The FIA Have Released A Statement After Ending Italian GP Under Safety Car Conditions – WTF1
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The FIA Have Released A Statement After Ending Italian GP Under Safety Car Conditions

Posted on | by Katy Fairman
Posted on | by Katy Fairman

The FIA have released a statement surrounding the final laps of the Italian Grand Prix after it ended under safety car conditions. Max Verstappen went on to secure yet ANOTHER win, but fans around the world are pretty pissed at how the FIA handled the whole situation.

Daniel Ricciardo’s car lost power on Lap 47 of the 53-lap event and he was forced to pull over to the side of the track. His McLaren was stuck in gear, and DR claimed he couldn’t see any escape roads, so he had to park it between the two Lesmo corners.

The Safety Car was then called out soon after the end of the lap.

“While every effort was made to recover Car #3 [Ricciardo] quickly and resume racing, the situation developed, and marshals were unable to put the car into neutral and push it into the escape road,” an FIA statement read after the race.

“As the safety of the recovery operation is our only priority, and the incident was not significant enough to require a red flag, the race ended under safety car following the procedures agreed between the FIA and all Competitors.

“The timing of the safety car period within a race has no bearing on this procedure.”

The Tifosi didn’t sound too happy with the result of the race, with boos from the crowd being audible even on drivers’ radios on their cool-down laps. However, and not surprisingly, the FIA have supported the decisions of their own.

How do you think the race should have ended?

37 thoughts on “The FIA Have Released A Statement After Ending Italian GP Under Safety Car Conditions”

    • Carl Sciberras says:

      yes and no,
      mad because the rules kinda deny spectators of a decent finish.
      plus they slow af getting cars off the track sometimes and this is not factored in anywhere [that i can see] during the closing laps of a race. and since the fia boffins removed refuelling its not like we can extend beyond either.

      • LaddyOLake says:

        agree that the rules did deny a decent finish in this circumstance, which is worth a conversation. disagree that removing refueling was a bad move. safety has to come first

    • Pranki says:

      The problem is that they waited a long time to send the SC out but is was clear to see that it was needed. Ric stopped in Lap 47, the SC came out in Lap 49, Perez was able to get the fastest Lap because of the sleepy decision.
      So they wasted round about 2 Laps and because of that the crane car wasnt able to get to the car, put the SC out when Ver and Lec passed the Box, let Per set a new fastest lap… total SC carnage with lapped cars, not everyone was allowed to unlap themself, conditions have not beed safe to allow cars to unlap…

    • LaddyOLake says:

      yeah, it does feel a little frustrating that neither decision is good in the eyes of the fans. but there were options if they had moved faster that would have been within the rules. just frustrating all around

  • Rhavi Marques says:

    They did the right thing, lots of people on twitter saying “ThErE wAs A tRaCtOr On TrAcK RED FLAGZ”, but like… there’s a tractor on track almost every safety car, there would be a red flag every race, turn 1 chaos, red flag, re-start, turn 1 chaos, red flag…

    • LaddyOLake says:

      It’s either newer fans who aren’t used to what a safety car entails (understandable, they’ll figure it out) or people who remember 2014 (also understandable, but shouldn’t effect what the FIA does. They already made changes since then)

  • Rotációs kapa says:

    It was comical how slow they released the safety car. The mclaren stopped at lap 47, and it was lap 51 by the time Verstappen was directly behind the safety car. Furthermore, when the broadcast first showed us the stopped car, it was just a “yellow flag sector 2” for like 40 seconds. WHY? Its an instant safety car. The current race directors are SO SLOW to react to anything. Masi was 10x better than this.

    • Steve Mason says:

      Instant safety car? Seriously? they have to allow a certain amount of time for the marshalls to do their job. Too often the safety car has gone out early when there was no need for it at all, and virtually came straight back in, ruing the racing.

  • Steve Mason says:

    Well, personally I saw no need for the safety car. The marshalls tried to retrieve it, was stuck in gear so couldn’t. Marshalls should have retreated, left the car where it was, inform all teams, and have a local yellow for the last laps. It was out of the way. Some will say ‘But it was in a dangerous position’ I don’t agree with that, as long as all the drivers are aware of its position, then there should not be a problem.

    • LaddyOLake says:

      if marshals are on the track, you need a safety car, no question. If you need evidence of why a local yellow doesn’t work, look at Suzuka 2014.

        • LaddyOLake says:

          Marshals attempting to retrieve it counts as marshals on track. but even with marshals, if you have a car stranded like that, you need a vsc, minimum. local yellow isn’t enough.

