Well…it happened again! Much sooner than we all thought it might, after Abu Dhabi 2021, we’ve had yet another controversial safety car-related end to a Grand Prix. This time however, we were robbed of the sprint to the line as the Italian Grand Prix ended like a wet blanket behind the safety car. This has of course thrown into question the processes for how to end a race when there’s a late incident! And one particularly intriguing idea is that of “Overtime”. But, is it a genius idea or a pure gimmick? Let’s discuss!
WHAT HAPPENED?
As a quick reminder, in case you’ve already scrubbed it from your memory (and who could blame you), on lap 47 of what had been, let’s be honest, a fairly uneventful Italian Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren ground to a halt on track between the 2 “Lesmo” corners – off the racing line but certainly not in a safe position.
Race control, again, took an age to bring out the safety car or even the Virtual Safety Car, and when they eventually did, there was a flurry of activity as everyone pitted for new tyres. There was then confusion as the SC failed to pick up race leader Verstappen, causing another controversial scenario where SOME of the lapped cars were allowed through, but not all! This time, the ones left were the 2 or 3 between race leader Verstappen and 2nd place man Leclerc. And while Ricciardo’s car WAS eventually cleared with enough time to have 1 racing lap, it was decided that no, this time we’ll end under the safety car.
Now, Abu Dhabi has been talked to death, and I have no intentions on bringing up the rights and wrongs of it again, but I will say that in 2021 the rules stated that “ANY lapped cars may unlap themselves”. And, as Christian Horner and Red Bull correctly stated in court, “any” does not mean “all”. And so, for 2022, the wording of the rules was changed to “ALL lapped cars”. So while Michael Masi may not technically have broken any rules last year, it does seem that the race directors did break the rules per the 2022 regulations by not letting ALL the lapped cars pass the safety car. Does that mean we would have definitely gotten that last lap sprint to the finish? No, not at all, but it is a point worth bringing up anyway.
WHAT CAN CHANGE?
In the few days since the race, every F1-related news source, YouTube channel, instagram account and website has brought up how, in other sports like NASCAR, there is a rule whereby if there’s a late safety car, additional “overtime” laps will be added to the end of the race so that there’s always a green-flag finish.
Well it’s certainly an interesting idea which of course works (usually) in other sports like Football. If there’s an injury, substitution, or any other break in play during a football match, rather than lose that time (or stop the clock), the time is arbitrarily guesstimated and added to the end of the “regular” time – so that you have scenarios like when Liverpool scored a winning goal in the 98th minute of a 90 minute match 3 weeks ago. Is this fair to everyone? Well for the most part yes. Most professional football players train to have fitness for up to 120 minutes of playtime, not just 90 and the trade-off of getting a minute to catch their breath and take on some water if there’s an injury, is that they play on that minute later in the game.
Another option is what happens in rugby whereby the clock is simply stopped during breaks in play – a far better solution for a pitch-based sport if you ask me. This way, once the clock hits 80 minutes, the next time the ball goes out of play the game ends. The reason it’s fairer is that if there is a 1 minute stop for a substitution, whereas in football you might only get 30seconds back, in rugby there’s no grey area.
So, would either of these options work for Formula 1 to “give back time” to the drivers if there’s a Safety Car? Well, no, not as an exact 1-for-1 copy, of course. It would be too much hassle to add back exactly the same amount of laps as were completed under the SC, particularly in long races like Singapore, because F1 races must be no longer than 2 hours and Singapore in particular already pushes that very close!
WHAT SHOULD F1 DO?
So then if they can’t just randomly add time, and they certainly can’t just “stop the clock” because the race directors are bad a time keeping as it is, that would just get WAY too complicated; what can F1 do? Well the best suggestion I have heard, which i think is brilliant and perfectly fair to absolutely everyone, is a statutory 3-lap addition to any race that is safety-car affected. This means that as SOON as a Safety Car is deployed – whether it’s on lap 1 or lap 50 – 3 racing laps are automatically added to the end of the race. And it wouldn’t matter if the SC is out for 2 laps or 10. It also wouldn’t matter if, like in Monza, the SC was out until the official final lap.
If it’s a 53 lap race, and the SC has to stay out until lap 54 so the incident can be cleared, we would keep racing until lap 57 to get a 3-lap racing finish!!
This, I think, would be fascinating for several reasons.
Firstly, it’s fair to everyone. If you know that this is always the rule, then nobody could ever complain about it. Yes, sometimes you’ll get lucky, and sometimes not – that’s already the case under the SC now. But there would be no more ambiguity or inconsistency with how the FIA and race directors deal with safety cars and race finishes.
Secondly, it would add fascinating new elements to strategy. The fact of the matter is, if the race is 3 laps longer, the cars have to be fuelled for 3 more laps of racing. So the question then for the teams becomes: do you over-fuel the car expecting a safety car? Or gamble and under fuel the car hoping one doesn’t come or accepting your driver might be slow and fuel-saving during those 3 laps if an SC is deployed? There’s also the option of tyres? Will the driver be in a position where you could bolt on a set of softs and have a barnstorming 3 qualifying-level laps? If so, teams may have to consider that and save another set of soft tyres for the race, maybe compromising practice or qualifying a bit.
Thirdly, it takes away the confusion on red flags. Red Flags are the all-encompassing clean slate. And in my book this rule would NOT apply to direct red flags. If there’s a big incident and a red flag is deployed immediately, then, as in rugby, the clock is just stopped and we simply press play again later from the same point and continue to the natural ending. If, however, there’s an SC and then a red flag, the 3-laps would still be added. But most importantly it would remove this debate on “should a red flag be brought out for late incidents”? At the moment, i think yes, but if this 3-lap rule came in, then no, certainly not.
The one stipulation that may need to change for this to take effect is to shorten the “standard” race distance from ~300km to maybe ~290km – or increase the allowed distance to ~310km; and/or increase the allowed time to complete a race from 2 hours to maybe 2 hours and 10 minutes – to allow for the possibility of a few additional laps. But, this would be a very simple change. F1 races already have a 4-hour window in which to complete their 2 hours of racing. A few extra laps is unlikely to affect that.
So, there we go, my thoughts on why F1 should add in an “extra-time” component of a standard 3-laps at the end of a race where the Safety Car is brought out.
What do you think? Is this a genius idea or a stupid gimmick? Let me know in the comments down below.