing and creates confusion as restart order at the front of the field does not necessarily reflect the running order. Moving them out of the way may reduce the number of racing laps but it improves the racing in those laps.
I say
The Virtual Safety Car is clearly a preferable alternative to the Safety Car when it can be used as it creates less disruption to the running order and preserves the gaps between the drivers. In short, it’s a fairer solution and I prefer to see F1 use it when possible.
That isn’t always the case, however, as sometimes it’s necessary to close the pack together in order to give marshals more time and space to work. Once that hazard is cleared, the race should resume.
I don’t accept the argument that the lapped drivers must be moved out of the way during a Safety Car period. The drivers who have already lapped them will have lost time doing so, and on top of that have had any advantage they built up over their pursuers wiped out.
The Safety Car inevitably disadvantages some drivers compared to others, which is undesirable, and moving the lapped cars aside only adds to that. What’s more, it does it by extending the length of the Safety Car period and reducing the number of racing laps. To me, that’s a lose-lose situation.
On top of that, F1 has the added complication that the decision whether to send the lapped cars around is made at the discretion of race control. This led to a huge controversy a few years ago. A consistent policy should be enforced, and that should be to leave the lapped cars where they are.
You say
Should F1 allow lapped drivers to unlap themselves in Safety Car periods? Cast your vote below and have your say in the comments.
Should F1 move lapped cars back onto the lead lap during Safety Car periods?
- Don't know / no opinion (5%)
- No - never (43%)
- Yes - but only when race control chooses to (24%)
- Yes - always (28%)
Total Voters: 155
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Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
8th June 2025, 8:43
It does take too long. And if you lost a lap, we’ll maybe tough luck? Either that or just let the lapped cars move backwards instead of forwards and get on with it.
Craig
8th June 2025, 10:07
Problem with that is it removes an option for getting back in contention. A safety car is a game changer for someone whose had a really bad start to the race (say a puncture or broken front wing, which may not even have been their fault) which could have resulted in being a lap down, so they’ll be hoping for a safety car to get back onto the lead lap and catch the pack. Remove that potential and you’ll see more people give up and retire from a race if they have a really bad start.
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
8th June 2025, 10:11
100%, I suggested this somewhere years ago, but if they don’t want them to be among the leaders, make the lapped cars go through the pit lane a lap before the SC comes in so they can safely and quickly get to the back of the bunch in order.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
8th June 2025, 11:08
That is an idea. Lapped cars go through the pit lane – it would certainly speed the process up, but do they get gifted the lap? Otherwise they could be at an advantage of about a minute and a half and having used less fuel / tyres.
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
8th June 2025, 11:11
I wouldn’t give the lap back, “tough luck” as Fer said.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
8th June 2025, 14:58
I think this, all lapped cars compass thru the pit lane the lap before the restart.
But also add this:
Credit them a lap, but also make them pass thru the pitlane again on the restart lap so that they drop 20 to 30s behind. They have a lap of extra fule and a lap less tyre usage, but also need to recover the additional time so its a fair trade off.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
9th June 2025, 17:08
@bernasaurus If the lapped cars go through the pits, the only advantage for fuel would be the difference between the fuel used to go down the pit lane and the fuel used to get from the pit entry to the pit exit on the usual racing line. However, extra time was spent doing the pit lane run (unless it’s Silverstone, where the pit lane is mathematically faster than going the usual way at Safety Car speed).
This is the same advantage/disadvantage combination as received by anyone who gets a drive-through penalty. There’s no need to do anything more complicated than simply let it happen, apart from closing the pit exit until the last car to not go through the pit lane has passed the pit exit line.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
8th June 2025, 13:55
The problem is one of fuel usage over race distance.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
8th June 2025, 14:55
But why must it be a problem? Penalise then another way. Remove a lap of fuel allowance.
osnola
8th June 2025, 15:19
The amount of fuel per timeperiode is regulated. When using more fuel its possible to run the engine on a higher power output. So a lap more fuel and a ap less tire wear could be extremely suefull for some.
rpla
8th June 2025, 15:24
This is the solution. Let lapped cars go through pitlane to fall to the back, and for all lapped cars increase minimum fuel requirement at the end of the race by about 1 lap worth of fuel (average over race distance). This way cars get behind cleanly and quickly, and don’t have fuel advantage over other cars. If anything they would have fuel disadvantage, which is perfectly fine.
Coventry Climax
8th June 2025, 18:55
That’s
A) none existent as they run slowly behind the safety car and save fuel
B) exactly what gave a bit of unpredictability in the past
C) adds even more to the unpredictability as teams might gamble (= next phase source of income for F1) on amounts of fuel they start with
D) All or any of the above and likely even more, unless you think sticking rigidly to all the other rules is the only option, instead of coming up with a more comprehensive solution, that might mean straightening out more than just one single rule. F1/FiA thinking out of the box for a change, so to speak. That won’t happen though. If there’s anyone tightly within his box, it’s MBS himself, with Domenicali a decent second. And actually, I’d classify most of the replies here, on place 3.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
8th June 2025, 21:45
I respectfully disagree with your point A- The timing of the safety car (at the beginning or the ending of the race distance), plus the fact that “safety cars breed safety cars”, sometimes more than twice, means that this actually does effect how teams are able to run their races.
