"One lap pretty much to catch up which isn't enough" - Alex Albon says F1 safety car unlapping rules need further review

Alex Albon is not one of the biggest fans of the new safety car rules that have been implemented this season. According to the new rules, the lapped cars can unlap themselves but only have around a lap's time to join the back of the field for the restart.

During the Bahrain GP, Lance Stroll onwards, the drivers were allowed to unlap themselves before the safety car restart. But because they didn't have enough time to reach the back of the pack, Stroll was around 20 seconds behind the leading car.

Alex Albon was a further eight seconds behind Stroll and it meant that the unlapped cars were somewhat left in a limbo after the restart.

Taking objection to the new rule, Albon said:

"They have made a rule which I guess is part of the Abu Dhabi thing, there will only be one lap pretty much to catch up which isn’t enough. Firstly, in terms of a safety point I, guess it was fine, but we were driving flat out and with the safety car on track."

He added:

"I’m not sure that is how we want it to be but of course we are going to drive as hard as we can to catch up the leading lap. I don’t know if it makes it better or not. For me it made it worse as it spread out the field, we were kind of in our race at the back there away from everyone else, so maybe it is something to review."

However, the regulation Albon referred to was the controversial Article 55.13 of F1's sporting regulations. It now stipulates "all" rather than "any" lapped cars must unlap themselves in the wake of last year's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix controversy. However, the clause to which Albon is referring isn't new.

It is standard practice for unlapped cars to be given just one lap to unlap themselves and join the back of the pack. It comes down to the discretion of the race directior if it wants to extend the safety car period to let the unlapped cars join the pack.

Alex Albon makes an impressive debut with Williams

Alex Albon ended up finishing 13th in the Bahrain GP race. It was a great result for Williams, as he ended up beating both the McLarens and an Aston Martin car. Albon capped off an impressive debut with the team.

Even in qualifying, Albon was the saving grace for the team as he out-qualified his teammate by almost a second in his debut race. If the Red Bull academy driver keeps this up, then he will keep himself in contention for a seat in the senior team.