        • LaddyOLake says:

          clarification on what I said, re-reading I don’t think I said it well. The second you have someone on the track, that needs to be a vsc or safety car. if it’s in the runoff area, you can do a double waved yellow as an immediate decision (i.e. a car just went off and you’ve got to put out a fire, like austria) but imo it should be a vsc if you’ve got people out from behind the barriers for more than a lap. Riccardo’s car was not in a runoff area, half of the car was still on the track. You need a vsc simply to put marshals there, knowing that it’ll likely need a full safety car to remove. local yellow is not enough there. so, the only real options were to do it faster, which still could have led to it finishing under the sc or red flag, which it didn’t warrant safety wise. But I’d much, much rather them be quick to throw a vsc than wait around and have a safety risk.

          My point mentioning Suzuka is that just because drivers are aware of an incident’s position doesn’t mean that there won’t be a problem. it’s better to be safer and neutralize the race, especially when half of the car is still on the track.

  • Daf Fy says:

    Controversy at the end of a race again!🙄
    Red Bull / Max Verstappen wins again…🤔
    Anyone see a pattern emerging?🥺

    • Rui Ramos says:

      Oh stop whining, Verstappen would win with restart, with red flag, or without safety car, or mostly in any condition…
      There are always going to be controversy as long as there are sore losers.

      • Krchmarus says:

        Well, still, the tally of championships is the same, Lewis has 8, Max has none. I could care less what criminal institution like FIA has to say. They are not ellected by the fans, they are private criminals. And you are too if you support them.

        • LaddyOLake says:

          whoa. listen, I’m a Hamilton fan, have been since he first started, and I think what happened in Abu Dhabi was atrocious. But if Lewis can accept what happened, we need to as well. Sportsmanship is essential.

          And if you watch any of the races, you are supporting the FIA to some degree. If you don’t want to be here, you don’t have to be.

      • Jony M says:

        The problem is they choose when to and not to follow the rules to suit max verstappen yeh this time it was correct but magically it was t right when verstappen was second but was when he was leading this is not a coincidence

    • Rui Ramos says:

      Oh stop whining, Verstappen would win with restart, with red flag, or without safety car, or mostly in any condition…
      There are always going to be controversy as long as there are sore losers.

      • LaddyOLake says:

        come on. It’s obviously not a conspiracy, but Lewis is anything but an average driver. I’m looking forward to seeing if Max is able to have a comparable legacy/winning record, or if he ends up as more equivalent to Vettel. You don’t have to be rude/wrong about Lewis to support Max.

    • LaddyOLake says:

      Not this time. Max was dominant regardless of what happened. they followed the rules and prioritized safety, that’s what’s important. This was fair, just disappointing.

        • LaddyOLake says:

          no, they wouldn’t have. we are in a very different situation and they have put in safeguards to prevent what happened from happening again. let’s not make this into something that it’s not. it just makes it harder to call out when things are real

  • Chris Eagle says:

    The problem everyone has with them following the rules now is the same rules applied and should have been applied in the Abu Dhabi grand prix. But the FIA altered their own rules and plans to make it more exciting but not fair. Today they wanted to make it fair. I would say you can’t dwell on the past but every thing they do comes back to that moment in almost every viewers minds

    • Jony M says:

      This is 100 percent true obviously they know what they should do but yet they still refuse to correct the outcome at AD. I wonder if they would have acted differently if verstappen was second again

      • LaddyOLake says:

        They have already looked at AD in tons and tons of detail. I don’t think it was fair, but what’s done is done and we need to move forward. continuing to argue about if they should change the results of AD stops us from being taken seriously when things are happening now. and makes us look like bad sports when Max does win fair and square.

  • Oliver Draxler says:

    The SC rules were applied correctly. It is quite funny, however, that Verstappen won the race in Monza in the manner how he should have lost in Abu Dhabi had the rules been applied correctly.

    • Christopher Reinhardt says:

      Had the rules been applied correctly in Abu Dhabi, the lap cars would have been cleared a lap sooner. MB fucked up, they should have pitted for tires, the same way RB pitted for tires at Monza. End of story…

  • Parker Shaw says:

    What the big fuss about it? Max and RBR had everything covered, there was no chance for Leclerc. Without safety car, Leclerc was not quick enough to catch, let alone overtake; with safety car, Max was not on the used tires anymore. The situation was different than last year.

    Ferrari lost it when they decided to take advantage of the VSC in the early race, as simple as that.

  • Jony M says:

    Daniel Riccardo saying he didn’t see any escape roads is not good enough the amount of times he has driven the track he knows where he can pull of sensibly

    • LaddyOLake says:

      He did the best he could with a dying car. this isn’t his fault. sometimes there isn’t an escape road in time. it happens

  • Steve Sturrock says:

    Give Hamilton the title he should have won last year , let there be two champions for 2021 . Then at least the FIA have attempted to right a wrong , till then tiddly winks makes better viewing

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