The rule concerning latecomers under Safety Car modified by the FIA

Remember, Abu Dhabi, December 12. There are five laps remaining, the Safety Car is deployed following the accident Nicholas latifi. Initially, the race direction decides that the latecomers will not duplicate each other. Before reconsidering his decision, but only asking the drivers sandwiched between the two leaders Lewis Hamilton et Max Verstappen to split. A decision which obviously surprised. The spirit of the decision was undoubtedly to let the two title contenders fight each other in the final round. The only problem is that nothing in the sporting regulations can really justify this decision. 

In article 48.12 of the 2021 FIA sporting regulations, it was indeed mentioned, in English in the text: “any cars that have been lapped by the leader will be required to pass the cars on the lead lap and the safety car”. Translate it as follows: “any car which has taken a lap by the leader of the race must overtake the cars on the leader's lap and the safety car”.

“any” replaced by “all”

The only problem is that “any” means everything and nothing at the same time, it is an uncountable element behind which we can put everything (and nothing!). In the spirit of the regulation, this meant "all", but it was not 100% clear. In order to remove doubt, the FIA ​​has therefore decided to update its 2022 Sporting Regulations (article 55.13), replacing “any” with “all”. This translates in the same way…but “all” has the merit of being unequivocal regarding the fact that it encompasses the notion of totality. 

At a press conference almost a month ago, at the time of the launch of the AMR22, Sebastian Vettel suggested to him that the latecomers no longer split up directly, but on the contrary let themselves slip into last position. A point of view which would have the advantage of resolving the problem of time lost when latecomers have to split up, which is one of the reasons which motivated the decision of the race management in Abu Dhabi, which feared to see the Grand Prix ends under safety car. But the FIA ​​decided to change almost nothing – with the exception of one word, that is. But this time it's a bit clear. 

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