Martin Brundle has offered up a couple of “fixes” to stop F1 races from ending behind a safety car going forward.
The British Grand Prix last weekend was disrupted late on when a safety car was called after Max Verstappen spun into the gravel late on.
On the penultimate lap of the grand prix, a message that the safety car was ending was displayed just moments after the command for the lapped cars to overtake the pack and return to the lead lap was given.
The FIA has stated this message was a software error, and highlighted it followed its own rules by ensuring one lap was completed after the unlapping message was delivered.
Brundle stated it resulted in a “massive tease” and offered up solutions to stop such a situation from recurring.
“There are potential fixes,” he wrote on his column for Sky F1.
“In IndyCar for example, if it's within the last 10 laps, instead of a wave-by the lapped cars are made to peel off into the pit lane and rejoin at the back of the field.
“Or we could simply have the lapped runners simply drop behind the pack.
“Or throw a red flag and have a standing restart in race order, although this takes a while.
“Instead, we prioritise runners who haven't been good enough, for whatever reason, on the day, instead of the leaders and most importantly the fans.”
However, Brundle admitted such fixes would not be bulletproof in the case of track layouts like Silverstone, pointing to a penalty handed to Carlos Sainz after the race.
“One caveat is, in true F1 style, defining exactly who a lapped runner is given the regulation states that it depends if they 'were lapped at the time they crossed the Line at the end of the lap during which they crossed the first safety car line for the second time after the Safety Car was deployed'.
“This caught Williams and Carlos Sainz out, not least due to the pitlane geography at Silverstone where you miss out three track corners, and he was penalised by a lap after the race. We do make it hard to understand.”
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Join RacingNews365's Nick Golding and Samuel Coop as they look back on last weekend's British Grand Prix! They discuss whether the title fight has been blown wide open, if Ferrari is a genuine contender and Max Verstappen's major criticism of the RB22.
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