FIA review on Safety Car restarts a firm no

Jamie Woodhouse
Tuscan-GP Mugello PA

Carlos Sainz has revealed “really good conclusions” were drawn from F1 drivers’ discussion with the FIA about the Safety Car restart at Mugello which led to a big crash.

FIA race director Michael Masi has made it clear that Safety Car restarts won’t be reviewed despite the huge crash at the Tuscan GP.

At the end on Lap 6 the Safety Car returned to the pits, at which point race leader Valtteri Bottas was in charge of deciding when to resume the race.

But as he bolted down the main straight a huge crash occurred behind him in the midfield, eliminating Nicholas Latifi, Antonio Giovinazzi, Kevin Magnussen and Carlos Sainz.

While the finger was initially pointed at Bottas by several drivers, the stewards ultimately handed out warnings to 12 of the competitors for their respective roles in the crash.

But the drivers were united on wanting the rules of Safety Car restarts to be reviewed after what could have been a severe incident.

However, Masi has made it clear that the drivers were to blame and no review will take place.

“At the end of the day, there’s probably some key points to take out of it [and] the drivers were all advised very clearly at the drivers’ meeting on Friday night. There were two key parts to remind them,” he is quoted by Motorsport.com.

“One was to ensure that they don’t overtake the safety car before the safety car line at pit entry. The second part was, which is unusual for this circuit, is that the control line where they can overtake is located close to the pit lane exit.

“So it’s not a surprise, and we’ve seen similar matters in Baku, with such a long run, let’s call it, to the control line where the leader who has every right to dictate the pace has kept it quite slow to try and avoid a slipstream from the cars behind.

“I don’t think there’s any need to review the safety car restart rule.”

Race winner Lewis Hamilton has already ruffled Masi’s feathers by suggesting that the FIA are putting drivers at risk by trying to make restarts more exciting.

“It’s absolutely not Valtteri’s fault at all,” the Tuscan GP winner said in the post-race press conference. “It’s the decision-makers. I don’t know who.

“They’re obviously trying to make it more exciting but ultimately today you’ve seen they’ve put people at risk. So, perhaps they need to rethink that.

“They have been moving switching off the Safety Car lights later and later and later and we’re out there fighting for a position.”

Masi dismissed the accusations as “offensive“.

Torquing Point - The Carnage at Mugello

Finlay and Michelle from www.planetf1.com discuss the carnage at the Tuscan Grand Prix.

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