I prefer a single broad rule rather than many small circumstantial rules.
BasCB (@bascb)
8th June 2025, 17:58
I would say that is the biggest issue right. But it used to work great most of the time, until they did not let all cars past (yeah THAT race) and until they let them go by, they all pitted and it became a bit of a mess.
Here, I would say that the key is clear communication. It would have made more sense to have these cars just head to the pits and then restart. Or just make sure there is a gap. But NOT wait for 2-3 laps, as we seem to get every time now.
Imre (@f1mre)
8th June 2025, 9:01
They shouldn’t wait for lapped cars to catch up the field. Also, they could let lapped cars pass during recovery in the unaffected sectors only. “Lapped cars may now overtake between turn 1 and 9 and between 12 and 17.”
sato113 (@sato113)
8th June 2025, 15:59
exactly this! the article misses this option – let lapped cars overtake and get down the circuit away from the leaders, but don’t need to wait for them to join the back!
Jere (@jerejj)
8th June 2025, 16:49
@f1mre @sato113
Letting unlapped drivers catch up the field is fair racing-wise, nor does the catching-up process even last long since those drivers drive around some 30-45 seconds faster than drivers in the SC train.
Elvira
9th June 2025, 6:05
They should get something around a single racing lap time (+small change to the SC line) to get away from the leaders, if that’s not enough to get them onto the tail of the snake so be it. They should be running faster than the pack after restart if it’s a long run to the finish line (if they’re slower they may as well pit & go home anyway), for a short run it’ll make little difference.
Downside is a minor chance for a few blue flags for some of the leaders much later (upside is I’ve now got a drink, space for it and a need for speed).
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
9th June 2025, 17:10
Unfortunately I see no indication that Race Control would be capable of handling this in a manner that did not make a bigger mess of things.
Federico (@federicod)
8th June 2025, 9:12
I think the main issue is that they wait for the lapped cars to catch up with the field, not that they let them unlap.
Hotbottoms (@hotbottoms)
8th June 2025, 9:48
I agree. Let the lapped cars unlap themselves, but restart the race on the following lap. This system worked well for years until, after the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP, there was suddenly a need to pretend there was a problem with the established rule.
Not allowing lapped cars to unlap themselves is one of those solutions that seems simple and fair on paper but creates a very confusing situation in practice. Just take a look at Lance Stroll’s onboard footage from the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP to see what that would look like.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
8th June 2025, 15:11
@hotbottoms
The confusion there was more to do with the fact they allowed some cars to unlap themselves but not others. Surely if the three options are allowing all, some or no lapped cars to unlap themselves, the latter has the least potential for confusion?
Hotbottoms (@hotbottoms)
8th June 2025, 15:43
@keithcollantine
I think the unlapping process itself is quite clear, regardless of whether all, some, or no cars are allowed to unlap. Either their car is allowed to unlap or it isn’t. Even in Abu Dhabi, the drivers managed this part without any issues, although allowing only some cars to unlap was unprecedented.
The confusion when there is no unlapping begins when the SC comes in. Without unlapping, there would be a sea of blue flags and a lot of confusion about whom the blue flags are shown to, and which drivers are allowed to race each other and which are not.
Craig
9th June 2025, 16:45
Let’s just nip something in the bud: There is no “some”, it’s all lapped cars can unlap themselves or none. That was the rule before, then and now.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
9th June 2025, 17:12
Craig, I think Keith was describing which options exist in mathematical theory in this instance, rather than which ones were allowed in the regulations.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
8th June 2025, 13:56
This is the way.
Jere (@jerejj)
8th June 2025, 15:22
@federicod @hotbottoms @ferrox-glideh
I couldn’t disagree more with all of you. Letting unlapped drivers catch the pack is fair & far from being an issue.
The unnecessarily excessive delay in starting the unlapping process is the only issue.
Not letting unlapped drivers catch the pack would be unfair to those drivers, especially in the case of a single driver being massively separate from the rest, like Bearman would’ve been in Imola had the SC left the track from the same lap he unlapped rather than the next.
Hotbottoms (@hotbottoms)
8th June 2025, 16:13
@jerejj
Cars that are allowed to unlap themselves already gain an advantage by being permitted to do so. Allowing them to catch up would further increase their advantage. I can see arguments for allowing them to catch up to the rest of the field, but fairness isn’t one of them.
The Safety Car is used (or at least should be used) when the cars need to be bunched up to give the marshals room to work safely. If there’s no need to bunch up the cars, then why not use the Virtual Safety Car instead? So, I don’t see how the unlapping process could start any earlier, at least not in a way that would reduce the overall Safety Car time. Maybe there are instances where the unlapping process starts too slowly, but I don’t think those issues can be fixed by changing the regulations.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
9th June 2025, 17:13
@jerejj Cars are only allowed to unlap themselves when the track is safe. The Safety Car is only supposed to be employed when the track is unsafe. That’s the core tension at play here.
