The 2026 Formula 1 British Grand Prix endured a very anticlimactic end as drivers crossed the finish line under safety car conditions, which prompted boos from the SIlverstone crowd.
It came after Max Verstappen crashed at Stowe with six laps remaining and once his Red Bull had been cleared, race control followed its standard procedures by allowing cars to unlap themselves.
Those cars were cleared on the penultimate tour, but F1 rules state that one lap must be completed following that procedure meaning it ended under a safety car.
Confusion arrived though when a software glitch caused race control to display the ‘safety car in this lap’ message on the penultimate tour, only for the FIA to overrule that message just eight seconds later.
This has prompted debate over the rules and whether it is right for grands prix to finish behind a safety car instead of there being a grandstand finish.
Here is what our writers think.
The system works fine as it is – Filip Cleeren
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photo by: Ben Stansall / Pool /AFP via Getty Images
I don’t think there is much of an argument over how the British GP ended. Despite a confusing software glitch, the rules were followed as they were written today, which is exactly what the series needs after some of the traumas we’ve been through.
Is the rule itself fit for purpose? I’ll answer that question with another question. How many times has a grand prix finished behind the safety car? If I’ve got my maths correct, that has happened on 12 occasions since the first such instance in 1999. And then there is of course Abu Dhabi 2021, when it should have but famously didn’t.
Compared to oval racing in the US – where cautions breed cautions, as the saying goes – safety car finishes are quite a rare occurrence in F1, rare enough for me to think this is a bit of a nothingburger, and that the rules are fine as they are.
If you’re pining for consistency, then you also have to accept that finishes like these sometimes happen, even if Sunday was anticlimactic. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do to improve the current rules, and perhaps leaving backmarkers where they are would at least speed up the process and allow us to get more racing laps in.
Now, that’s me with my lifelong racing fan hat on. In the wake of Abu Dhabi 2021, I’ve also had a lot of confused friends and family members, who would otherwise never pay attention to motorsport, wondering how it’s possible that a leader can simply have their carefully earned advantage wiped away through no fault of their own because of a safety car.
I have to admit I didn’t have much of an answer beyond: ‘That’s just the way it is, for safety’. Could we eventually move to a system in which all situations can be handled by a Virtual Safety Car and cars are controlled by a speed limiter, so that sporting integrity can really remain intact? It’s worth thinking about, at least.
Leave the backmarkers where they are – Kevin Turner
Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi F1 Team, Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team, Carlos Sainz, Williams
Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images
Most of the possible solutions are unworkable or unappealing. Extending the race, as some other series do, isn’t doable because of the marginal fuel loads F1 teams work with, while red-flagging proceedings is the worst option.
Not only does that create more risk with another getaway, it also increases the chances of getting a result not worthy or indicative of everything that’s gone before – some fans complain about things that are artificial and this is the most contrived option of all. The final lap(s) would have far too much influence on the result, potentially rendering the rest of the event meaningless – and grand prix racing should be better than that.
The answer is simple: leave the backmarkers where they are. Not only does this save a lot of time, it’s also fairer. A safety car situation already loses a leader most of the advantage they’ve toiled to build. Waving past any backmarkers that might be between them and their challengers just rubs the loss in further.
Leaving cars in the queue is what used to happen. The downside, of course, is that backmarkers could end up between the frontrunners. That’s not the best thing for ‘the show’, even though it’s fairer and more sporting. But finishing behind the safety car is surely even worse on the entertainment scale.
Yes, there’s the chance that someone, say, in 10th loses out because they are behind the leader and the driver in ninth hasn’t been lapped yet – and is thus allowed to rejoin the back of the pack, essentially gaining almost a lap. But that’s outweighed by the benefits of getting the race going and having a fairer situation at the front – no system will be perfect so you have to make a choice.
Leaving the backmarkers where they are would have allowed both a fairer race to the crown in the 2021 Abu Dhabi finale and allowed a lap or two of racing at Silverstone last weekend.
The rules work, applying them correctly is the solution – Haydn Cobb
Carlos Sainz, Williams
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
I hate to burst the bubble of an exciting race finish, but if the rules were applied correctly throughout the end of the British GP, the conclusion behind the safety car was always incredibly likely.
It only wasn’t because of a “software error” that mistakenly said the safety car was coming in on the penultimate lap, when a full lap still needed to be completed after the lapped cars were allowed to unlap themselves (but not you Carlos Sainz – which we’ll get to later) as prescribed in Article B5.13.5.
It was just eight seconds between the erroneous message and the correction but it was enough to start this entire debate.
The ideas of dropping lapped cars to the back of the pack, either to unlap themselves without completing said lap or effectively going another lap down, or adding extra laps like in NASCAR or Formula E or even red flagging the race if a safety car is required within the closing laps, are all just solutions to an entertainment before sport question.
The question that arose at the British GP was why the rules were not properly followed – even if the FIA made quick work to correct its mistake which at least avoided more confusion and further procedural errors. At least we didn’t have another 2021 Abu Dhabi GP on our hands.
Getting that right first should be objective number one, whether it is good for F1 to have races that finish behind the safety car is a supplementary question, but given that occurrence is so infrequent then it feels unnecessary to tackle it at this juncture.
Now, the Sainz matter, where due to the pitlane configuration the Williams driver technically unlapped himself which is why he was left off the ‘lapped cars can unlap themselves’ message and he duly got an unprecedented penalty lap given to his final result.
This is where the FIA’s rules were, technically, followed to the letter but a quirk in the system meant common sense got trumped by ‘the rules are the rules’ approach. And that’s correct. But the FIA needs to look into these “that’s weird” moments – even if they are not directly at fault – because it’s an unnecessary confusion and easily avoidable.
Does anyone want another Gasly Monaco GP penalty saga?
