Why Norris got lucky twice when the Safety Car appeared in Miami

22 comments on “Why Norris got lucky twice when the Safety Car appeared in Miami”

1. 

   Osnola
   6th May 2024, 11:04

   Yes it was a gifted win. But Nortis did nothing wrong and like verstappen in 2021 deserved the win.
   But maylander would have been sacrificed on the altar of fia incompetence or the race director by not correcting the situation.
   But reality check: errors happen and maylander probably expected verstappen on front as usual.

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   1. 

      roadrunner (@roadrunner)
      6th May 2024, 12:54

      It’s not Maylander fault at all. We must get rid of the idea that there’s a single person to blame only because we somehow learnt his name. If he gets the signal to go he goes. It’s not up to him either to decide whether the cars are allowed to overtake the safety car. That’s up to race direction. And their job is primarily to guarantee the safety of the marshals and the drivers of the cars that have stranded on track.
      Still the element of luck could be reduced by neutralizing the field using the VSC first. You slow things down, get the full picture and send the safety car out at the right time. It’s how they used to handle it in the past and I don’t know why they didn’t do it yesterday as there was no apparent danger. If we’re playing the blame game we have to address that.

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      1. 

         Michael (@freelittlebirds)
         6th May 2024, 13:36

         I agree, let’s not play the blame game. The SC is there for safety and there’s a human factor. The most important thing is safety, not race results. Having said that, race direction should look into potentially mitigating the risk of changing the race result under SC, although there’s always a risk of that happening due to the less expensive pit stops.

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         1. 

            Chris (@racefanchris)
            6th May 2024, 14:30

            This has been looked at before. From 2007, the rules were the opposite of what they are now. When the SC was deployed, the pit lane was closed until the field was bunched up. This is how Renault fixed the Singapore GP of 2008, Renault instructed Piquet to crash immediately after Alonso has taken an early pit stop. When the field in front of him stopped once the pit lane was re-opened, Alonso cycled to the front. Admittedly this is the format Indy Car use without too much issue! Apply the pit lane closed rule to the race yesterday, Lando would have fallen down the back, rather than gaining the lead, which would have been a harsher penalty than the benefit he actually received. No system is perfect, and as you rightly point out the SC is for safety. I would probably leave the rules as they are. It is a random variable, in the same way a reliability failure is not fair on the driver, it is just how it goes sometimes.

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            1. 

               grapmg
               6th May 2024, 15:54

               They can close the pitlane and reinstate the gaps after the SC (with the help of a VSC) and than restart the race in the same order with the same gaps. It’s not perfect but a more fair way of handling the SC if you ask me. Only leaves the problem what to do with a flat tyre and the pitlane is closed.
      2. 

         Osnola
         6th May 2024, 15:55

         Thats why i stated ” or the race director”.
         And yes, on the current situation there is still one person responsible for this decision.

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   2. 

      Chris (@racefanchris)
      6th May 2024, 13:29

      I was watching onboard with Lando at the time. The SC did not pick up the wrong driver in the way you suggest. When the SC was deployed, Lando had just crossed the start finish line. Lando (legitimately) reached the safety car line before the safety car left the pit lane. As there were no lapped cars to my knowledge, Max was the next car on the road, so was picked up by the safety car. It made sense, given the accident was at turn 4, the SC delayed releasing the pack until later in the lap. So yes, some luck for Lando, but he earned the luck with his pace. I don’t believe there was any error on the part of race control.

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      1. 

         Osnola
         6th May 2024, 16:00

         17 seconds after lando passed the pit entry he reached the sc line. At almost the same moment he passed the entry the sc was called out. So yes he could have catched lando. Or waited a lap to pick up the leader.
         The better option wad to call a vsc , followed by a real sc.
         Still error by the race director.

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      2. 

         grapmg
         6th May 2024, 16:02

         shouldn’t the SC just wait for the leader instead of picking up the next car on the road? After the SC call all the drivers are already slowed down and on a delta. I think it was a mistake and the SC was deployed to pickup Lando but just missed him.

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   3. 

      Jere (@jerejj)
      6th May 2024, 13:35

      Lando would’ve likely rejoined in the first place, though, given he’s lead was more than 9 seconds, which is Miami’s average pit loss time relative to drivers on track under neutralized conditions, & second place at the very least, in which case he’d likely have overtaken Max for the victory, given the same tyre advantage either way as well as Max’s floor damage.

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      1. 

         Esploratore (@esploratore1)
         6th May 2024, 13:40

         The only problem for norris is that, as far as I saw, the SC came out just as he passed the pit lane, so if it had picked him up, he’d have had to do a while lap at slow speed, allowing others to close in and then losing positions when stopping.

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         1. 

            grapmg
            6th May 2024, 16:10

            Correct. I think Mclaren made a mistake not anticipating on that SC because the moment he passed the pit entry the SC was called. He probably would have made the stop and exited the pitlane just before Max so McLaren was lucky the SC missed him and gave them another opportunity for a free stop.

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2. 

   Kyle (@hammerheadgb)
   6th May 2024, 11:31

   There is an irony in Max being denied a potential win by the fact that the Safety Car crew seemed to assume Max was the leader.

   Did Lando benefit from a slice of luck? It does look it. Had he earned a slice, in my view, definitely.

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   1. 

      Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      6th May 2024, 13:32

      it is ironic, isn’t it?

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      1. 

         Osnola
         6th May 2024, 16:03

         Its F1, things like this happen. Sometimes its the strategy combined with race directors decisions (2012) sometimes just the situation.
         Some see karma, others see a typical f1 situation. As long as there are people making decisions, some are wrong. ( and ai will not change that)

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3. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   6th May 2024, 13:36

   I wonder when will FIA bother to explain how the SC managed to pick up the second-place driver instead of the at-the-time leader, which is unusual & unheard of.

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   1. 

      Tommy Scragend
      6th May 2024, 14:35

      Unusual, yes.

      Unheard of, no:
      https://www.salracing.com/story/2016/6/first-ever-appearance-of-the-safety-car-in-f1

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      1. 

         Tommy Scragend
         6th May 2024, 14:37

         Full story:
         http://8w.forix.com/cdn73.html

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4. 

   F1statsfan (@f1statsfan)
   6th May 2024, 13:56

   If the safety car had picked up Lando he would have lost out massively.

   He just missed pit entry when SC was announced meaning he would be stuck behind the SC for nearly a whole lap with the field closing behind him.

   Lando gained more than 20 seconds because Max was stuck behind SC, imagine if Norris lost that same 20 seconds and then still needed to make a pitstop.

   He would have been 6th-8th behind the SC.

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5. 

   hahostolze (@hahostolze)
   6th May 2024, 14:08

   Nice of FIA to let Michael Masi back for one race

   Reply moderated
   1. 

      Osnola
      6th May 2024, 16:05

      Even better, they dressed latify like sargeant…

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6. 

   Daniel
   7th May 2024, 1:23

   Thanks for being just about the only person to cover what happened properly.

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