Kris
8th June 2025, 9:16
Why can’t lapped cars be allowed to move to the front of the pack but remain behind the safety car?
Then when the track is clear let them go and restart on the next lap, irrelevant of how much they’ve caught up.
Renee (@renee)
9th June 2025, 18:28
The problem there is, say you’re in P7 hot on the tail of a slower car in P6 and the leader arrives to lap you, like we’ve seen before with Lewis and Max. You let the leader by and then SC comes out. So when you are allowed to un-lap before the restart, but are still half a lap away when the flag goes green, you won’t ever have the chance to fight for P6 or even see the back of him. So it kinda ruins the race for certain cars, through no fault of their own. And the race should be as fair as possible, and not only for the leaders.
But I’ve got to admit, the race control was way too slow to let the cars un-lap themselves in Spain.
They should let the lapped cars go as soon as the marshals are on the scene and the situation is contained. Just give the cars un-lapping a similar earliest time of arrival in the sector of accident as they would behind a safety-car. Elsewhere they can go racing speed and catch up to the pack even before the track is cleared. Easy.
Craig
8th June 2025, 9:17
No, what they need to do is refine the process. Perhaps set up an area around the accident (say 2 mini-sectors before and 1 after) where no overtaking is allowed and a speed limit enforced, but outside of that area other procedures can be dealt with such as allowing lapped cars to unlap themselves and also allow them to drive quicker outside that area so they can catch up faster.
A slightly less practical idea would be, circuit permitting, to have an ‘alternative start line’ at the mid-point of the track which can be used to restart following a safety car period (of course the issue there is how you’d get the safety car back to the pits and what if it’s required immediately)
Sumedh
8th June 2025, 10:09
I like this suggestion. Once the safety car has bunched up the field, what Craig said can be done so that the accident clean up and lapped cars unlapping can both be done parallelly instead of sequentially.
Jere (@jerejj)
8th June 2025, 15:18
Craig Sumedh
I’d also be in favor of conducting the unlapping process sooner but simply setting a pace limit via VSC for the relevant mini-sector where a car recovery process is ongoing.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
9th June 2025, 17:13
@jerejj You’ll be pleased to know that cars unlapping themselves already receive a delta time.
Witsinfr (@witsinfr)
8th June 2025, 9:27
If the pit lane was open and not impeded by a mass rush to change tyres – i.e. that had all been done, then the rule ought to be that lapped cars peel off into the pit lane & hold at the end of the pit lane (on the slow lane if necessary) until the rest of the pack has passed by, then they rejoin the track.
This would take ONE lap to achieve, the lapped cars would be immediately at the back of the pack & the safety car can immediately prepare to leave the track & racing resume.
The race director would not then have to delay any more laps.
MurasamaRA300 (@murasamara300)
8th June 2025, 9:47
Excellent.
Lewrie
8th June 2025, 10:00
Wouldn’t work if the cause was between the pit entrance and exit but otherwise the unlapping could happen safely during the repairs/clearance.
gDog (@gdog)
8th June 2025, 10:20
I voted never unlap, the chasing cars have already gained significantly by all the gaps closing.
If you are going to allow unlapping, this is how to do it.
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
8th June 2025, 11:50
A good idea.
SteveP
8th June 2025, 12:10
@witsinfr
The problem is that your solution, as elegant as we might think it to be, is far too sensible to be adopted by the FIA.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
8th June 2025, 13:59
This is a problem of fuel (and, less so, tire) usage however, and is unfair to the entire rest of the field.
Jere (@jerejj)
8th June 2025, 15:17
@ferrox-glideh Spot-on. The fuel usage matter is indeed relevant.
Elvira
9th June 2025, 6:27
Sure, it’s another randomiser. But SCs are inherently unfair anyway – some ‘entertainments’ throw for exactly that reason.
Using less fuel & less mileage on tires might be outweighed by losing temp sitting at the pit exit for about a minute.
The closer to the front before peeling in, the longer the wait (consider a late SC tire change for someone that has at least a lap to keep temps up at VSC speeds or better & times his re-entry to pitlane for minimal parking time).
djw
9th June 2025, 11:53
A take on this: make all lapped cars drive through the pit lane on the lap the race is restarted. I.e. peel into the pits on the same lap that the safety car does.
Marcel
8th June 2025, 9:55
Keep it as it is. Every other option is worse.
Keeping them in the field spoils fights at the front of the field as they will be in between cars fighting for position.
Let them drop back instead of overtake creates a gap of 1 lap between 2 cars that were potentially fighting (1 just lapped the other not before the SC).
Put them at the back and let them race 1 lap less, because considder them unlapped, is also not an option, as they can burn more fuel to the end of the race, as they do 1 lap less.
asz
8th June 2025, 10:49
Which is the exact same situation as before the SC came in.
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
8th June 2025, 15:17
True but the difference is that on a restart there is a period of time where you are not allowed to pass and that in the past caused problems with lapped cars badly holding up faster cars on restarts.
