FIA safety car controversy ‘everything Abu Dhabi deserves’

Max VerstappenThe Italian Grand Prix victory was overshadowed by a debate on the FIA’s operational acumen behind the safety car after the race.

F1’s governing body has criticised the ending, Ferrari Team leader Mattia Binotto suggested the sport deserves better.

The GPFans team convened the Butler Room podcast to discuss the issue, from safety car times to whether red flags should be thrown and those Abu Dhabi flashbacks. Read their reviews below.

Ian Parks – Editor-in-Chief

“What the FIA ​​has to do is to get the race back on as soon as possible.

“So if they waited to pick up Verstappen, they had to run one more lap. So they decided to let the safety car come out, which meant it picked up Russell and not Verstappen.

“The only downside is when Russell is finally released [from behind the safety car].

“So in this case, what happened at Monza was what Abu Dhabi was supposed to be, but it wasn’t.

“Why there’s so much controversy is because there’s an unwritten rule inside F1 that they don’t want to finish in safety car conditions, they want to finish in race conditions and that’s why Michael Massey got something wrong last year. .

“Because there was so much to do, he decided to let the last lap.

“[Monza] Exactly how it should be. Despite criticism from Mattia Binotto and Christian Horner, the FIA ​​did nothing wrong. “

Sam Hall – Associate Editor

“If I compare it to football, when a foul is a foul anywhere on the pitch, people complain, but in the box, it’s not a foul.

“For me, the safety car should be flagged yellow at any point in the race. It shouldn’t be a red flag just because there are five laps left, ‘oh no, someone’s going to be behind the safety car to win the car’.

“Spectacles are important, yes, but F1 fans have been spoiled by a lot of really good racing in recent years.

“You have to have those moments where you don’t get the great ending or the emotional ending that we all wanted to make those other moments special.”

Ewan Gale – F1 Writer

“I think it’s dishonest to label a race as controversial because the rules are followed by the letter of the law. The FIA ​​fully complied with that and there was nothing they could do.

“In this case, the race should have ended behind the safety car. There was no need for a red flag because there was no debris on the track, just the car stopped.

“The problem is that they only need to run one more lap to get into the race.

“When you go back to the start of the safety car, you think about 90 seconds or so when they didn’t call the safety car, that’s when you start thinking maybe you can do something else.

“From a full regulatory point of view there is nothing the FIA ​​can do, they have followed the rules correctly.

“Just because you did something wrong last year doesn’t mean you did it wrong again. You have to do the right thing.”

Listen to the GPFans Global team digest all the action at Monza, let us know what you think in the comments section below, and don’t forget to subscribe for more regular podcasts.