Teams after Abu Dhabi refuse finals without ‘Safety Car’

After the controversy arose because the F1 Italian GP It ended after the ‘Safety Car’ and not on an exciting final restart with one or two laps to go, the surprises came. One of them, revealed by Main Team of the group McLaren, Andreas Seidlensuring after the race that the FIA ​​has already proposed a rule change that would prevent a race from finishing behind the safety car after the controversial finish of 2021 Abu Dhabi GP which decides the title in favor of Max Verstappen. However, according to seidlthe teams did not reach an agreement and it was preferred to leave the regulations unchanged.

“After what happened last year in Abu Dhabi, there have been many discussions between the FIA, F1 and all the teams involved to see how the rules can be changed to ensure that races do not end under a safety vehicle,” he said. the German in ‘The Race’.

“But even if the FIA ​​​​and F1 really pushed all the teams to find a solution, it is up to the teams. We did not agree to find a better solution that is still a fair solution in sporting terms,” ​​he added.

For this reason, Andreas Seidl considers that it is only necessary to accept that in some cases, things like this can happen: “So I think we just have to accept that, unfortunately, situations like this can happen”.

This Sunday, after what happened, many in the paddock said that F1 should resolve this situation with a change in regulations. For example, one of the recurring ideas is a saccharine red flag if a situation like this Sunday arises, with a car on the track whose acquisition may be complicated, if a certain number of laps missing from the last stop. This, to ensure that the race will always and safely continue so that the appointments will end up competing.

However, Seidl recalled that no team could complain about what happened this Sunday because they did not reach an agreement and preferred to keep the current regulations. In fact, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto said the rule change was not necessary, but “apply them better”, in this case, asking for a faster reaction from the FIA ​​in situations like this. The Italian boss considered that the direction of the race was too slow to operate the ‘Safety Car’ and he did not understand why the cars that had to open and line up before were not allowed to do so as he considered the situation that. it’s safe.

“It’s hard”

Why didn’t the teams agree to change the rules? Seidl also discussed this.

“In the end, we voted that the rules should remain the same and I think I remember that all the teams voted for that. And it is that although it seems easy to create something like ‘this is always a red flag…’, in reality, it is not that simple. We talked about it a lot. We can’t think of a better solution.”