The procession nature of Formula One in recent years – with the same cars at the front, the same teams running just behind, then daylight to the best of the rest where racing actually happens – doesn’t make for great motorsport viewing.
So I was excited to turn the telly on to find some serious rain and teams gambling between full wet or intermediate tyres on Sunday night. Right! I thought, we have some real racing on our hands!
Real racing we did see at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Italy. The rain didn’t last too long and those in the minority who gambled on full wet tires quickly went back in the field when the weather eased.
At the front, some fantastic driving saw Max Verstappen take the lead early on and the spray meant he quickly got out of the DRS zone of Lewis Hamilton to put a handy gap on the championship leader.
Then, within a lap of each other, they both pitted for tyres.
Max was in first on Lap 28 for a swap from worn-out inters to a fresh set of slicks. Hamilton stayed out and put the hammer down, knowing it would be his last lap on the old inters before pitting on Lap 29.
It was a slow stop for Lewis, as there was an issue with the front right tyre that cost him an extra four seconds, which ensured Max maintained the lead. But with Lewis doing fastest laps to close the gab before they both found themselves in traffic to lap slower cars that had yet to pit.
This allowed Lewis to close the gap.
On lap 31, the rarest of events occurred, as Hamilton made a massive mistake. In trying to overtake a back-marker, flying up the inside on cold slick tyres, he came off the dry line and dove down the inside on the wet side of the track.
He couldn’t pull it up and it forced him to drive straight, avoiding the corner altogether (and the back marker thankfully), head straight for the sand, and luckily pull up before the barriers.
(Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
With a damaged front wing, he did the smart thing and got his car in reverse, after what seemed an age.
By the time it was all over, he was a full lap down and behind Daniel Ricciardo on track.
This is where things get a little confusing, as the coverage wasn’t clear. It was chaos working out at this stage where everyone actually sat in the race standings and who was on the lead lap when further carnage occurred.
George Russell attempted to overtake Valtteri Bottas down the high speed straight, where he put a tyre under acceleration on the grass, causing his car to spin to the left, straight into the side of Bottas.
The wreckage forced officials to red flag the race and order all cars back to pit lane while they cleaned up the mess. Thankfully, both drivers were unhurt, but there was some choice footage of George Russell giving it to Bottas as he believed he had caused the crash.
Replays show that is not the case and Russel had balked at Bottas maintaining the dry line.
The race resumed with a rolling start out of pit lane behind the safety car. Then we heard, with five minutes before the race re-started, that all of the lapped cars would be allowed out on track to unlap themselves before the restart of the race.
So once that was completed, Hamilton – who was a full lap down and sitting behind Ricciardo in sixth position – found himself in ninth position on the lead lap, with Lance Stroll and Kimi Raikkonen between him and Ricciardo.
Everyone in the race from positions one to eight were legitimately on the lead lap. None of them had gone off track in a major way. None of them had cost themselves major time due to issues in the pits. None of them had major mechanical issues and were all legitimately fighting it out on the lead lap for points.
But now they had the fastest car in the race prior to the crash back on the lead lap and hunting them all down.
The inevitable happened and Lewis slid his way through the field to take back second on the podium at the end of the race. With two laps to go and a dry track, with Max out in front and not needing to push it further, Lewis also took back fastest lap and an extra point.
Lewis managed to take a full 21 points from the race, keeping him in the lead of the championship.
I feel bad for the other seven drivers. Lando Norris had a fantastic drive and managed third on the podium, but was relegated from second, losing three points.
Charles Leclerc was off the podium and down to fourth where he lost a further three points – and so on all the way down to Stroll, who ended up in eighth.
All these drivers were legitimately on the lead lap and were arbitrarily relegated down the standings by one point because F1 rules allowed all lapped cars to get a free ride back onto the lead lap.
Had those cars remained one lap down at the restart, there’s no way Lewis could have gone all the way through the field twice before the race ended.
Remember, it was Lewis’ own driving error that had him a lap down.
F1 gifted Lewis Hamilton 16 points in the driver’s championship and took that many off other drivers through no fault of their own. What a farce this is, and something needs to be done to fix it.
I would hate to see this many points decide the championship but more than that it robbed Charles Leclerc of a podium and Lando Norris a second place.
Johnno
Roar Rookie
I maybe a bit thick, but how does it get lapped runners out of the way. They are either back in the middle of the field or if they are back in the back in the middle of the field but lapped. I think that makes sense.
Simoc
Guest
No worries. Keep writing. It's all about experience and pushing through vitriol like mine!
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
So just use the virtual safety car for everything? The race was red flagged and needed some way to be restarted. The pit lane isn’t the length of the whole track, and they can’t form everything back to exactly the way it was once the cars are in the pit lane, can they? I do get what you mean re: safety car being there for safety, and that’s the difference between a VSC and a full safety car period. Generally, a full safety car period is used when the marshalls need a bigger gap between to clean up debris, and in that instance, again they can’t make everyone re-form to the gaps they were before the safety car because it’s impractical and will take so long to do
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
Before I go and do the research, why is it only an issue if front runners benefit from these loopholes? It should be an issue if anyone does, which is what proves my point. Anyone that has been able to unlap themselves under a safety car/red flag and gotten points by this method should be stripped of their points based of this argument.