I think it was the 2006 Melbourne GP that saw the leader pull a massive gap to 2nd on a restart because the 2-3 cars that were between them didn’t get a good restart and with the car in 2nd not been able to overtake until the line it completely killed any fight for the lead.
That was then the catalyst that created the idea of getting lapped cars out of the way. I think it was initially an idea that Bernie put out there which the GPDA and subsequently the FIA then latched onto and it then also got support from teams and fans at the time which is why it was adopted.
asz
8th June 2025, 15:31
With a car in between the leader and the pursuer, obviously there was no fight for the lead before the safety car period, either.
Why should such a fight be suddenly on once the safety car exits?
Its function is not to create fights where there were none before, unless one subscribes to the “improve the show” motive of sending in the safety car.
Jere (@jerejj)
8th June 2025, 16:52
@gt-racer If what happened in the 2006 Australian GP was the catalyst, I’m surprised the unlapping practice didn’t make its debut until 2012.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
9th June 2025, 17:17
@jerejj This is a good question. Unlapping got introduced because the 2010 teams were considerably further off the pace than the leading teams were by then accustomed to overtaking in lapping procedures. Once sufficient support was gathered, the rule got imposed to try to reduce the effect of having to unlap a car that might be lapping 5% slower than the leader.
This has not been an issue since Manor folded.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
8th June 2025, 10:04
A rare case where I voted for the neutral option: letting cars unlap themselves gives them an unfair advantage that didn’t exist even just 20 years ago, but on other hand it’s good for the entertainment value (like one of the articles these days said, show over sport), so can’t really say if it’s a good thing to let them unlap always, only in specific circumstances or never.
An Sionnach
8th June 2025, 10:21
Agree. VSC should be used or even waved yellows. Red flags with aggregate time for more serious problems. I hate safety cars and think resetting the race should be avoided at all costs. Perhaps having the back markers in the way is recipe for more crashes on the restart, but they shouldn’t have to jump aside for a few corners after the start anyway, so shouldn’t have to risk being passed by those they’re racing with as the front-runners pass them. Those lapping these cars will have to pass them.
One thing that could be possible with imagination on some tracks might be if the layout could be changed after a crash to isolate it from the rest of the track. Issues might be lap length, more preparation and perhaps very few tracks where alternative layouts are up to the required standard.
One note on waved yellows, as I’ve liked races where they have used them instead of safety cars. There was some early race in Lauda’s pre-F1 career where several cars were ignoring the flags, flew over the crest of a hill together only to find a stricken car in the middle of the road. I’m under no illusion that drivers ever paid much attention to them, but it’s harder to get away with it now. This story from Lauda’s book was to illustrate how crazy some of the earlier categories were and to explain why he decided to pay to skip to F1.
Since the rules stated that the race director’s decision was final, I thought Masi’s novel solution to long safety car periods was a good one. Would have been even better to not let anyone unlap themselves.
SteveP
8th June 2025, 12:19
If you did the SC as a VSC then you can incrementally bring the speed to normal race speeds, with the lapped cars still in the mix.
The VSC has the advantage that it can be inserted into the flow at any point on the lap and run at any speed you like and vary with proximity to the incident.
An Sionnach
8th June 2025, 13:14
Interesting point. Better than going to the hassle of re-arranging the layout!
Palindnilap (@palindnilap)
8th June 2025, 10:26
I fully agree that wasting 3 minutes of racing in order to spice up the show is unfair, and isn’t even worth it show-wise. But there are still two small problems with keeping the lapped cars in the file :
– The lapped drivers have very little incentive to keep up with the car ahead. They might even be better off backing off a little between the restart and start line in order to avoid the dirty air, thus creating artificial large gaps between front runners. Would it be a solution to allow overtakes / send blue flags as soon as the leader takes off, without waiting for the start line ?
– Quickly clearing up the lapped cars at the restart becomes of utmost importance, and that can lead to very unfair situations when the backmarkers belong to the same owner as one or two of the front runners (RB v RB). But that is a larger problem that should have been addressed long ago.
The comparison with Indycar is interesting. There lapped cars are not allowed to overtake. Drivers knowing that, they fight like crazy in order not to get lapped, and are allowed to do so in the absence of blue flags. It sometimes leads to a great show when the leader finds himself bottled up behind an unhelpful backmarker. And while there may be less tension at the restart, it still leads to good action between the front runners and the backmarkers. But that is the world without blue flags, and I doubt F1 could live without blue flags.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
8th June 2025, 14:05
I see what you are saying, but the Indycar rules seem to generate way more safety car periods (crashes), which detracts considerably from the racing (I’m not a fan of crashes).
Picasso 1.9D FTW (@picasso-19d-ftw)
8th June 2025, 10:31
I went with no, and would have done whatever the answer to this question, but what is the actual rule? Do the lapped cars simply pass those on the lead lap but otherwise remain in track order, or do those that are 3 laps down move behind those 2 laps down, and the latter end up behind the cars that are 1 lap down? I think the second is what happens, surely, but either way I’d rather see the track order retained for everyone, and have more laps of racing.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
9th June 2025, 17:19
@picasso-19d-ftw The lapped cars simply pass those on the lead lap, with no right for the ones multiple laps down to pass those fewer laps down. (This is because there aren’t many instances where someone multiple laps regaining a lap would significantly improve their finishing position in F1 these days).
