I’m trying to understand what exactly happened in the Abu Dabi F1 2021 Drama, but as someone very new to racing I don’t seem to understand what exactly happened. I keep hearing lapped cars were allowed to unlap, but as someone who hasn’t seen that match or any for that matter, I don’t exactly know what that means.
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In circuit racing a lapped car is a car that is behind the leader by more then a full lap. That means that the leaders drove so fast that they were able to go an extra lap around the circuit and ended up passing the slowest cars. There are rules saying that a lapped car is not allowed to defend against getting overtaken by the leaders. This is so that they can not interfere with the race of the fastest cars. Ideally you would make a circuit that is so long that you never get any lapped cars but this is unpractical so you end up with leaders and lapped cars having to share the circuit.
The issue that might come up is that the cars do not all go at the same speed all the time. The lapped car might have ended up in the back due to a crash or because they had to pit for new tyres. And the leaders might have stayed out too long on old tyres and have now gotten slow. It is therefore not that uncommon to have lapped cars being faster then the race leaders. And while lapped cars are not allowed to defend against the leaders they are allowed to attack leaders in front of them. If they pass the leader they have unlapped themselves. It is not unfair for a lapped car who is now fast to get their race ruined just because they get stuck behind a slow leading car. The problem with this is that sometimes the lapped car might interfere with the race of the leader while attempting to pass them. So a lapped car who are far behind and out of the points may end up ruining the race for a driver that is currently on pole.
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