F1′s safety car rules have been tweaked in the wake of the Valencia controversy.

The 12 teams met at Silverstone ahead of the British grand prix to discuss the incidents that so enraged Ferrari and its supporters.

The rule tweak, agreed between the teams and race director Charlie Whiting, addresses Ferrari’s complaint that Fernando Alonso was disadvantaged by following the rules and not overtaking the safety car on the Spanish street circuit.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, received a drive-through penalty for overtaking the safety car that was applied so late he was still able to finish the race in second place.

The result of the Silverstone meeting is that the safety car rules remain effectively the same, despite some pressure to see the pits closed when the safety car is circulating.

Instead, it has been agreed that drivers who are not being slowed by the safety car will have to drive on track at the same speed as the Bernd Maylander-driven Mercedes gullwing.

Previously, drivers not being immediately slowed by the safety car during the safety car period only had to keep within 120 per cent of a flying laptime.

In Valencia, the rule tweak would have meant Hamilton would not only have been penalised for overtaking the safety car, but also not able to negate the drive-through by driving around the track any faster than Maylander.

In the meeting, Whiting also promised the teams that efforts will be made to issue penalties like Hamilton’s faster in the future.

In Valencia, Hamilton’s penalty was delayed because the race director did not request the steward investigation until after the Mark Webber crash was dealt with.

But in future, potential penalties will be passed immediately to the attention of the stewards, while the race director can continue to focus on a Webber-like incident.

Moreover, because the arrival of crucial evidence about the Hamilton incident also slowed down the in-race investigation, there will now be cameras constantly monitoring the safety car lines 1 and 2.

There will also be trackside markings that show the location of the safety car lines, so that a driver cannot argue he did not notice the lines from his driving position.

Lewis Hamilton was not only on the qualification for the European Grand Prix with his third place easier, but after the race at Valencia, he was able to finish on the second position – despite a drive-through. This had brewed the McLaren-Mercedes driver as he overhauled the Safety Car irregularly.

“I think it’s just very, very positive, leading the championship,” said the McLaren-Mercedes driver, who lies at 107 meters by six points ahead of team-mate Jenson Button. “Both Jenson and I have worked hard all year, and the results show the efforts that each invested. It’s great to achieve those results, we can earn. Hopefully we close the gap on Red Bull and then they really . challenge ”
The situation with the safety car could have cost the former Formula 1 world champion much more: “I really do not know. When we riding around the first corner, I saw the safety car line. I saw that the safety car next to me and thought that I had passed it, so I kept going and that was it. ”

Turbulent it went straight to after the start, when he was in a duel against Vettel the front wing damaged, “I had passed clear to Mark that I saw for this reason, not where he went. I came through the first corner, and Sebastian was very close . I could see the available gap and tried it. I brake it and we went with the same speed in the curve. ”
“I was inside came through half of the curve. I gave him room, but we touched and broke my front wing. During the safety car, I came into the pits and the team did great work to change the wings and tires .

“After that, the speed was much stronger. I was able to put him under pressure. It was impossible to overtake him on that line, when the cars were within one second, even with the F-bay system. “

Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes teammates have sided with the seven time world champion over his controversial last-corner pass on Fernando Alonso.

After deliberating for four hours in Monaco, the stewards on Sunday evening decided to drop the German out of the points, even though team boss Ross Brawn insists the safety car period had officially ended.

Nico Rosberg thought Schumacher’s pass had been a good one.

“From my perspective it was a really cool manoeuvre,” he told German television RTL, “but apparently it’s not allowed.”

Interestingly, Rosberg revealed that he was also told by the Mercedes pitwall that overtaking between the safety car line and the chequered flag was allowed.

And Mercedes reserve driver Nick Heidfeld told Sky television: “The move was very clean.

“The rules are different this year.  In the past you could only overtake from the start/finish line, now it is from the safety car line.  Alonso was a little bit asleep,” added the German.

(GMM)

The Monaco stewards, including driver representative Damon Hill, have imposed a penalty that drops Michael Schumacher out of the points placings.

The seven time world champion passed Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso at the last corner of Sunday’s race, after the safety car that had been deployed for the Jarno Trulli/Karun Chandhok crash pulled into the pits.

There is a new rule in 2010 that allows overtaking between the safety car line and the finish line.

Where the confusion arises is that if a race finishes under the safety car, there is no overtaking allowed even though the safety car itself pulls into the pits.

Ferrari and Mercedes disagreed fundamentally in the stewards’ room, and ultimately the officials declared that Schumacher had breached article 40.13 of the sporting regulations.

The rule states that if the race ends under the safety car, “the cars will take the chequered flag as normal without overtaking”.

In lieu of a drive-through penalty, 20 seconds has been added to Schumacher’s time, meaning he drops from sixth place to twelfth.

But Mercedes’ Ross Brawn believes that because the cars raced at full speed to the chequered flag rather than in slow formation behind Webber, all the teams acknowledged that the safety car period had ended.

“I think you saw the reaction of all the other drivers,” said the Briton.

“If what Stefano (Domenicali) has said was true, they would just cruise to the start/finish line because they knew they couldn’t be overtaken, but everyone went for it and I’m afraid Fernando was a little asleep and we took advantage.”

(GMM)

Michael Schumacher and Ross Brawn are confident there will no post-race penalty applied by the stewards in the wake of a controversial last-lap incident.

The seven time world champion passed Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso at the last corner of Sunday’s Monaco grand prix, after the safety car that had been deployed for the Jarno Trulli/Karun Chandhok crash pulled into the pits.

There is a new rule in 2010 that allows overtaking between the safety car line and the finish line.

Where the confusion arises is that if a race finishes under the safety car, there is no overtaking allowed even though the safety car itself pulls into the pits.

“We were advised before the end of the race that the safety car was coming in,” Brawn told the BBC.  “There was no instruction that the race was going to finish under the safety car.”

Schumacher told German television RTL: “We saw the message ‘Track Clear’ officially on screen two.  So that means the safety car goes in and the race is back on.”

The 41-year-old laughed that it is “interesting” that his former nemesis Damon Hill is the driver-steward this weekend.

(GMM)