Toto Wolff makes Abu Dhabi ’21 comparison in reaction to Silverstone safety car finish
George Russell was the winner of a gamble to stay out behind the safety car.
Toto Wolff joked he wished a finish behind the safety car happened in Abu Dhabi 2021 rather than Silverstone this past weekend but maintained it was the correct decision.
The British Grand Prix ended behind Bernd Maylander’s Mercedes after a late Max Verstappen crash brought out the safety car.
Toto Wolff reflects on Silverstone safety car
Verstappen lost the rear of his Red Bull into Stowe and brought out the safety car as marshals rescued his stricken RB22 from the gravel.
With four laps remaining, it raised the potential of a last-lap shootout, prompting the majority of the grid to head to the pits for fresh rubber.
Leader Charles Leclerc did as did his teammate Lewis Hamilton but while Leclerc was able to rejoin in first, Hamilton came out behind George Russell who gambled on keeping track position.
It was a move that paid off for Mercedes with the race ending behind the safety car, even with an erroneous message saying it would pull in before the final lap, and while fans were left disappointed at the damp squib ending, Wolff said it was the correct call.
“I would have preferred for this to happen in ‘21, that was more important,” he told media including PlanetF1.com at Silverstone. “But it’s good that the regulations have been followed.
“Sometimes it doesn’t give for the most exciting final, certainly from a spectacle standpoint. Everybody would have loved to see Lewis on a soft against us, and maybe fighting with Leclerc, but this is a sport.
“Show follows sport and not the other way around, so it’s good that FIA made that call.”
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The FIA blamed a “software error” for the erroneous message which stated the safety car would come in on the penultimate lap.
In a statement, the FIA said: “The Safety Car period regulation, Article B5.13.5, states that one lap must be completed following the unlapping procedure. This process was followed by Race Operations.
“The ‘Safety Car In This Lap’ message was displayed erroneously due to a software error.”
Martin Brundle, who was commenting on the race in his role for Sky Sports, suggested the rule should be changed in order to have a “grandstand finish.”
“Whatever the regulations say, it’s not right, to wait, especially on long circuits. Somewhere like Spa, it takes forever to wait for the lapped cars to get through,” he said.
“They should either drop back, or I mean, they were half a lap away… The whole reason that came in, as I said in commentary, was to stop lapped runners getting in the way of a big grandstand finish. That’s what that was all about.”
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