The thriller killers
Fan fury as Max clinches fifth win in a row behind safety car
FIRST, the Ferrari fans were silenced by Max Verstappen driving a Red Bull missile right through Charles Leclerc’s dream of a home victory.
Then, boiling frustration erupted into boos as this controversial Italian Grand Prix ended behind a safety car.
That denied Leclerc his one, final stab at the win and, anyway, killed the spectacle. Thumbs were turned down.
Finally, as the crowd massed as tradition dictates in the post-race pilgrimage on the pit straight they targeted the FIA, who officiate, and their president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who featured in the podium celebrations. Some chanted Italian encouragement to go forth and multiply.
Formula One was back into the bind that did it so much damage in Abu Dhabi last year, when the row raged about how a grand prix should end: procedurally with the race suspended, or with the action restarted by any means to accentuate the entertainment factor?
As Lewis Hamilton wryly observed: ‘It brings back memories. That is how the rule should be, right? Only one time in the history of the sport have they not done that rule.’
How ironic, though, that some of the blowhards calling for a red flag to be deployed and a finish staged here hadn’t got a peep to say of that sort when Hamilton was denied the title by Michael Masi’s decision to frame a onelap blast in the desert decider.
Actually, it is a nuanced debate this time. It’s not all FIA bad. Nor are they blameless.
Yesterday’s controversy unfolded after Daniel Ricciardo pulled up in his McLaren between the two Lesmos. That was on lap 47 of 53 and the safety car was deployed. All fine so far. It was not as if the barrier had been punctured and a big repair job lay ahead. It was merely a case of a cherry picker dragging the stricken car away.
At this point, Leclerc was 16 seconds behind Verstappen, who was driving like a prince in a car without an equal.
A restart was Leclerc’s only imaginable means of catching the world champion. This realisation fed into the tifosi’s minds when they later booed.
Now, the FIA made what looked like a mistake: the safety car picked up the ‘wrong’ car — the Mercedes of George Russell, running third — instead of leader Verstappen. This made sorting out the order complicated. But, in fact, it was irrelevant.
That was because the McLaren took longer to budge than anticipated. There was a problem getting it into neutral. So it was not until lap 51, when the safety car was coming on to the pit straight for the start of lap 52, that it was finally cleared.
That only left laps 52 and 53, and two laps are required before racing can resume in earnest. Time had run out.
OK, there might have been other ways of dealing with it. One: a red flag. That would be good for the show but a distortion of
the sport. The incident was too trivial for that, certainly initially. Perhaps a red might have been waved once the McLaren’s removal proved pesky. But that wouldn’t have happened if the race was not ending, so why now, in terms of sporting purity?
Another option might have been the deployment of a virtual safety car, which would not have required the final two laps of inaction. But, no, that would not have been possible under the regulations because marshals and the crane were on track.
When it was over, Red Bull boss Christian Horner stuck to his Abu Dhabi philosophy. ‘It goes against the principles of what we’ve discussed previously, namely to let racing go on,’ he said. ‘The biggest losers today were the fans. They were denied a grandstand finish. We need to address it.’
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, governed by his own memories of last December, took the opposite line, saying: ‘It is very clear. There are rules written down and — whether I am traumatised or not — these rules have been followed to the dot.
‘If you want to have a big-bang show and two laps of racing and mayhem, then I am up for it, but we need to change the rules.’
The FIA defended their race director Niels Wittich, saying: ‘While every effort was made to recover Ricciardo’s car quickly and resume racing, the situation developed, and marshals were unable to put the car into neutral and push it into the escape road.
‘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 a safety car following procedures agreed between the FIA and competitors.’
Verstappen’s fifth win in a row means to win the title he has to score 22 points more than Leclerc, the runner-up, at the next race in Singapore, 13 more than Sergio Perez and six more than Russell, who finished third. Hamilton was fifth, a good drive from 19th after an engine penalty.