Over 3 months after the 2021 Formula 1 season ended in a very controversial manner, FIA has announced the decisions of the World Motor Sport Council on the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP.
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Though WMSC’s full report on the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP unsurprisingly hasn’t been released by FIA, the governing body has disclosed a summary of the report over 3 months after the 2021 F1 season concluded. This report has arrived just in time as the 2022 season is getting underway, confirming results of the last year’s championship as “valid, final and cannot now be changed” allowing the drivers and teams to start on a fresh note and with clearer directives.
The event was staged in the Kingdom of Bahrain and hosted by his Royal Highness Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa and organized by Sheikh Abdulla Bin Isa Al Khalifa, the President of the Bahrain Motor Federation.
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The central topic of discussion of the meeting was the safety car procedure. Even with FIA’s regulations in place, there has always been some lack of clarity regarding the safety car procedure with the final control lying in the hands of the race director, and the teams and drivers have always been seeking for consistency in the application of the regulations.
Hamilton Follows the safety car in 2021 Abu Dhabi GP
The WMSC – in their report – agreed that there was a breach in the regulations, considering that the safety car was called in on the same lap as a select few drivers were allowed to un-lap themselves and not a lap after the un-lapping procedure was completed as per article 48.12. The report also stated that it was apparent that the articles 48.12 & 48.13 could have different interpretations, and that could’ve contributed in the decision making of the race control.
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The report also finds that the race director (Michael Masi) acted in good faith while taking the decisions in the closing moments of the season, with the motive being to end the race and the championship under green flag conditions, like every other race of the season. The WMSC also took into consideration the tremendous stress being put on the race director by the teams, and elected to restrict the conversations between teams and the race control to avoid errors.
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As for the changes, the regulations are now updated to clarify that ‘all’ – not ‘any’ – cars must un-lap themselves. Adding to that, FIA is now also implementing an automated system to determine lapped cars, and to permit them to un-lap themselves depending on the track conditions, as the current system was largely manual and could potentially lead to human errors. Other systems like a VAR style remote operations centre, removing the broadcasted radio messages between teams and the FIA and a new race management team have also been introduced.
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