The safety car
The safety car is a road car driven by an FIA driver that leads the field at reduced speed while marshals deal with a problem on track. It comes out when people are in immediate physical danger on or near the track, but not so much that the race needs stopping with a red flag. A crash with debris across the track or a car stopped in a dangerous spot are typical reasons.
When it's deployed, the race is neutralised. Nobody can race, the gaps between the cars disappear as everyone bunches up behind it, and the race restarts once the track is clear.
How it's deployed
The race director gives the order. The message "SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED" goes to every team, the light panels around the track show "SC", marshals wave yellow flags and hold up "SC" boards, and the safety car leaves the pit lane with its orange lights flashing.
The safety car joins the track wherever it is, whether or not the leader is right behind it. That can mean some cars are between the safety car and the leader for a while. When the race director is ready, a green light on the safety car tells those cars to pass it and drive round to join the back of the queue.
The safety car carries an FIA observer who can identify every car in the field and is in constant radio contact with race control. Mercedes-AMG and Aston Martin supply the cars, which take turns across the season. Bernd Mayländer has been the regular safety car driver since 2000.
What drivers have to do
As soon as the safety car is deployed, drivers have to slow down straight away. They can't race to the back of the queue. Each car's electronics show a minimum lap time to stay above, and drivers must be slower than that target at least once in every marshalling sector (the stretch between two light panels) until they cross the first safety car line for the second time. Breaking it is punished by how many sectors they were too fast in, from a 5-second penalty up to a stop-and-go.
Once in the queue:
- Each car has to stay within 10 car lengths of the one in front, and the leader within 10 car lengths of the safety car. In poor visibility the race director can extend this to 20.
- No overtaking, including of the safety car. A driver who passes someone and gives the place back escapes punishment. Keeping it can mean anything from a 10-second penalty to a stop-and-go, depending on how many cars were passed.
- No driving unnecessarily slowly or erratically.
There are some exceptions to the no-overtaking rule. Drivers can pass a car with an obvious problem. Cars heading into the pits can pass cars staying out once they reach the first safety car line, and cars leaving the pits can pass cars on track until the second safety car line. Those two lines are painted across the track near the pit entry and pit exit.
The pit lane stays open, but a driver can only come in to change tyres. Because the field is moving slowly, a pit stop under the safety car costs far less time than normal, which is why you'll often see a rush of cars pitting the moment it comes out. See strategy under the safety car for how teams play this.
Overtake mode is switched off while the safety car is out and only comes back once every car has crossed the control line after the restart. See overtake mode and boost.
Lapped cars
Behind the safety car, cars a lap down end up mixed in with cars on the lead lap. Leaving them there would make the restart messy and unfair, so the rules let them unlap themselves.
When the race director decides it's safe, the message "LAPPED CARS MAY NOW OVERTAKE" goes out and the green light on the safety car comes on. Every car that has been lapped by the leader then passes the cars on the lead lap and the safety car, and drives round at a sensible speed to join the back of the queue. While this happens, the cars on the lead lap must stay on the racing line so the lapped cars can get past safely.
Once the message has gone out, the safety car comes in at the end of the following lap, unless the race director thinks it's still needed. The race director can also decide that track conditions don't allow any overtaking at all, and send the message "OVERTAKING WILL NOT BE PERMITTED".
Why this matters: Abu Dhabi 2021
These rules are tighter than they used to be because of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. A late safety car came out with Lewis Hamilton leading and Max Verstappen second, with five lapped cars between them. The race director at first said lapped cars would not be allowed to overtake, then allowed only those five cars to unlap. That left Verstappen on fresh tyres directly behind Hamilton for a one-lap shoot-out, which Verstappen won to take the title.
An FIA inquiry afterwards found the procedure had been applied inconsistently because of "human error". The rules were then reworded so that all lapped cars unlap, not a selection, and the race director was given more support from a remote operations room.
The restart
When the race director decides to end the safety car period, the message "SAFETY CAR IN THIS LAP" goes out and the orange lights on the safety car go off. It will pull into the pit lane at the end of that lap.
From that moment the leader controls the pace. They can back off and leave a bigger gap to the safety car, and then choose when to accelerate. Everyone behind must drive smoothly, with no sudden braking or acceleration, and nobody may pull alongside the car in front.
Overtaking is allowed again once each car crosses the control line, the timing line on the main straight. Not at the safety car line, and not when the leader accelerates. Leaders try to catch the people behind out by picking an unexpected moment to go, sometimes several corners before the line.
As the safety car approaches the pit entry, the "SC" boards are withdrawn and a green flag and green light are shown at the control line.
If the safety car is out at the end
If the safety car is still out at the start of the last lap, or comes out during it, the race finishes under the safety car. The safety car turns into the pit lane at the end of the lap and the cars take the chequered flag in order, without overtaking. That's an anticlimax, and race control usually tries to get a restart in if there's any way to do so safely, but the rules don't require it.
Every lap behind the safety car counts as a race lap. For a lighter-touch option that doesn't bunch the field up, see the virtual safety car.