Picasso 1.9D FTW (@picasso-19d-ftw)
9th June 2025, 21:13
Thank you @alianora-la-canta, but what I had in mind wasn’t that those who were more laps down could unlap themselves more, but that those who are one lap down should be allowed to position themselves ahead of those who more laps down. Because otherwise the front runners “benefit” from others moving out out from between them, but others still have (more) lapped drivers still Inbetween. It just seems inconsistent with the supposed principle.
Richard
8th June 2025, 11:43
An alternative would be to just have the lapped cars go through pit lane one lap to put them behind the leaders.
stefano (@alfa145)
8th June 2025, 12:19
my opinion has been for years that lapped cars go at the back of the field, by slowing down and letting leading cars by.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
8th June 2025, 14:07
Yet, how would you account for their fuel and tire consumption?
FlyingLap (@flyinglapp)
9th June 2025, 1:07
Lapped cars always complete fewer laps than cars that finish on the lead lap, and therefore save fuel and tires. So your comment is irrelevant.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
9th June 2025, 4:31
I also believe the cars which have been lapped should simply move to the back of the pack and for them to be credited with having completed the one or two laps even though they haven’t. The fact their tyres are one or two laps younger does sound a bit unfair, but they may also have one or two laps more fuel weight, which is also unfair. How much benefit would be gained by them having slightly fresher tyres? Say there’s a 2 second benefit, then give those cars a two second time penalty which resets if they stop to change their tyres.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
8th June 2025, 13:00
4 extra minutes. gosh terrible, what can be done. I know another rule !!
MichaelN
8th June 2025, 13:09
The safety car is there to bunch up the field to allow marshals a chance to work safely on on near the track.
That’s it.
Reducing gaps, whether it is measured in seconds or laps, is a byproduct. And an unfortunate and unfair one at that.
Rather than using the safety car as a way to inject drama into the race, I’d much rather see the FIA invest time in finding ways to minimize its use. The farcical Le Mans procedure introduced recently should serve as a warning, and it was a welcome surprise to see it completely abandoned mid-race (!), with race director Freitas showing that you can even do barrier repairs with slow zones. That race should have been the end of the safety car.
If the track cannot be navigated, stop the race. If it can, use slow zones (i.e. double yellow). Dump the safety car.
Craig
9th June 2025, 10:10
Slow Zones as they are in WEC likely wouldn’t work in F1, but something akin to them under safety car conditions might. Typically a crash will only be a hazard in 1 part of the track, but there’s the rest of the track that can be used for other procedures. So once the pack is together, have lapped cars unlap themselves away from the recovery area and allow them to go quicker to catch up (but drop to lower speed in recovery area).
As for the marshals themselves, I don’t know what tools they have access to to recover cars, but I think they need some extra ones. marshals at Monaco have dollys available, so perhaps they should be standard kit along with something akin to the wheeled rear jack Indycar has (though that assumes all the rear crash structures are similar enough) where possible as that might speed up the recovery of cars.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
9th June 2025, 17:21
MichaelN, Safety Cars are already only meant to be used when the marshals need a space with no cars. Given F1 cars can and have crashed under Safety Car, no version of VSC, Slow Zone or Code 60 can achieve this effect – it’s Safety Car or an outright red flag.
Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
8th June 2025, 14:13
I like the idea but everything just needs to be done more urgently.
Ankita
8th June 2025, 14:22
Why don’t you let them go by earlier (as early as at the beginning of the yellow flag period) and tell them which track sector they need to go at VSC speed in order to be safe ?
Jere (@jerejj)
8th June 2025, 15:15
I agree. With the advance of VSC, the lapped drivers could simply slow down for the mini-sector where a car recovery process is occurring & once they’re past that mini-sector, immediately return to full pace.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
8th June 2025, 16:56
Or you know, show some patience. Its a few minutes
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
9th June 2025, 17:23
@tonymansell “Show some patience” for something that results in no improvements to the racing and makes a mockery of the Safety Car’s purpose?
Jere (@jerejj)
8th June 2025, 15:14
This question would’ve been valid after the 2012 Australian GP when the unlapping rule made its debut, but not 13+ years afterwards anymore, so ‘yes – always’ was an easy choice.
Firstly, Antonelli was running on the lead lap at the time of retiring on both occasions, & even though the desire to avoid similar situations as in the 2020 Emilia-Romagna GP is understandable, the delay in letting Bearman unlap in Imola was excessive as the track was decently clear for him driving alone at full speed 2-3 laps sooner & the same in Montmelo a lap sooner for everyone still running outside the lead lap, i.e., from Lawson downwards at that point.
In Imola, everyone up to Colapinto got lapped by the SC period & all bar Bearman got back on the lead lap via pitting a lap later than Max, albeit they were close to getting lapped again & likewise, Aston Martin’s the first time since they beat the SC & Max by a relatively small margin when rejoining the track, which meant that Bearman was the only one outside the lead lap by the time the field was fully packed, but giving him enough time to catch Bortoleto in the penultimate position was fair (especially since he didn’t get to catch the pack in Melbourne after he ended up re-lapped) instead of SC leaving the track from the same lap, which would’ve been insufficient.
