Flashback to the controversial Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The Italian Grand Prix ended with a boring finish behind the safety car instead of a dramatic ending with a wheel-to-wheel battle between Max Verstapenn and local hero Charles Leclerc.
Despite Ferrari’s lack of speed over the long haul, the likelihood of such a result remained in the event of a restart for a lap or two: for the sake of Tifozi, Scuderia and the Monegasque would certainly have turned on all the reserves and at least the championship leader is trying hard.
However, the result is only disappointment:
“The ending was disappointing: it’s a shame we didn’t chase it. It’s a shame, but I gave it my all. I would like to win in front of the fantastic fans, but today I just didn’t do it “, Leclerc’s emotions after the finish line.
“I’m sorry I didn’t wait for the restart, but the day went well for us,” said Verstappen.
“I think the race could have ended differently. Finishing behind the safety car is never exceptional. Not for us, but first of all for the whole F-1, for the show ”is Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto.
“We don’t want to win races by finishing behind the safety car,” said Red Bull boss Christian Horner. – We have a fast car and we would like to win on the track and not finish behind the safety car. We share the disappointment of all the fans, because we were deprived of an amazing goal “,
Tifosi wasn’t really impressed: during the post-finish interview, a disgruntled roar drowned out the winner:
And the boos during the podium ceremony even forced the broadcast director to turn off the soundtrack from the stands.
Fans choked Verstappen with a roar of indignation after victory in Italy: this is anger over Leclerc’s defeat without fighting at the finish line
However, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto also denounced the possibility and offered another explanation for the disappointment of the fans:
“This is not normal. Max was the fastest on the track and deservedly won. It can’t be like that.
But in general it seems to me that the fans were booing the FIA: they probably thought the safety car had to go off the track to let the drivers race for a couple of laps.
“The fans expressed their opinion honestly: they screamed and booed because they were not happy with the actions of the race direction,” said Red Bull program advisor Helmut Marko. – And they were right. The rules must be revised, the pilots must be released first to form the correct order in the group. In particular, the rule concerning the order to bring back latecomers in the same circle with the leader must be improved.
It doesn’t matter if the laps between the riders were in the leader group or not, we would still see a very interesting milestone. Although this obviously does not apply to Max. Because he was still in the lead and overtaking Max in the last laps is a very difficult task ”.
Why, then, could the pilots not compete at all?
The stewards simply did not have time to quickly remove Daniel Riccardo’s McLaren, which failed 6 laps before the finish: the “track clear” signal was suspended only after the start of the last lap.
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The point is an unfortunate set of circumstances: the gearbox stalled on car number 3, and the stewards failed to roll it away, simply missing a couple of laps to clarify the circumstances. Then the workers on the track waited for the evacuation crane and on the track, meanwhile, the safety car began to pick up the group not from the leader Verstappen, but from George Russell, so he could not immediately slow everyone down in the correct order, and the drivers they drove at remarkable speeds for another lap.
There was no formal reason to stop the race with red flags, because this is done only in case of serious damage to the barriers or obstruction to traffic. FIA he even issued a special statement on the matter to clarify the situation.
The whole matter, in principle, arose due to the scandalous final of the previous season, when race management decided to let Verstappen and Hamilton determine the champion in a wheel-to-wheel fight on the last lap. Subsequently the choice was recognized as erroneous due to “giant pressure from teams and fans” – and now everything has been done according to the rules, but the flashbacks of Abu Dhabi are not being released.
“Always bring back memories. That’s how the rules should apply, right? And for the only time in the history of Formula 1, the rule was not respected, “Lewis Hamilton hinted in a post-race interview.
“I am really happy to see that the race director and his colleagues followed the rules, despite the pressure from the press, the fans and everyone who asked to break the rules,” said Mercedes boss Toto Wolff. “At least the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix events and the aftermath gave the FIA confidence to follow the rules.
Everything was very clear today. There are well-defined rules. And from my point of view, traumatized or not by the events of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, today these rules have been respected point by point.
If anyone is dissatisfied with the current rules and wants to see a real show, a race from zero with two laps to go, I agree. But for this it is necessary to change the rules. So I don’t think we should complain now because everything was done according to the rules. “
Why haven’t the rules changed? It’s just that the teams didn’t agree on the new ones.
“After what happened last year in Abu Dhabi, there has been a lot of discussion between the FIA, Formula 1 and all the teams on how to change the rules so that the races never end behind the safety car.
Despite the fact that the FIA and Formula 1 were actively pushing us to find solutions – it was up to the teams – we couldn’t agree on the best option that would be right from a sporting point of view, McLaren boss Andreas Seidl acknowledged. We voted to keep the rules. So all the teams voted.
Maybe it sounds easy: you have to come up with something, let’s say, always hang red flags. In reality, not everything is that simple. We have discussed everything in detail and have not come up with a better solution. “
So the FIA did everything exactly according to the regulation with the amendments adopted after the 2021 final – for example, now the automatic system decides when it is possible to overtake the safety car in a circle and whether, according to its calculations, each circle does not have the time to move on, then the safety car mode will not take off.
But now there is no one to complain to: the rules are rules and everyone has agreed to them.
Conclusions of the investigation into the scandalous final in F-1: the mistake was admitted, but justified by enormous pressure. From there – reforms
What happened at the Italian Grand Prix: Verstappen won from 7th place, Ferrari got the wrong strategy, Leclerc had no chance
Ferrari dressed its drivers and F-1 car in yellow for the home Grand Prix – why?
A photo: globallookpress.com/ IMAGO / FLORENT GOODEN, IMAGO / ANTONIN VINCENT
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