George Russell, Mercedes, Baku City Circuit, 2024

Russell “shocked” by minute-long VSC delay after Sainz-Perez crash

Formula 1

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George Russell was “shocked” by how long race control took to deploy the Virtual Safety Car after the crash on the penultimate lap of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver was promoted to the final podium position after Carlos Sainz Jnr and Sergio Perez crashed between turns two and three.

The collision occured after Sainz overtook Perez into turn one to take third place. Perez attempted to fight back against the Ferrari on the exit of turn two along the first DRS zone, but the pair made contact on the straight, sending both car into the barrier on the left-hand side.

Double waved yellow flags were timed at 4:33:21pm, soon after the accident occurred. However, the Virtual Safety Car was not deployed until 4:34:38pm – more than a minute after the initial collision. The race finished under VSC conditions, which remained in effect after the chequered flag.

Speaking after the race, Russell said the most difficult part of the race was “driving full gas into a wall of carbon fibre on the penultimate lap.”

“That was pretty crazy,” Russell continued. “The sun was coming down. You couldn’t see anything.

“I was shocked the Safety Car or VSC obviously didn’t come out sooner. The car could have been anywhere. Glad to see everybody was okay. It was a long old race and glad to be on the podium.”

Russell says a podium finish was a welcome reward after a challenging weekend for Mercedes in Baku.

“There was so much hard work this weekend for everybody in the team,” he said. “There was engine changes on my side, engine changes for Lewis – so much going on. Everybody was working so hard

“We had a really bad start to the race, I was dropping off a lot, but on the hard tyre, I think we were one of the quickest out there and that was great, got past Max. So an added bonus to stand on the podium.”

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2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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24 comments on “Russell “shocked” by minute-long VSC delay after Sainz-Perez crash”

  1. BLS (@brightlampshade)
    15th September 2024, 14:47

    Yeah I’m not entirely sure what race control we waiting for. Perez and Sainz weren’t exactly going to drive away from their mid straight stoppage.
    Debating whether to red flag it for a “for the show” 1 lap finale

    1. I’m fine if they were delaying it for other racing that wouldn’t have endangered them. That’s just them trying not to be the Mickey Mouse championship.

      If it was just because they spaced out, then not great…

    2. A VSC is meant to protect personnel on track. Its possible for that minute no marshalls entered the track, and the drivers were still in their cars (undoing their belts etc). They were off the racing line, and if the visibility was normal, should have been easily visible, so double waived would typically be enough. But given the low sun there is certainly a good argument to throw the VSC quickly to avoid secondary accident.

      1. Were people running all over the track?

      2. @tricky It’s also meant to protect drivers from getting injured due to hitting stuff that shouldn’t be there.

  2. “The car could have been anywhere.” I suppose race control (and every watching the pictures) saw that the cars weren’t exactly on the racing line. Then again, it was clear a VSC/SC/red flag was required, so the delay is strange.

  3. I’ve noticed these delays much more since Niels Wittich took over. It’s almost as if the Michael Masi thing has made Race Control question every last detail instead of common sense immediate thinking. Think back to China when Bottas was stopped at turn 9 and/or the delayed SC in Canada that cost Norris victory.

    1. It’s almost as if the Michael Masi thing has made Race Control question every last detail instead of common sense immediate thinking.

      They have to make a careful decision because the yellow flag has been diminished into near irrelevancy, mostly in the Whiting era.

      There’s absolutely zero reason to put a VSC in for the whole track when there’s just two cars standing way off the racing line on a straight in the final lap. Local yellows for Turn 2 through 3 was fine.

      1. Clearly it was not fine because Russell (and therefore many other cars if it took 77 seconds for Wittitch to wake up) were driving quote “full gas in to a wall of carbon fibre”.

        1. Russell arrived before the Marshalls were able to get the flags out.

          Double-waved yellows the drivers MUST slow down, as there is danger ahead. All drivers behind Russell needed to slow down. So no “full gas”.

          1. The problem with double waved yellows is that, as usual, F1 has managed to tie its own hands behind its back by defining and enforcing the wording of the regulations terribly.
            Drivers and teams will of course take any advantage they can – nobody wants to lose 10s by slowing right down when the other guy just lifts a bit to make sure their sector time is slightly slower than on their last lap.
            Maybe they could enforce VSC rules within any mini-sector under double yellows?

        2. The flags can’t magic away the incident, and Russell was very close so he got involved.

          But second later the situation had stabilised, and a yellow flag, which instructs drivers to slow down significantly, would have been fine. There were no other issues at other parts of the track, so neutralising Turn 2 through 3 was enough to guarantee a safe end to the race, while giving marshals tyre opportunity to secure both cars.

          The only open question was how much of a need there was to sweep the track, and if the gaps were sufficient to give the marshals some time to do so. In any case, a double yellow could have been used to alert drivers that marshals were on track, and which would have forced them to drive very slowly indeed, such that, as the rules state, they can stop or charge direction at any time.

          Proper enforcement of the flag rules can reduce (or even eliminate, see the second half of Le Mans 2023) the need for a safety car.

      2. It happened halfway through the penultimate lap – everyone was going to have to pass through the section again.

        1. Not calling a Safety Car was the right move. I do think a Virtual Safety Car should have been called as soon as it could have been arranged (which is usually possible within 30 seconds, despite requiring Race Control approval).

    2. you only question everything if you dont know what you are doing. Corrupt administrations/ruling bodies typically employee incompetent people because they ARE easier to control. This is the real problem, the FIA’s grip and need to control everything, alongside the financial interests trying to produce a spectacle. There is no room for excellence, only ridiculousness, … Albert Camus could not hope to compose anything finer than F1.

  4. & not for the first time. Honestly, I struggle to comprehend these recurrent delays in SC & VSC deployments, somethings also with red-flagging, even when from all that footage race control has available, a driver or drivers not moving anywhere is very clear.
    Waiting for the sake of waiting is simply asking for a horrible outcome.

  5. Probably having a discussion with Liberty who were no doubt pushing for a show over sport red flag & standing restart 1 lap shoot out to turn the race into a complete lottery perhaps with some restart T1 carnage for the netflix fans.

    1. cynical as it is you may be close to the truth.

  6. I thought the delay in producing the red flag just after the start of the F2 race was bad enough.

    I cannot fathom why it takes them so long to make a decision when they know there are drivers and damaged cars on the track during a race.

  7. The moment we saw the crash, we said “safety car”.
    Dangerous that it was delayed.

  8. While I can understand not declare an SC or VSC the second a crash has happened if there’s no other cars approaching, there was still quite a few cars approaching so it should have been decided sooner. I suspect race control were wondering if they could get away with red flagging the race and forcing a ridiculous single lap sprint (which I’m glad they didn’t)

  9. George shocks easily.

  10. Think they were deciding on a red flag and standing start but no reason not to immediately call a VSC and the. Go to SC or red flag.

  11. So ‘shocked’ George was desperately trying not to smile too much in the cooldown room as he, Lando and Oscar were watching the reply of the Pérez and Sainz collision. (No I don’t blame him.)

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