Likewise, in Montmelo, everyone up to Hulkenberg got lapped, & Hulkenberg & Gasly got unlapped via pitting a lap later than the leaders, & giving the Lawson-lead group sufficient time to catch the last driver on the lead lap at that point, i.e., Gasly, was equally fair.
All in all, letting lapped drivers unlap themselves & catch the pack so that everyone is close together at SC restarts in position order is fair for everyone & maximizes racing opportunities for positions, so zero justification to stop this practice or not let catch the pack.
Therefore, hardly a matter of wasting racing laps because race control has simply been following the protocol to the full extent as required, but the unlapping process could definitely start a little sooner on many occasions, especially once a recovery vehicle is back on the other side of a marked hole, not to mention once any lapped driver is free to drive at full pace immediately after unlapping, the catching up process is quick when the lap times are briefly 30-45 seconds faster than for everyone in the SC train.
Ultimately, the fuel usage matter was among the main points for starting this practice in 2012.
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
8th June 2025, 15:28
Getting lapped cars out of the way is a sensible idea which they need to carry on doing but they do need to look at speeding the process up.
The problem however is that if you simply drop them to the back and give them there lap back then they have a potential advantage in terms of a lap more fuel and lap less tyre wear which could be a pretty decent advantage when tire degradation is especially high or on a circuit with heavy fuel consumption.
So then you make the argument to just not give them the lap back which is a fair point but with the field as close as it is now do we want a situation where you have 2 cars fighting hard for 10th getting separated by the leader just a second before a SC is called in which then end up then been separated by a full lap with the car in 11th that was in the fight for a point suddenly left with zero chance.
What if you end in a situation in the last race where a title contender has an issue early on and is fighting through the field only needing 1 point to still be in contention and you then effectively have the title decided by him been lapped a second before a SC and then been a lap down from 10th and basically that’s the end of the championship mid-race.
There are unintended and/or unwanted consequences to the alternatives which are things that be it the FIA, Liberty, the GPDA, teams or even broadcasters don’t want to be a thing which is why whenever you have this situation come up and be discussed things always end up been looked at but not changed. It’s just felt that the way things are done is the best all-round solution which is also something that doesn’t have any real negative affect on anyone.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
9th June 2025, 17:26
@gt-racer We’ve already had a title decided by manipulation of the lapped car regulation. Enforcing a no-unlap regulation removes a manipulation risk without increasing the risk of a championship being lost to the way lapped cars are handled.
Leksa (@leksa)
8th June 2025, 16:19
They should just ditch SC completely and adopt combined yellow zones with Code 60 (or Code 40 or Code 20 or whatever is deemed safe speed for having tractors and marshals near the F1 cars).
Global Code 60 apparently wouldn’t work with F1, because it would overheat the engines. Instead, there could be a short yellow zone where cars are required to slow down to 60 km/h, until they pass the zone after which they can speed up back to VSC deltas. Once the incident is cleared, VSC turns into green.
ryanoceros (@ryanoceros)
8th June 2025, 16:36
There’s no reason lapped cars can’t overtake early on in the safety car period within clear sectors of the track. If the hazard is at turn one, allow lapped cars to overtake in sector 2 for example. I think it’s good not to have cars within the pack that are just going to have blue flags waved at them immediately following the restart.
Jere (@jerejj)
8th June 2025, 16:55
Indeed. Letting lapped drivers unlap themselves early on into an SC period & requiring them to drive under VSC delta through the relevant mini-sector where a car recovery process is ongoing would be a decent way of handling the unlapping process.
MarkWebber (@markwebber)
8th June 2025, 17:02
The problem is that they will take any reason they find to use the SC. Safety has become a pretext for bypassing common sense and injecting entertainment.
Jere (@jerejj)
8th June 2025, 18:06
That was the case with Michael Masi in 2020 & 2021 & Niels Wittich in 2023, but not so much for a little while anymore, which is good.
In the recent past, resorting to SC has only really been a thing whenever a recovery vehicle needs to enter a track or runoff area.
f1andrea
8th June 2025, 17:10
SC is on track for safe reason: why you have to gift a lapped driver to catch a driver that is not lapped? SC should just compact the field of cars as it was years ago, fullstop
sam
8th June 2025, 17:11
If you are a lap down, drop to the back. Get the hell out of the way.
Scalextric (@scalextric)
8th June 2025, 17:30
Drop to the back by going through the pits without a pit stop. Easy.
Coventry Climax
8th June 2025, 19:23
Get rid of the safety car and use VS only.
If track work requires it, red flag the race, with no changes allowed to the cars, unless for proven safety reasons, but then time the repair time. Give teams a ‘chequers’ clock with an official doing the ‘Press to start work’ and ‘press again when finished’.
Have cars line up before their own garages, instead of end of pitlane.
