There appears to be no reason for the safety car stage in Sunday’s Jeddah Grand Prix. The FIA explained.
Like the first two races, the F1 field did not survive the third race without the Safety Car stage in Jeddah. This time there were no major incidents, the Aston Martin, who had been holding back the pace, was sent onto the track by the failure of a ‘relative’: Lance Stroll was called to an immediate pit stop by the Aston Martin team on the eighteenth lap after a problem with his exhaust.
Stroll was told to find a safe place to stop and he found an opening in the barriers at turn 13 where he drove his AMR23.
The car didn’t come to a stop on the track, and it seemed no danger warranted sending the Safety Car in, but Race Control immediately rallied Bernd Mylander.
“There was a winch there, so I couldn’t get my car off the track. A small part of it was still hanging on the infield. But to be honest, I couldn’t see exactly where I was on the infield.” said Stroll, who himself did not fully understand why the safety car was needed.
In recent years, the FIA has issued red flags and safety instructions for cars with remarkable ease, in connection with frequent suspicions that in addition to safety aspects, it may also consider increasing unpredictability. On the other hand, the association offered a different explanation for the apparently unnecessary safety car stage: they were fooled by the cameras …
“Due to the angle of the cameras available to us, it was not clear exactly where the car stopped. Since it was the safest option, we sent the Safety Car.”
– announced the FIA.
Not everyone cared if the Safety Car came or not. Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton gained positions with it because they could have made a “cheap” tire change, while both cars lost positions because they had changed wheels on the previous laps.
Lance’s Picnic (Photo: XPB)As for the stalled Stroll, he was already losing power laps before he went out as his ERS ran out of power. Team leader Mike Crack confirmed: “He couldn’t recover power because of his exhaust problem.”
Picnic added: “For six or seven laps, we lost performance constantly. It got worse every time.”
With it eliminated, Aston Martin was unable to score a double this time. Before his problem, the Canadian was in front of Carlos Sainz, who eventually finished sixth.
