Quote:
Originally Posted by STeeLy
Then why have the regulation in the first place? There is no regulation that says that it doesn't have to be followed in the last 2 laps of the race.
If regulations written in can just be changed arbitrarily by the race director, why even have them at all?
Race director has the discretion to let cars unlap or not, that is in the regulation, but if they don't want to waste a lap to do it, then green flag it with the cars still in between.
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The intention of the regulation is the same as blue flags...to keep back markers out of the way.
I've wondered if the lucky dog unlapping was a bit of an olive branch to the backmarker teams who are subject to blue flags...but that doesn't make much sense as blue flags began being 'enforced' in 1995 (as opposed to just informational for the drivers before that), but the unlapping under safety cars didn't start until 2012.
There were a lot of years where the first few laps after a safety car restart were a blue flag bonanza, and often messy.
Here's Vettel on the stupidity of unlapping (and the dangers involved):
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1...77359/4977359/
I don't see why anyone deserves to unlap at all. Safety cars result in winners and losers every time...but every team is planning and thinking about what happens if an SC or VSC. It's motor racing.