“He’s going to be a lap ahead”: Unheard moment Verstappen saw race was lost

25 comments on ““He’s going to be a lap ahead”: Unheard moment Verstappen saw race was lost”

1. 

   Blaze Pascal
   7th May 2024, 9:02

   Why is no one shouting from the rooftops about the safety car picking up the wrong car?????
   Lando would have come out behind Max without that monstrous error.
   1. 

      roadrunner (@roadrunner)
      7th May 2024, 12:41

      Because there’s no rule that states so. It’s the commen modus operandi but more because it helps neutralizing the field more quickly.
      Two questions remain though: Why not use VSC first to buy race control some time and why did it take so long until Verstappen and the queue was allowed to overtake the safety car.
      It probably did cost us a good race…
      1. 

         Johnny
         7th May 2024, 14:34

         It’s funny seeing Max fans complaining about the miss use of a SC costing you the race.
         1. 

            Esploratore (@esploratore1)
            7th May 2024, 16:21

            It’s funny to see comments of people who can’t read, there’s no way from that comment that you can assume roadrunner is a verstappen fan, what he said was it cost us a good race between verstappen and norris, instead of norris running into the distance.
         2. 

            roadrunner (@roadrunner)
            7th May 2024, 17:13

            I’m indeed no particular fan of Verstappen and SCs will never be absolutely fair. But reducing the element of luck to an extend would be a good thing, wouldn’t it?
            Imagine Norris hadn’t just missed the safety car by a couple of seconds: He’d dropped right to the back of the field. That would have been even worse and could (in this case) have easily been prevented by using a VSC first or deploying the safety car 30 seconds earlier.
      2. 

         MichaelN
         7th May 2024, 15:21

         Because there’s no rule that states so. It’s the commen modus operandi but more because it helps neutralizing the field more quickly.

         While that is true (55.6 explicitly states ‘regardless of where the leader is’) there is a clear and obvious reason why the race director often waits a bit to deploy the safety car, and allow it to pick up the leader. The safety car is much slower than the minimum FCY lap time (55.7) so in a race like Miami ’24 or Valencia ’10, where the leader(s) sneak by and make a pitstop while the rest of the field hangs around behind the safety car, the race director is effectively gifting a free pitstop without loss of position to one or more cars. This is very unfair, even if it’s “allowed”, and especially so when there is no strong reason to immediately deploy the safety car.
         1. 

            hunocsi (@hunocsi)
            7th May 2024, 23:55

            It seems like it is within the purview of the race director to decide when to let the cars go by under the Sporting rules, I checked the rulebook and this is what 55.9 says:

            When ordered to do so by the clerk of the course the observer in the car will use a green light
            to signal to any cars between it and the leader that they should pass. These cars will continue at
            reduced speed and without overtaking until they reach the line of cars behind the safety car.

            So that means that the Safety Car picks up the first car it can, regardless if it is the leader or not, and if it is not, the race director takes the decision when the cars are let by the SC until the leader is behind it. That at least clears up confusion, because until now I was certain that the SC had to let everyone by automatically until it could pick up the leader. I kind of blame the current TV direction for that, because I remember years and years ago when the cameras were showing the SC immediately after deployment, and it would come out of the pit lane and crawl until the leader was behind it. Nowadays it’s all replays and accident scene and pit stops they show first, and you don’t see the actual SC until minutes later, and I was under the impression that the policy changed.

            Still, it leaves a potentially race altering decision in the hand of the race director, which I’m still not entirely happy about, but I guess normal procedure was followed, so I understand the lack of complaint from the teams’ side now
      3. 

         SteveP
         7th May 2024, 19:24

         Why not use VSC first to buy race control some time

         I have an alternate view:- why use a real physical safety car at all?
         Why not issue a VSC with a fixed maximum speed set according to weather/track conditions?

         The FIA must already have the data for the speed that the physical safety car can maintain, so they have their guideline speed.
         1. 

            bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
            7th May 2024, 20:27

            It’s not the worse idea I’ve heard. I guess the actual car works as a fail safe in case the delta isn’t displayed / working (which has happened), or the liability a driver just goes rogue to see what happens. It’s simple purpose is to protect track workers.

            Kmag might figure out that 10mins of time penalties might give Hulkemberg the chance of a point.
            1. 

