By Alan Baldwin
Formula One’s safety-car rules will be revisited by teams and the governing body after the closing anticlimactic laps of Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix brought back memories of last year’s controversial Abu Dhabi championship-deciding race.
Max Verstappen won both times, but the irony at Monza was that his Red Bull team was the one complaining about how the race finished, when Mercedes had previously defended the officials.
This time, unlike the December race in Abu Dhabi, the FIA respected the rules, and Ferrari’s home audience continued to boo and jeer.
Lewis Hamilton, seven-time world champion for Mercedes, experienced a flashback.
The Briton, who is no longer a contender for the championship this season, missed out on a record eighth title in Abu Dhabi after race director Michael Masi modified the safety car rules to ensure a thrilling finish.
Hamilton stated on Sunday, after the safety car lingered on the circuit during the final laps while marshals attempted to remove Daniel Ricciardo’s disabled McLaren, “It always brings back memories, which is the rule, right?”
It is the only time in the history of the sport that the rule has not been followed.
Mercedes manager Toto Wolff, enraged after Abu Dhabi, stated that the FIA made the right decision.
“There are rules and they are written down, and from my perspective, whether I’ve been traumatized by Abu Dhabi or not, these rules have been followed to the letter today,” said the Austrian, who had George Russell in third and Hamilton in fifth.
“If one is unhappy with the restrictions and wants a big bang display with two laps of racing and mayhem, I’m all for it, but we’ll have to amend the regulations,” she said.
On Monday, FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem will hold a prearranged meeting with race authorities and team managers to discuss this matter.
Christian Horner, team principal for Red Bull, remarked, “I’m certain that this will now be near the top of the list.”
Whether any decisions will be made remains unknown.
If the safety car is deployed after a specific stage of a race, the race could be stopped and restarted, but this is riskier for the leader.
It might also increase the potential of further controversy in a sport tainted by the 2008 scandal in which Fernando Alonso won the Singapore Grand Prix after team Nelson Piquet Jr. intentionally crashed to cause a safety car for the team’s benefit.
McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl told reporters on Sunday that teams had failed to discover a solution to prevent safety car finishes after Abu Dhabi.
“Despite the FIA and Formula One actively pushing us to find answers, it was up to the teams, and… we were unable to agree on a better option,” he stated.
Therefore, I suppose we must realize that unpleasant scenarios like these are possible.
Reuters