16/04/2022
NEWS STORY
The FIA has responded to criticism of the Aston Martin safety car in Australia, not least Max Verstappen's description of the car as a "turtle".
The world champion was one of a number of drivers to complain that the Aston Martin used at Melbourne is not as quick as the vehicle supplied by Mercedes, and as a result drivers were unable to generate the requisite heat into their tyres ahead of the restart.
With the whole issue of safety cars sill a sore point for the sport's governing body, this morning the FIA took to Twitter to issue a brief statement in reaction to the drivers' comments.
"In light of recent comments regarding the pace of the FIA Formula 1 Safety Car, the FIA would like to reiterate that the primary function of the FIA Formula 1 Safety Car is, of course, not outright speed, but the safety of the drivers, marshals and officials," it read.
"The safety car procedures take into account multiple objectives, depending upon the incident in question, including the requirement to 'bunch up' the field, negotiate an incident recovery or debris on track in a safe manner and adjust the pace depending on recovery activities that may be ongoing in a different part of the track.
"The speed of the safety car is therefore generally dictated by race control, and not limited by the capabilities of the safety cars, which are bespoke high-performance vehicles prepared by two of the world's top manufacturers, equipped to deal with changeable track conditions at all times and driven by a hugely experienced and capable driver and co-driver.
"The impact of the speed of the safety car on the performance of the cars following is a secondary consideration, as the impact is equal amongst all competitors who, as is always the case, are responsible for driving in a safe manner at all times according to the conditions of their car and the circuit."
Ahead of the race, the FIA had warned drivers over how they were to act ahead of a safety car restart, with particular attention paid to Verstappen's habit of harrying the driver ahead to the point of being alongside.
However, in the wake of the incident behind the safety car involving Yuki Tsunoda and Mick Schumacher the stewards warned of the need for further revisions of the protocols.
"It is clear that the speed and braking capabilities of F1 cars, especially while trying to maintain required temperatures in tyres and brakes, are in tension with the ten car length separation behind the safety car traditionally specified in the regulations," they said.
"This needs to be a point of emphasis in future driver briefings, to ensure the drivers collectively agree on how best to address this challenge before an unfortunate incident occurs."