               Nathaniel
               9th May 2024, 9:33

               Race control talk directly to the passenger in the safety car for their advice on conditions (if it’s raining for example) bit difficult to do that if you have a VSC only. You can’t ask the drivers because they speak with race/points/championship bias.
         2. 

            mara
            7th May 2024, 22:12

            the very obvious reason is that a safety car allows for an extended and predictable period of time for on track recovery, while with a VSC you might have a car crossing a given point of the track every 10 seconds or less
2. 

   Matthijs (@matthijs)
   7th May 2024, 9:28

   Imagine if this issue with the SC happened during Abu Dhabi 2021, it would have been a massive controversy. Now it’s just a small ripple on the surface.

   I expected either Verstappen or Red Bull to complain about the SC situation directly after the race, but kudos for them for not mentioning it at all. Sometimes the SC works in your favour and sometimes it works against you. Verstappen knows that SC helped him big time in the past.
   1. 

      Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
      7th May 2024, 10:13

      @matthijs It’s especially annoying as it surely cost us a more exciting end to the race. Mind you Norris’ restart was so poor that almost happened anyway.
   2. 

      ludewig
      7th May 2024, 10:19

      @matthijs

      I think that they were just happy that it was over and thought that the result was perfectly fair. The car just didn’t work that well this race.
   3. 

      MacLeod (@macleod)
      8th May 2024, 8:07

      @matthijs The only mistake was the SC didn’t show green from the start (green overtaking) when they noticed the missed the leader.
      For the rest bad luck for Max it happens sometimes.
3. 

   ludewig
   7th May 2024, 10:15

   In the last set of quotes, Lambiase gets attributed some statements that seem to have been made by Max.
   1. 

      Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
      7th May 2024, 10:24

      Sorry about that there were two which have been put right.
4. 

   Tommy Scragend
   7th May 2024, 10:28

   Nice win for Lando, but, still very good points today Max so still take plenty out of it. Plus the spirit win.

   I suspect Horner actually said “sprint win”, not “spirit win”.
5. 

   PlosslF1
   7th May 2024, 13:01

   You’ve got to laugh how some see this as a major thing and a disgrace etc etc.. Yet after AD21 it was all ‘Nothing to see here’…
   What comes around goes around eh… ;)
   1. 

      Matthijs (@matthijs)
      7th May 2024, 13:08

      I feel the sentiment is more the other way around. But it is what you focus on I guess. But neither Norris nor Verstappen make any fuss about the safety car at all, so why would we bother.
6. 

   Jim from US (@jimfromus)
   7th May 2024, 13:14

   I’m fairly certain that the safety car not picking up the leader happened at a race earlier this year or late last year. Once a car is stationary for x seconds, a VSC should be declared, and then a SC if it is clear that the car will need to be removed. And for the younger people, to make it fair for everyone, close the pits during VSC and SC, so everyone needs to pit under full racing.
   1. 

      Ian Tommins (@thelem)
      7th May 2024, 16:19

      Closing the pits could cause big problems to a team that really needed a pitstop (quite likely there is a car that needs a new front wing after being involved in the collision that caused the safety car, for example). Instead, you just need to make sure a safety car pit stop is slower than during normal racing conditions. Could be lower speed limit, wait in pit box for x seconds or wait at end of pit lane until a certain condition is met.
   2. 

      Esploratore (@esploratore1)
      7th May 2024, 16:28

      I think people said it happened in monza 2022, I remember an ending under SC, where people complained.
   3. 

      lynn-m
      7th May 2024, 16:55

      How does closing the pit under VSC/SC make it “fair for everyone”?

      It would be fine for those who pitted before a SC but it would completely ruin the race of those yet to pit as they would lose spots when the SC came in due to been on old tires while those who pitted before would be on fresher tires and once they made there stop they would just end up dropping to the very back of the pack.

      I think things are fine as they are.
      1. 

         roadrunner (@roadrunner)
         7th May 2024, 17:04

         Closing the pitlane under VSC would be fair as the gaps are frozen and the cars that didn’t pit before wouldn’t drop at the end of the queue. It’s done in F2 and works quite well.
         But closing the pitlane under full SC indeed is a horrible idea. We had that before and it opens the door for grotesque results, strategies and even fraud.

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