The so-called ‘event notes’ for the race weekend in Abu Dhabi have been adjusted. This tightens the rules when leaving the pit lane, a direct response from the FIA to a maneuver by Max Verstappen yesterday during the second practice session.
After the second red flag during the second practice session, many cars were queuing at the exit of the pit lane. Max Verstappen, like many other drivers, had not participated in the first practice session and saw a lot of valuable time lost due to the second red flags. In an attempt to make as much use as possible of the remaining time, Verstappen overtook several other cars when leaving the pit lane.
It clearly got on Verstappen’s nerves that several drivers exited the pit lane very slowly and just after the pit exit he crawled past both Mercedes drivers, among others. Normally drivers who want to ‘create space’ have to pull over, but they didn’t. However, Verstappen’s maneuver was potentially dangerous and to avoid a recurrence of such a situation, the FIA decided to make changes in the event notes.
“According to article 33.4 of the sporting regulations, drivers are not allowed to drive unnecessarily slowly in the ‘fast lane’ of the pit lane. This also includes stopping at the end of the pit lane. Furthermore, overtaking when leaving the pit lane is now prohibited, unless another car has a clear (technical) problem.”
The last sentence was missing and from now on it ensures that so-called ‘Verstappen maneuvers’ are no longer possible. The fact is and remains that the FIA has tried to intervene several times in recent races to resolve dangerous situations on the track or when leaving the pit lane and to avoid them in the future. Other problems keep popping up and next winter it will be necessary to thoroughly examine how the problems can be definitively solved for the 2024 F1 season.
GREEN LIGHT
Overtaking in the Yas Marina tunnel
Max Verstappen is keen to get out on track with only 16 minutes of FP2 to go #AbuDhabiGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/d4Lwospbpa
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 24, 2023