To restart after the red flag period: use the timed track position of before the red flag That was already on screen, real time), add any possible repair plust average pitlane time and determine the starting order and timing from that.
Once the order is established (all electronically, so quick), allow cars to the end of the pitlane.
Use the pitlane lights to go green for each car and release each according to it’s calculated time gap to the car ahead (So previous track time position + repairs + average pitlane time lost.) This ensures the race restarts in the same order and trackposition as before it was interrupted.
Ditch blue flags altogether. Overtaking used to be a skill, not a present. We want to see the best and most skilled driver become WDC, right? For a (calculated) restart, lapped cars have a track time that puts them at the back automatically, without getting a free lap. So this automatically gets rid of unlapping cars altogether. That was pointless to begin with, as they lost out over the previous laps, with no valid argument whatsoever as to why they should get a free second chance.
No laps lost, as under red, no laps are done and the clock is/should be stopped.
I’m sure someone here will say ‘You can’t do that because….’
I say, if that ‘because’ is actually valid, I’m sure it can be solved as well.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
8th June 2025, 21:47
I just remember Jules Bianchi, and think Never Again.
Coventry Climax
8th June 2025, 22:50
‘You can’t do that because…’
But the Bianchi death was a completely different situation with causes completely irrelevant to what I suggest.
-Jules Bianchi choose to still go to the limit despite the yellows being waved. There are no rules in existance that work if people willingly decide to ignore them anyway.
– With rescue material on track and under those conditions, that race should have been red flagged, with proceedings as per my suggestions.
– With a VSC, he would have been required to keep the delta, and would not have been tempted to go faster than the others. As per my suggestions.
So what’s your issue?
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
9th June 2025, 0:07
Um, I was actually agreeing with you about getting rid of the safety car. If a recovery vehicle is needed, there should be a red flag. Use VS if no recovery vehicles are on the track.
I find your comments about Bianchi somewhat distasteful however, so I guess that is my issue now. I don’t recall that Bianchi was speeding behind the safety car when he slid off the track. It was the rule that was the problem, not his behavior.
And blue flags have been a necessary evil with F1 cars for decades. It’s not go-karting.
Coventry Climax
9th June 2025, 9:05
@ferrox-glideh
Ah, OK, didn’t get that, my bad.
No intention to be disrespectful about the Bianchi unfortune.
It being a while back, you tend to get more factual about it and less emotional.
He did slide off, so by any definition, he was over the limit. That happens, it’s part of racing, but under those circumstances, I’m inclined to put at least some of the blame on him, even if he had to pay for it so dearly. These things should obviously not happen, and certainly not in track situations like that.
So what remains is that the rescue vehicle and the race cars should never, ever, have been on track at the same time. I’m not fully sure, but I believe that that actually already was the -be it maybe unwritten- rule at the time, but again, rule or not, that was a limit the FiA/Race Control choose to cross/ignore. Not that they had the cajones to take responsability for it, sadly.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
9th June 2025, 16:57
Coventry Climax- No worries mate. I enjoy your contributions to this site.
Paul (@frankjaeger)
8th June 2025, 19:30
Lapped cars to slow down and let field pass, then restart, easy
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
9th June 2025, 9:30
Theres people and trucks on track so no not easy and if its wet or a narrow track not easy. The solution is not needed as there is no problem. Its a few minutes of your life, its boring but so what?
Carl Parker (@mysticarl)
8th June 2025, 19:32
Simple – just let them drop to the back of the lead line of cars, and add X amount of fuel to their minimum weight at the end of the race to compensate (agreed fuel usage per lap for each track).
Honestly though, VSC should be used more – I know F1 has an issue with certain vehicles being on track at the same time as the cars, but at 60kph or whatever it really should be fine, barring it being wet or some other circumstance. The safety car at Imola for example never should have been required. If it ends up being too long and tyre temps drop off, they can always go to safety car.
Grapmg
8th June 2025, 20:46
Nothing more to add on this statement. Unlapping is unnecessary and was never the rule when the SC was introduced. I don’t even know why and when exactly this was changed.
MichaelN
8th June 2025, 21:22
Because loud voices in the paddock and media complained that it wasn’t exciting to end the safety car period with two backmarkers between first and second place. Ignoring, of course, that the leader had earned that advantage by being faster. It’s all for show.
The safety car is never really necessary in F1.
lynn-m
8th June 2025, 23:35
Because of things like this where lapped cars between between cars racing for position completely ruined the fight for position.
53:26 if the time-code doesn’t work.
https://youtu.be/ncOP9QR9eRc?si=xi1z8LWYlmP1l1VM&t=3206
Grapmg
9th June 2025, 8:57
I guess we look at this with a different view. At 57:00 you can hear Murray Walker “nobody came close to Alonso today without the SC”. I think that the SC is already unfair competition so at least the remaining lapped cars still gave him the advantage at the restart.