Sheikh
Roar Rookie
The rule has actually been around for quite a while, but was removed as: a) safety cars weren't that common in F1, and b) it was confusing to the timekeepers. It was re-instated in ~2012. Certainly it helped Bottas in 2017 in Azerbaijan as he picked up a puncture on the 1st lap and dropped to the back with a slow lap and pit-stop, falling a lap behind the leaders. On one safety car (there were 3-4 that race) Bottas was allowed to unlap himself, and he then went on to come 2nd overall. I'm not sure it's helped anyone else quite as much, and I suppose that it's slightly controversial that it's helped two Mercedes drivers! But the alternatives aren't necessarily any more palatable: - Do the opposite and have lapped drivers forced to drop back behind all non-lapped drivers. This would disproportionally affect mid- and lower-tier teams who really need to scrap for their points. - Do nothing and have lapped drivers in amongst non-lapped drivers during the re-start. This would benefit the leader (and any cars ahead of the first unlapped driver) who can gain an advantage on the re-start, and also is a safety issue as cars and drivers of different abilities are close together on the re-start. This is the reason why random or any adjusted grids are bad ideas. Possibly the best way of dealing with it is either to have virtual safety cars for every safety car incident (you are supposed to hold the same gap to the car in front as when the safety car came out) or if the race has been red-flagged, the timings from the most recent timing post (and that's almost every corner these days) are used to allow the release of each car from the start-finish line.
Chris Love
Roar Guru
It’s my first motor sport article. Don’t beat me up too much. The commentary was really there to set the scene for those that missed the race to get my point.
Chris Love
Roar Guru
And I believe they are let go. The blue flag is only meant to stop a back marker from slowing down faster cars. I would have been more than happy for the lapped cars, if faster, to make their way thought he field and I’m sure those drivers from 1 to 8 would have been happy for Lewis to be fighting it out with them from a lap down.
Chris Love
Roar Guru
To be clear I’m not calling for that. They were the rules when the season started and they must remain for the rest of the season. But going into next year I think it’s only fair they be done away with.
Simoc
Guest
F1s always been great Chris. Seems you're a bit out of your depth here. First a commentary of the race and then your take on an incident. Hamilton got seriously lucky then drove superbly. He is at the top because he is the best. Tough bikkies!
KenW
Roar Rookie
But that has nothing to do with the restart right? I mean even if the race had continued, Hamilton could have found himself behind Stroll + 1 lap. Blue flags are supposed to be used with discretion to avoid slower cars holding up faster ones. If a lapped car is genuinely fast enough to overtake then they should be let go.
Garry
Guest
The blue flags issue is an interesting one. Suppose at the restart Hamilton was in 9th position and a lap down. He overtakes the 8th placed Stroll to unlap himself, but is then blue flagged and required to let Stroll pass, because he is still in 9th place and Stroll in 8th is right behind him. But he is faster than Stroll, so overtakes him again, but is blue flagged again, and so on. Is this how things would work on a restart if lapped drivers weren't allowed to unlap themselves? Or would Hamilton in that situation avoid being blue flagged because he was plainly quicker than Stroll?
Chris Love
Roar Guru
Im not claiming it because it benefited a top driver. I'm claiming it because it's unfair on those that managed to keep their cars on the black stuff. I get why it was brought in and I don't think the benefit outweighs the detriment.
Chris Love
Roar Guru
I may or may not have had the IPL on in the back-ground when writing this utter garbage. What about the car that was 199% behind? Safety car either rolling or not is there for safety and no over taking. Not to give bad drivers/teams a leg up. Have them start in the exact same position they were on track.
Dexter The Hamster
Roar Rookie
Lord have mercy. No it hasn't been in place for "a thousand years", please do some basic research. Its a new rule. And if you can find me at least two examples (I'll take one) of a front running car finding themselves in this position after a red flagged race, I will bow down to your grace. Bottom line is this rule is in place to remove backmarkers from the restart, and in this case Lewis found himself as a backmarker, and made the most of it. Not his fault, but surely it made a mockery of the race.
Dexter The Hamster
Roar Rookie
Yes, thats why I said for future seasons. I agree, with what you are saying, but the FIA are surely looking at it for next season and beyond.
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
The reason why it makes sense to do so on a red flag is because now red flagged race restarts are held with a standing start when it is safe to do so (which is why it was a rolling restart, however all other race procedures remain the same, which is why Kimi got his post-race penalty). If, let’s say Giovanazzi is the first lapped driver on the grid, and he does one of his patented starts, he is then going to have to immediately hand the place back to blue flags.
Sheikh
Roar Rookie
No, I saw that; but I also saw an incredible drive to get from 9th to 2nd in ~20 laps.
Nicholas Belardo
Roar Guru
Look, even as someone who used to openly hate on Lewis, I find it very funny that as soon as this rule which has been in place for about a thousand years, is now being questioned because Lewis is the one who benefitted from it. It’s the way things work, and it’s the easiest way to do it with timing systems. Get over it.
MCG
Guest
One would hope so, but they can't change it mid season or it will be unfair should the same situation arise gain and other drivers don't get the same advantage. The FIA would have to adjust this result first and put all the "unlap" drivers back a lap...that won't happen, F1 is becoming a farce. If Lewis wins this season by less than 16 points its a joke.
Dexter The Hamster
Roar Rookie
Remember last year when he missed that race, and it was the only time in 7 years that Mercedes have totally ballsed up a pit stop, with wrong tyres!!?? Poor George/Andre.....