Formula 1 drivers questioned race control’s decision not to deploy the Virtual Safety Car for over a minute after the heavy crash at the end of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The race ended under VSC conditions after Carlos Sainz Jnr and Sergio Perez tangled on the penultimate lap and crashed into a barrier between turns two and three.The crash left two cars in the barrier and a substantial amount of debris scattered across the racing line. Drivers approaching the incident had a poor view of the crash scene as they face the sun at that point on the track, and some parts of the Ferrari and Red Bull were obscured by shade.
Valtteri Bottas, who saw the crash occur in front of him, immediately predicted the race would be neutralised.
“Big shunt in front of me,” he told his team. “It’s going to be a Safety Car.”
Although the scene was immediately covered by double waved yellow flags, race control waited over a minute to impose VSC conditions. In the meantime drivers braked for the incident scene, then accelerated away under green flag conditions while people stood beside the crashed cars.
Fernando Alonso also called for a Safety Car on his radio and described the situation as “quite dangerous.”
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“Understood,” his race engineer Chris Cronin replied. “There’s loads of debris everywhere. We’re watching tyre pressures carefully.”
George Russell said he was faced with a “wall of carbon fibre” when the two drivers collided ahead of him. He was “shocked” by the delay before the VSC was deployed.
Nico Hulkenberg, another of the first drivers to encounter the crash, lost two positions after hitting debris and slowing, which allowed Lewis Hamilton and Oliver Bearman to overtake him. “For me that was a straight Safety Car or even a red flag because it was real carnage down the straight,” said Hulkenberg.
Bearman was also surprised race control did not neutralise the race more swiftly. “I managed to overtake him just after the yellow flag,” he told Viaplay. “I don’t understand why we continued at racing speeds and not under VSC or Safety Car with a crash of that size with that amount of debris on track.
“I managed to overtake him because Hamilton went up the inside, so I got a position, but it’s a bit strange that they left the track under green flag like that.”
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Jere (@jerejj)
16th September 2024, 13:50
I thought this article already came, but oh well, I agree with them & unfortunately, not for the first time either.
Simply baffling that race control more often than not unnecessarily waits with SC & VSC (sometimes also with red-flagging) deployments, even though they can see from their many angles that a car (or cars) won’t be moving anywhere, yet they still wait & wait for the sake of waiting, which will lead to something horrible in the long term as they can’t be lucky forever.
The worst thing is that they always do so without an apparent or justifiable reason.
BasCB (@bascb)
16th September 2024, 14:50
It took really long for the F2 race where they had the big crash off the grid too, didn’t it (commentators had been talking about a red flag being needed for almost a minute before it came I think)?
minnis (@minnis)
16th September 2024, 18:52
Start of the race isn’t too bad. There is no risk of any cars reaching the crash for a good minute and a half or so until the leaders come back around to start the second lap. I’m more than happy to take a minute to make an informed decision of if it should be a VSC, full SC or red flag.
Middle of the race, though, where cars are approaching the scene of a crash at full racing speed? Yeah, instant decisions are needed. Given how quickly a VSC can be deployed and retracted, it seems a no brainer to be very trigger happy with the VSC, and it can then be upgraded to a full SC or red flag if needed.
Jeanrien (@jeanrien)
16th September 2024, 20:31
Especially that VSC has little effect on the race, better to throw it once too many than once too little.
Race control makes sure to do none as they do it way too little. When in doubt, throw VSC, if they realise it’s not necessary, it can be over within one minute and everybody is safe and happy.
falken (@falken)
17th September 2024, 13:04
There was a driver out of the car walking on the track, and it was still just a VSC! Red flag, end of race would be better surely
Axel
16th September 2024, 14:05
I thought VSC was brought in to quickly neutralize a race to give race control time to decide over a SC or red flag. Not bringing the VSC out immediately is a weird and potentially dangerous decision which I can’t understand in the slightest.
Dale
16th September 2024, 14:42
Johnny Herbert in the house again …
Seriously, the officials have become useless.
Magnussen gets banned after penalty points for a nothing event, Sainz avoids any for crashing Perez and Red Bull out of race where they ended up losing the lead in the manufacturers championship.
Delayed VSC, and Hulkenberg loses 2 spots and points for respecting the danger of a crash scene, while the drivers who blasted through to overtake him get no penalty and keep their benefits.
Jere (@jerejj)
16th September 2024, 20:01
Hulkenberg got overtaken beyond the green-flashing light panel, so perfectly legal, while the Perez-Sainz collision was a racing incident, & if anything, marginally more the former’s fault.
Finally, I don’t see how Herbert being the driver steward is necessarily relevant.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
17th September 2024, 2:57
What did he have to do with the Race Control decision?
Agree Kmags final points were debatable, but he was not banned for that one event so the only point of comparison here is if either of the two events deserved points. Including the ban in the commentary is just hyping the point.
Re: the Sainz Perez incident. Entitled to your opinion, though it differs to that of the stewards and the majority that have commented on this site about it. And whether it did or not, it is still opinion rather than fact.
I’d agree that it may be wise for a driver to approach a situation with safety in mind, and that a more prompt VSC could have avoided the Hulkenburg scenario, however the other drivers did nothing wrong so why even raise penalty points?
Icarus
16th September 2024, 18:32
I thought the same thing when it happened. The Virtual Safety Car was implemented for the sole purpose of ‘neutralizing’ the race without causing major changes to the running orders and gaps between drivers. That gives race control more time to examine a situation like this and determine if there needs to be a full safety car or even a red flag. So why not use it?
Instead they allowed multiple drivers to keep going through the debris field just meters away from the drivers who were already out of their cars and exposed. Sure the other drivers have to reduce speed under the double yellow flags, but they’re still going quite fast. If one of those cars were to hit a piece of debris and send it flying into one of the drivers climbing out of their car, they could be seriously hurt or killed.
There’s just no reason they needed to wait so long to call out the VSC/SC. It was obvious before the two cars came to a skidding stop along the wall it would be needed.
Ian Tommins (@thelem)
16th September 2024, 21:27
While we’re discussing this, why not introduce guidance that a full safety car in the final few laps of the race results in an immediate red flag. What’s the point in watching everyone drive round the circuit putting themselves and marshals at risk if there isn’t time for racing to restart and therefore the race order won’t change.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
16th September 2024, 22:17
Would allow whoever crashed to keep their position, thanks to the countback rules.
slowmo (@slowmo)
17th September 2024, 0:03
This was my thought on the day was they’d throw a red flag and the crash effect would be nullified on count back. I was stunned when not even a VSC was called immediately. It was blatantly obvious on the TV feed the debris and position with all cars on well worn rubber that they had to nullify all racing. I do think the red flag rules should allow for drivers to be excluded if involved in the red flag incident and have any blame in the incident. I did ponder if Liberty would dare have tried a one lap restart if they had red flagged it.