David BR (@david-br)
8th June 2025, 20:57
Agree with Keith (which seems to be a rarity on this thread): do nothing. I’ve never really understood why lapped cars shouldn’t stay exactly where they are. Whatever gap built up between cars has already been lost by the SC. That’s compounded by removing lapped cars that had to be passed by those in front. There’s no sporting sense to removing lapped cars, only the gimmick of simulating a ‘restart’. That ‘spectacle’ mentality is precisely what gave us the debacle of Abu Dhabi 2021.
Boomerang
8th June 2025, 22:07
The key question is: “What difference does it make?”
Anon A. Mouse
8th June 2025, 23:22
I think people suggesting lapped cars pass through the pits to move them to the back is the right idea in the wrong direction. Seems to me that once the field has been collected and the track clear (or close enough to it), the SC should take the cars on the lead lap through the pits while lapped runners stay out and proceed around the track. This should avoid the hassle of lapped cars trying to pick their way around unlapped cars, it keeps both groups relatively bunched, we don’t have the question about fuel disadvantages. Further, it gives race control the option of bringing in the SC on that same lap since there should be a reasonable gap between the back of the pack and the leaders.
sam
9th June 2025, 18:42
yep, this is the most sensible solution, SC takes lead lap cars through pit, lapped cars continue on track, SC comes in at the end of that lap.
because it is such a sensible solution, it would never happen.
Taris
9th June 2025, 3:48
They just need copy Nascar’s safety car rule. In the first safety car lap the pit is open only to lead lap cars. In the second lap pit is open to all cars. This make the lapped cars automatically going to back of the grid. If any lapped car dont go to pits and stay in front of the leaders after the pit window the let this drivers pass the Safety Car and catch the last car of the race but they cannot go to pit anymore.
Coventry Climax
9th June 2025, 9:20
I just don’t get this entire fuel advantage/disadvantage argument.
If a car is set up to use, say, half of the fuel that the others use, it’ll obviously lag behind. Do you call that a fuel disadvantage to the other cars?
If a car has damage, gets repaired, and then continues being lapped twice, do you call that a fuel advantage? Or again, disadvantage to the leaders?
Lapped cars are /have been slow, for whatever reason, and I seriously doubt the weight of 1 lap of fuel makes a significant enough difference, especiall given the total weight of cars these days.
It feels like the measuring is done in miles, no decimals, and people then starting to nag over quarter inches.
(Which is a classic precision error.)
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
9th June 2025, 17:02
The only reason the Safety Car should be out in the first place is indicated in the name – safety.
If the track is safe enough for lapped cars to overtake, it’s safe for the entire field to be released. There is simply no need for the lapped cars to be released, as they can be dealt with in the same way as other cars. Yes, it can change results to leave them there, but not as much as having the Safety Car bunch up the field in the first place does. (I don’t buy the theory of racing being worse with the lapped cars in place, either – other series don’t have a quarter as much difficulty with them as F1 does, because they don’t pretend that cars which are a lap down should be intangible and instead view them as part of the challenge).
sam
9th June 2025, 18:32
the ‘simple’ solution is rather than letting the unlapped cars catch back up to the pack, you let the lapped cars pass the SC, then the SC comes in that same lap. the lead driver usually spends 1/2 the lap going slower than the SC backing the pack up anyway, so the lapped cars would probably catch up the back of the pack anyway.
essentially unlapping the way that it was done in that fateful race of 2021…
Mr_NovemberHotel (@nicharvs)
9th June 2025, 20:23
We already have a running order on our screens while under the safety car, so why don’t they just let all lapped cars drop to the back of the pack? Then digitally add a lap to the race time for everyone who has been lapped. That way, the lapped cars are unlapped, in order, and don’t need to catch up to the back of the train. Surely we’ve got the tech to figure that out, and the pack could be set and ready to go in under a minute!
Riccard
9th June 2025, 21:36
There are other ways to correct the order. For example, on the long start-finish straight, lapped cars could be instructed to move to the right and drive slowly so that unlapped cars can overtake. If this was prepared for then (unless the crash was also on the home straight) that could be done safely in one lap.
David B
9th June 2025, 22:42
The issue is that they wait too long to let them go. They do at least a couple laps where everyone is pootling around waiting & just when you think the safety car is going to come in, then they announce the cars to go round. Send them earlier & just put them in VSC in the crash sector. They’d be caught up at the back of the grid a couple of laps quicker then it normally takes.
Dane
10th June 2025, 0:58
They need to get the lapped cars out of the way. The restarts are almost as exciting as the opening lap, but no one wants to see cars get lapped when they could be seeing passes for positions.
Nikos (@exeviolthor)
10th June 2025, 7:30
Just let all cars on the leading lap pass them instead of letting them unlap themselves.
JMDan (@danmar)
10th June 2025, 15:48
Yes.
Stoo
10th June 2025, 16:33
There are so many ideas from almost everyone here, with just the added tweak to each to differentiate between them, so if Hammy is the only one moaning about missed time (when he was slow anyway), then why bother with more rule changes when essentially the safety aspect is already covered.
Speeding up the decision process is one factor to consider, but …… Leave it be.
Sergey Martyn
11th June 2025, 12:18
Why lapped cars should OVERtake? Why not just slow them down to let the unlapped cars to get by and lapped cars gather at the end of peloton?